Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] EMC and DROs

Hi Chris,

Just my opinion, but if you've got the cross slide driven with a stepper
and ball screw, why not do the carriage as well? Adding a stepper to it
should be easier then adding it to the cross slide! THEN, you can
design your curve or template, generate the Gcode and cut the part.
Much easier then to try cutting EMC down to one axis, and trying to be
the other axis yourself! ;>)

I'd be much more inclined to use your algorithms or polynomial in a
program to generate Gcode, then what I think you propose.

I just wrote a menu driven program to generate the Gcode to cut timing
belt pulleys. It should be easy for you to do the same with your code!

HTH

Alan KM6VV


ccs@... wrote:

>
> > There is a Visual Basic DRO program in the files section that I
> > wrote. It has the source code and seems to work pretty well.
> > Not alot of features, but you can add whatever you like if you
> > know a little VB. Needs the Kulaga/Mauch encoder card.
>
> Hmm, on a related thread, I am not sure that I am going to be able to
> afford to do a full two axis CNC conversion on my larger lathe this
> year. Something I used on it in the past was a 'smart' DRO that knew
> curve I was trying to cut, and would tell me positioning errors from
> it in addition to the actual coordinates, to guide my manual cranking
> of the handhweels. I wrote that in qbasic...
>
> Now that I have a mostly useable stepper and ballscrew conversion of
> the cross slide, it occurs to me it would be nice to do something
> similar, only to have the computer automatically position the cross
> slide on a calculated curve, in response to manual or gear power feed
> movement of the carriage. In other words, I want a tracer attachment
> where the 'template' is just a set of coefficients for a polynomial
> equation.
>
> I hesitate to write this in qbasic given that the computer sometimes
> hesitates for a fraction of a second when running it, although it may
> work for extremely fine finishing feed rates which is when it would be
> most critical anyway. I'm torn between writing a simple assembly
> language program that can be started from actual DOS and entirely
> takes over the computer (possibly requiring a reboot to exit), and
> trying to hack up bits and pieces of EMC to do the task.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Chris Stratton