Thank You
With your purchase of Prometheus you are taking control of the speed at which you can
prototype your PCB designs. Prometheus is not a toy. It is a precision instrument with
moving parts and deserves attention during operation for your safety. Read this manual
in its entirety before operating Prometheus.
Unpacking and Setup
Your Prometheus machine comes fully assembled. The head of the machine is positioned
all the way down onto the table for shipping. You’ll later use the ProCAM’s “Retract Z”
button or the Z-axis jogging buttons to move the head, up along the Z-axis.
Place Prometheus on a flat, level surface. Plug in the power cord and connect Prometheus
to your PC with the included USB cable. The switch above the power cord inlet will turn
Prometheus on/off. When connecting Prometheus to your PC for the first time you should
see Windows automatically install the USB drivers. There are no additional drivers to install;
Prometheus is plug-and-play like a mouse or keyboard.
To control Prometheus and make PCBs, you’ll need to download ProCAM
(Prometheus Computer Aided Manufacturing software). Visit
www.zippyrobotics.com/download
to download it. You will see a text
document in the downloaded folder also. Follow the instructions in that
document to install it correctly (video
here
).
If you’re looking at a print version of this manual, QR codes like the one on the
right can be used with your smartphone to quickly take you to a how-to or
informational video. If you’re viewing on a PC you can instead click on the video
link.
After installation, launch ProCAM. Check that Prometheus’s power cord is plugged in, the
switch is on, and connect Prometheus to your PC via USB. You’ll hear 5 beeps coming from
the spindle motor when power is applied. In ProCAM, click the “Calibrate” button at the
bottom of the application window. This launches the Calibrate window. The top-most
button in the “Move Tool Z” field will move the spindle up (figure 1). Since the machine is
shipped with the spindle all the way down, you’ll want to move it up by clicking this button
a few times until you have about 1 inch of clearance (the exact amount isn’t important). The
lower buttons will move the spindle down towards the table which is not what you want to
do at this time (since the spindle is already touching the table - that would just crash it into
it).
2
