Just got my PCB built. I have 90% of the 3d printed parts printed, have to modify a few for imperial fit for USA PVC Pipe. Will update as I get this thing together.
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@ka4jwb – nice! Where did you get this printed? I’ve seen some boards printed at OshPark, but that doesn’t look like their work…
How are you modifying the 3d printed parts for imperial sizing?
Dirtypcbs.com for the pcb. I used standard shipping and it takes a month to get from China to us.
As far as the modified parts, I’m just changing the hole diameters. Believe I modified them to 1" pvc. Only thing I have left to order is the frame and the metric screws.
I’m looking into using http://us.misumi-ec.com for the 2020 tslot extrusion, but still doing some research into companies here in the US.
Cost is around $78.00 with cuts, I’m trying to see if there’s any other vendors out there that’s cheaper.
Aha, cool – had not heard of DirtyPCBs before.
Re: modifying the 3d printed parts – I presume you’re doing this in software; do you think it would be worth adding instructions for this to the SatNOGS wiki? There have been a lot of questions about imperial sized parts…
Problem is, I don’t even know if they fit, they fit over the pvc pipe ok, but not sure how it’s all going to work out until I get the frame and parts installed.
I used freecad to modify the cad files Satnogs has, I started by making the diameter of the hole the same size as what some of the websites state 1" US PVC Outer Diameter is, first few prints did not fit, I had to keep making the hole a little bit bigger (but not too big). Nice thing is, looks like there’s some nut/bolt spots on the collars and what not to tighten things up.
The parts I modified and created:
Modified - Axis Gear 5601 (Made it longer so it fits into the 40mm bearing and the inner diameter will fit over 1" pvc)
Modified - Axis Gear Flange (Just changed the inner diameter to fit over outer diameter of 1" pvc)
Modified - Axis Gear (Changed the inner diameter to fit over outer diameter of 1" pvc)
Modified - Axis Spacer (Changed the inner diameter to fit over the outer diameter of 1" pvc)
Modified - Homing Ring (Changed it to where it will work with 1 1" pvc, this actually sits inside of the Axis Gear 5601 piece above, and what will trigger the stop switch)
New Part - 40mm bearing adapter which will basically fit into the Axis Gear part and slide into the 40mm bearing. (I ordered 40mm bearings when I ordered all the rest of my parts so had to come up with something to make it fit)
Example of the 5601 Changes:
Original
Modified
Picture of the 40mm Bearing adapter I made. Not only will it tighten up around the 1" pvc with nut/bolt spots, it will also bolt onto the existing holes on the axis gear
One thing I just noticed on the 5601 Gear I modified, is it doesn’t have the little taper on the ends of the gear part. I hope that doesn’t affect anything… /sigh
Hey!
It isn’t necessary to change the ID of axis gear, only the ID of the axis gear flange.
I think, it is better to add a bearing adapter in axis spacer.
Do you mean the chamfer in the edges of the teeth?
Nice PCB!!!
Did you find it difficult to solder it?
Yeah I did this so my 40mm bearing adapter would fit through it and into the bearing.
I just crudely put this together because I didn’t want to build a older version, and couldn’t find anyone who had modified the 3.1 files for imperial. I’m sure it can be streamlined down to just a few separate imperial parts. Would be nice if someone would create a imperial branch like the old versions had.
Yes Exactly.
No wasn’t that bad, I used a hot air station for the SMD components. Would be nice if you could put some polarization silkscreen spots on the PCB, like for the diodes, etc. I had to do a little extra digging on that to figure out which side was which. The other thing that I found odd is I used dirtypcbs.com and when I uploaded the gerber files, it didn’t fit into their 10x10 sizing, it was like 10.3 or something, which cost me a extra $20.00
Good job for imperial version! You can do a pull request in satnogs repository. I think imperial
parts could have a name convention, <part_name>_imperial, eg. axis_gear_as5601_imperial, @manthos, @pierros, any suggestions?
Take a look here.
Do you have any problem with other parts?
The PCB is Euroboard 100x80 mm, it is a standard kicad component.
Might put a dot or something on the silkscreen for the IC spots indicating where pin 1 should be orientated.
Other than those 2 things pcb was pretty straight forward.
I’m not exactly sure why it shows 10.3 when you upload to dirtypcbs, maybe it was 10.03? Regardless dirtypcbs thought it was over 10cm
All I did was export Gerber files out of kicad and upload to dirtypcbs
Other question - What size fuse should I use? Looks like you just have a piece of copper wire bypassing the fuse in the pictures 
All KiCad footprints indicates the pin 1 like,
Always follow NEC guidelines for applying low-voltage fuses. Generally,
the MINIMUM fuse size should be based on 125% of the circuits full load
current. Time-delay fuses should be used for inductive loads.
So, if you power supply input is >24V@2A you could use fuse 2A, medium / normal blow.
Just for testing 
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So after a break during the winter, I’m picking this project back up. Just ordered the frame from misumi. Hoping to have it put together by the end of march.