Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Black box again

Tom,

If you can come up with some Compumotor "X" drives they will do pretty much
all of that, although I am unsure of how many steps you can send them at
once.
By X drives I mean SX, OEM 650X, OEM 670X, OEM 750X etc. Usually anything
with an X on it as they also make S, OEM650, OEM650 etc. There is probably
100 commands that can be sent to the drives including acceleration, IF,
Then,
Else logic, absolute, incremental positioning, encoder feedback,
microstepping,
etc. If you can come up with some SX drives they are great, built in power
supply
so you just plug them in to the wall, hook up the motor and a serial cable.
They
are pretty high dollar but you can come up with them surplus/ebay for a
reasonable
price sometimes. Since the drive, power supply, and smart box is built in
$150.00
- $200.00 is a good buy, about what I've seen them for on ebay. SX drives
are
either 6 or 8 amps depending on the model. Microstep too to 50,000 steps per
revolution.

Info here
http://www.compumotor.com/manuals/1001/SXsw.htm

Bill

> Gentlemen,
>
> Some time ago we were discussing the "black boxes", Pic controllers etc.

I haven't heard much from the guys who said they are working on these
lately. I think there is still interest in having a "black box" that one
could serially send motion commands to, which would do some spooling of the
serial commands (enough that the black box could smoothly output the step
and direction pulses in real time). This would free our PC's to do other
control functions. Such boxes would only need (in my opinion) to be able to
to the above, and to be able to be called (interrupted) to a controlled stop
during a move. If a move was interrupted, the black box would report back
to the control which move was interrupted. The control could then use
encoder feed back to decide what to do after any interrupted motion. I know
there are some IC's out there which will do part of this. I would like to
see some black box capable of handling a move of about + - 320,000 steps in
one move, in order t!

> o give a resolution of a tenth of a thousanths of an inch, and 32 inches

in any one direction from a zero point. I think this would cover the
distances most of us would need to cover in our lathes or mills.

>
> I think the serial port is going to be with us for a long while.
>
> Some time ago, I programmed a Basic stamp (SX) to do most of this, but it

was too slow and was limited to 32,000 steps. It would also be possible, in
my opinion to do the proportional math with the PC for the various axi
involved in a particular move, and the command could include specifications
on whether the controller should accelerate and/or decelerate the moves to
relieve the black box from having to make this decision.

>
> I am also aware that this is exactly what LP indexer does through

software, but I consider that an expensive proprietary alternative. I also
own a copy of LP indexer, which I am not using at this time. I would like
the hardware alternative better. Microkenetics used to say they were
planning to have a product like this, but I gave up waiting on them.

>
> Is there anything seriously missing in this "wish list?"
>
> Update anyone?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom Eldredge
>