Re: virtual hand jive

Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@...>wrote:
Subject: Re: virtual hand jive

Rick,

The three goldmine encoders sound like a good idea (missed getting mine
8>( ), however I think you will want to stay in CNCpro, not exit it to
run manual. SO, we need to get encoder inputs INTO CNCpro, (MaxNC, any
chance?), or whatever control program.

[MaxNC's newest CL (Closed Loop) system does keep track of encoder inputs,
but it uses dedicated chips in the control box for this. In the previous
incarnation of this system they tried feeding these back up into the CPU,
but that was asking a lot, and not every computer could manage it. The new
system seems to be working smoothly on all 4 axes.]

I had thought that a TSR program
could watch the encoder(s) on timer ticks, and add the appropriate keys
into the keyboard buffer, but as has been mentioned, the overflow could
kill ya! The TSR could still help to map a keyboard pendent into
program keys :>)

The "orthogonal directions" sounds interesting, put the encoder knobs
(handwheels) on three mutually perpendicular axis? ...And I was just
going to add a jog knob (with led's to remind me which axis I was
jogging, and selection p/b's)!

Alan

[MaxNC has stuck with their keyboard jog routine, which works well enough
for positioning, although I wouldn't try machining anything this way. My
Beast machine has a handwheel jog that will smoothly move one axis at a
time (you press a button for x,y, or z) , but I think this is also intended
for positioning prior to making contact. It doesn't seem to have trouble
maintaining the encoder counts while doing this.]

Andrew Werby
http://www.computersculpture.com


Andrew Werby - United Artworks
Sculpture, Jewelry, and Other Art Stuff
http://unitedartworks.com