AYAB KH-900

Overview

This page contains documentation about how to physically connect your AYAB Interface to your knitting machine.

This page shows how to connect the AYAB Interface from Evil Mad Scientist to your Brother KH-900 knitting machines, and to similar machines such as the Knitking CompuKnit ST. For other hardware, please see our main AYAB Hardware Installation page.

Preparing the interface

The AYAB Interface comes with two plastic covers for the circuit board, as well as cable ties to hold them in place.

These covers have laser-cut openings that expose only the connectors that you will need with the KH-900. There is a different cover for the front and back. The cover for the front has five openings for the connectors as well as a window for the name of the board, and the back side has openings for the power and USB ports.

Fit the two covers into place, loosely attach them to the board with the cable ties, and trim the loose ends of the cable ties. The covers will not sit flat against the circuit board, but instead rest above the various connectors that you are not using on the KH-900.

Installing the interface

This is the Brother KH-900 knitting machine. Remove the two screws on top of the machine that hold the right part of the top cover in place.

After removing those screws, the right part of the top cover can be lifted out of place.

Disconnect all of the cables that connect the circuit board inside this cover to the rest of the machine.

All of the multiwire cables can easily be disconnected. However, one green "ground" wire remains.

As for that last "ground" wire, you can either leave it connected (in which case the original cover sits awkwardly held by that wire) or unscrew the lug that holds it in place. We recommend that you do unscrew it and thus fully detach the cover. (Put it in a plastic bag that you tape inside the cover, so that you don't lose it, in case you ever want to go back.)

Note also that there is a single 3-wire cable here on the right side of the machine.

Now, let's attach the first connector to the new AYAB interface. Hold the board as shown here, such that the majority of the exposed connectors are on the left, and just the one little connector ("J6C") is exposed on the right.

Attach the one cable from the right side of the knitting machine — the little 3-wire cable that is (or was) by the ground wire — to this location. Press the connector into place; it will only go in one way, and it should go in easily and click into place.

Next, add the other connectors. Start by adding the largest connector on the left hand side of the board and work towards the smallest. There are four connectors, each with a differently-sized plug.

Here is how the board should look once all of the connectors have been added.

This completes the installation procedure. It is worth noting that this procedure is fully reversible-- if you wish, you can remove the AYAB Interface and connect all of the original cables back to their labeled locations on the original controller board. Remember to re-attach the ground wire as well, if you disconnected it.

Adding power and USB

Once the board is fully connected to the knitting machine, it is time to attach power and USB.

The ideal order of operation is as follows:

1. Plug the power jack of the included 9 V power supply to the receptacle on the back (top) side of the AYAB Interface.
2. Attach the micro-USB cable to the receptacle on the back (top) side of the AYAB Interface.
3. Plug in the power supply (or, if on a switched power strip, turn it on).
4. Plug the USB port into your computer.

An important note is that the AYAB interface completely replaces the original power supply. Whether or not the original power supply on your machine worked, do not separately plug it into power while using the AYAB Interface, or indeed, any time that the cover is open. (This is somewhat obvious for the KH-900, since the power supply plugs into the controller board that you have removed!)