Desknc for windows Review.

I finally got around to try the newest version of DeskWinNC which has
a max output of 40000 sps(see www.deskam.com) on my 8X36 knee mill. The
new signal generator PCB board for DeskWinNC ver. 1.25 firmware is a big
improvement over the original one in that it uses screw terminals. The
problem is that the RS232 db9 connector on the board would be mounted
flush to my cabinet making it difficult/impossible to insert the wires
into the side of the terminal strip that has the db9. So to make it
work, I trundled off to a surplus store and bought a db9 male and a
female solder tail connectors and made an extended which effectively
moves the signal generator board away from the back of my case. Next I
machined a .0625 aluminum plate to adapt the db25 opening in my case to
the db9. This moves the pcb out away from the rear panel of my case
about 1.5" so now I have easy accessibility to all the screw terminals.

I setup deskwinnc out in my shop on my Enco 8X36 mill retrofitted with
ballscrews, anti-backlash ball nuts, and G320 servo amps with DC brush
type servo motors rated at 900 oz. in. with 500 CPR USdigital encoders
on the XY axis. I have a 10/1 ratio servo motor raising the knee so I
have no backlash on the Z axis either.
I have been bench testing DeskWinnc for windows so now it was time to
shop test it. I was pretty impressed with its performance after figuring
out that the ini file calls for steps per MM however it requires you to
provide steps per inch to get the correct SPI. I also ran into a problem
with the Gecko (older style G320) faulting out during acceleration. I
ended up sending some email to a customer that has a similar set up on a
knee mill and was surprised to see his acceleration profile using a much
higher acceleration scale than I thought was prudent. But it worked. I
had to tweak the settings somewhat but finally got excellent speed,
quick acceleration and reliable performance. I machined some panels that
I make for my servo/stepper system cases and it ran the toolpaths really
nice. I really like the fact that you can display the toolpath and
manipulate the views although the menu option that shows the rendered
view didn't seem to work. I also like the fact that you could see the
tool path and then as the tool path file runs, it traces the background
toolpath into the fore ground. I also like being able to edit and save a
file while the machine was running a tool path.
There was a bug in the older versions of deskwinnc backlash compensation
but I was able to see on my bench test unit that it now is fixed.
The biggest surprise is how much I like using Windows 98SE out in the
machine shop and how easily I gained mastery of this program. While it
probably wasn't recommended, I was running DeskWinNc and MS Paint at the
same time.
Like just about every G code interpreter that I have tried there were
some things that I did not like. One, the documentation leaves something
to be desired (but none of the low cost G code interpreters has good
instructions). For Instance the G04 (dwell) command is not listed in the
supported list of G codes. But I tried it by entering G04 P10 and sure
enough I got a 10 second pause. So I would suspect that other G code
such as G18 from the EMC G code engine not listed in the doc file also
will work. Here are the listed supported G codes
G01,G02,G03,G10,G17,G20,G21,G40,G41,G42,G43,G49,G53,G54,G55,G56,G57,G80,
G81,G83,G84,G85,G86,G87,G88,G90,G91,G92,G92.2,G93,G94,G98,G99,M0,M1,M2,M
3,M4,M5,M6,M7,M8,M9,
Another problem is that it doesn't display each line of code as it is
being run but with all the graphics you can manipulate the image to
locate problems.
While I would never recommend multitasking DeskWinNC while cutting a
toolpath with another programs running at the same time, I did try to
run MS Paint and created an image and saved it while DeskWin NC was
running. No problems, hesitation or scary events occurred.
This program looks like a nice low cost alternative to the other windows
program that uses an external signal generator for $1000.
www.seanet.com/~dmauch
Dan