Deep Grooves Mastering - Project Bladerunner

[Ciuens]

end of the line. hehehe. Rest in peace.

[Ben]

Hey Todd,
By end of the line, do you mean you won't be posting here anymore??

By the way, what kind of stylus will be required for your cutterhead? Will my Souri's stylus fit?

[Stevie342000]

Hey Todd,
By end of the line, do you mean you won't be posting here anymore??

By the way, what kind of stylus will be required for your cutterhead? Will my Souri's stylus fit?

The information is in the 25 pages of threads, the stylus is a standard Neumann taper, all information is here. End of the line what does it mean to me it means that he has reached the end of the line with the development saga and he is about to go into production. Hence the links to his business pages where further developments can be posted and for you to feel free to drop buy to check out his information or purchasing pages.

Any more than that is not for me to say or for me to speculate on but I think it does not mean we have seen the last of Todd on the forum.

Good luck with reading the thread I think it got transferred to new thread at some point, no idea its been a long thread, which will be there somewhere just use the search if there are no links or do a user search.

[Ben]

Thanks a lot Steve,
I've been following Todd's progress from the time I joined this forum, I lost track a little bit in the middle... but always been supportive of people wanting to get out of the pond and be creative against all odds.

Challenges brings perseverance... I was just hoping that Todd was not out of here,
He's been very generous, without guys like Todd, Sunbears, Tragwag, Mark Rob I would have never been able to cut a single record.

Thanks a lot Steve, I really appreciate this amazing forum!!
Cheers
Ben

[Stevie342000]

Thanks a lot Steve,
I've been following Todd's progress from the time I joined this forum, I lost track a little bit in the middle... but always been supportive of people wanting to get out of the pond and be creative against all odds.

Challenges brings perseverance... I was just hoping that Todd was not out of here,
He's been very generous, without guys like Todd, Sunbears, Tragwag, Mark Rob I would have never been able to cut a single record.

Thanks a lot Steve, I really appreciate this amazing forum!!
Cheers
Ben

You do not have to get lost in the middle of anything if you post on thread then you get the emails automatically when there is a reply and failing that hit the subscribe button that way you do not miss a beat.

[sakuszi]

if these heads Blader will cost up to $ 2,000, it is profitable!

[opcode66]

I am in full production now. Those who want a Mantra head should get ready to own one. I will also be selling dynamic heads. Much documentation in the form of lab test videos are forthcoming. I know you're all going to be excited! Here is a sneak peak at the finishing touches (literally) of some parts. Much more coming out in the following weeks.

[opcode66]

Mantra 0001 Build Video

[opcode66]

Mantra Metal Body
I've been working out how to machine an aluminum body for Mantra. I started by slicing up the body design into logical pieces. I then started to create machine operations for each of the features and facets of the first slice to be CNC'd. I'll be ordering aluminum blocks and additional end mills this week to start machining the first body slice. I also worked out a way to make the back of the body shorter by 7.233334 mm. This makes the stylus closer to the back mount which will make Mantra easier to mount on a Presto Overhead.

Finally, I created the PCB for the Mantra Cutterhead Protection circuit loosely based on the Neumann SEL74 Circuit Breaker. The Mantra Cutterhead Protection circuit has an AC Bridge with impedance matched to my drive coil impedance. Any change in resistance of the coil provides a voltage which is used as an input to a PIC microprocessor. I'm using a high quality relay (production versions will have a snubber circuit on the relay to avoid ac arcing). There is an illuminated reset button which both indicated the state of the relay as well as resets the circuit after a cut off event. A potentiometer is used to set the drive coil cut off temperature (which causes the relay to open and disconnect the cutterhead). I added connection points for metering the drive coil temperature as well as setting the cutoff temperature with the potentiometer. Finally, there are connection points for an Ammeter to indicate the current passing to the cutterhead drive coil. I'll be providing this circuit in several forms: Bare PCB, Packed PCB, Metering Add-On, Presto Version, and Mantra Version. Cost will be reasonable. This will be a much more accurate way to protect your mono or stereo cutterhead than using a fuse. It also allow you to very discretely set the heat cutoff value unlike fuses which only come in 1/2 amp increments which are not always correctly paired to your drive coil. Best of all, you don't have to replace a fuse, you just hit press a button and you are back in business.

IMG_3278.JPG

[Snug Music]

Hey Todd,..

Great work!!!

Best regards..
Scotty

[Wlee_]

Appreciate the update, Todd! Can't wait to get my hands on one in order to start my journey into cutting professionally. Thanks again for your contributions to the industry! Mantra is such a much needed, affordable piece of technology for those interested in only the highest-quality of cuts.

[opcode66]

I have completed my head protection PCB design. Testing is going well. Video next week. I can post a demo of the bread board curcuit later today. These are easily modifid for mono cutterheads. I will sell the boards and make the schematic public. I'm going to order a 3U rack for housing these boards, heat meters, ammeters and heated stylus psu.

I'm just waiting for metal and end mills currently so I can move forward with the metal body. In the meantime, I will be building out the shorter body version of Mantra in plastic to see how it fits on the Neumann. I also have a set of dynamic transducers made for detailed comparisons between those and feedback.

Busy busy busy

[opcode66]

Mantra Head Protection Circuit Breadboard

[petermontg]

That's great news Todd. Looking forward to the metal version.

[opcode66]

End Mills are starting to arrive! I believe I will also have the Aluminum Sections of Square and Rectangular bar for body parts this week too.

Meanwhile I push forward with V2 of the cutterhead protection. The first design was using a pic to do voltage comparison, relay control, led indication and button input. However, I decided to change the design to a strictly analog circuit instead. I felt that the PIC implementation could introduce some latency into the reaction time for opening the relay to protect the coil from overheating. The analog version has the same reaction time ever time, and will have essentially no latency. One sided PCB for now with some jumpers on the front side.

[dubcutter89]

Hi Todd!

I'm also currently working on a cutterhead protection - first tests were quite good!
(Note: Grampian was just sticking in the suspension, test are done on moving coils)
Simple analog design, easy adjustement, multiple safety functions, works with any head and amp.

Currently I'm making everything nice and want to run a series of tests.

Cheers
Lukas

[opcode66]

Aluminum block and large end mills arrived today! Also, round rod for more torque tubes.

[Bahndahn]

Hi Todd!

I'm looking forward to hearing updates on the metal working! That looks like a fun box of metal.

You might want to go back to the drawing board on your CNC part-planning. I can't imagine how you are planning on cutting those slots among other things, but I will look forward to being surprised.

The very important design consideration in CNC machining is to reduce the amount of 'setups' as much as possible. Every time you re-orient a part to machine from another perspective, you lose precision to some degree.

Your back plate looks great, ready to cut! The other parts are appear to be a machining nightmare that I'm sure you are already grappling with as you generate your toolpaths.

Look for places where you can separate an over-hung region and attach it later with epoxy, fasteners, or both.

Also check out "o-flute" endmills for aluminium. Keep shanks short, follow speeds and feeds and all should be good with some changes to your design. I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes!

Great work!

[opcode66]

Just challenging is all... Not a nightmare. I have ideas on how to go about each piece. I will need to make other parts in order to hold the pieces to make these parts. Jigs for various steps. That's all. Some other aspects I'll sort out later. If I really need to have a cast made I will. But, I would rather make the body in parts in house.

[opcode66]

My new thread.
https://www.lathetrolls.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=8129

Come check it out!