Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] What is wanted in a controller,

Hi Drew,

Yes, that'd be a good place to start! A good pendant design, or a
"control panel", could get us going in the correct direction. I'd be
curious to hear what you'd like to see. I made one real simple, a panel
shaft encoder, and two PB's. the push buttons allow one to "rotate"
through the axis choices, and the jog sizes. Fits in a little aluminum
die cast case, and plugs into the joystick connector. The interface
uses the four "switch" pin lines. No R/C time constant joystick. I DO
have a good analog joystick that I'd interfaced via a pair of A/D
channels (for the robot I posted some time ago), might give that a try.
the A/D I did for something else; it's 4 channel (and a stepper!). The
A/D is a serial part, read by bit banger (slow) code through the
parallel port. Guess one could also add a bit banger D/A port as well!

I think Jon has some A/D or D/A on his interface?

Alan KM6VV


Drew Rogge wrote:

>
> Hi Alan,
>
> I think Sean was referring to the Milacron as an example
> of the UI (both computer and mechanical) on a more professional
> level controller. Personally I find it difficult to have to
> use the mouse and keyboard to supply all the input to the
> machine/controller. One of these days I'll take my shot at
> figuring out what I'd like to see on a pendant.
>
> Drew
>
> Alan Marconett KM6VV wrote:
> >
> > Hi Ballendo, Sean,
> >
> > I looked at Sean's posted sale on Ebay. The Milacron is HUGE! And
> > quite complex! What "hobby CNC" programmer wants to duplicate that!
> > Even the 5K mills of his recent posting (which I will study a little
> > more and respond to), are way oversized for my corner of the garage (not
> > to mention the price). Hence, they are not likely to get attention.
> > And some have a really nice collection of switches and indicators that
> > should be re-used, IMO. But if every machine is gonna be different...
> >
> > Only way I can see to work at that level would be to "team up" with a
> > local shop, and tackle a machine. Maybe a pair of machines, then the
> > shop owner could have one, and I could have the other (a little smaller,
> > please)?
> >
> > I'd like to see schematics for a "smaller" machine (start off a little
> > smaller), then perhaps I'd have some ideas. I suppose it could be an
> > exercise to get an old controller, and rework it, sans mill (at least it
> > would fit in the garage)? Lotta effort/time!
> >
> > Still thinking/learning
> >
> > Alan KM6VV
>
> --
> Drew Rogge
> drew@...