Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Re edm software

alflewerken wrote:

>Hi Tom,
>
>that was exactly, what I wanted to say. The control-software from
>this plans (called testware) uses a constant feedrate. This is very
>inefficient from my point of view. If I program the feedrate too
>slow, it just could go faster. But more often I put the feedrate to
>fast, so the wire will run into the workpiece making a shortcut.
>This is recognised by the feedback-circuit, which just put a signal
>to high, so the software notice this. It then retracts the wire a
>few steps and try again.
>
>My idea was, not to program a constant feedrate, but evaluate the
>voltage of the edm-capacitors. If it goes too low, the process
>should be slowed down. If it goes too high, the "feedback-
>calculated" feedrate shoud accelerate.
>
>Alf
>
>

There's work being done on EMC2 to allow slaving of one axis to
another. This is meant for gearing or handwheels, but could also be
used with feedback from the EDM supply caps. Use a voltage to frequency
converter or a microcontroller with A/D input, and feed that back to the
controller as the "master" axis in a slave setup. As the voltage goes
up, so will the "step" output from the converter, and so the machine
will speed up its axis movement. I think Mach2 and/or DeskCNC can also
slave one axis to another.

This would certainly require external hardware, but you may be able to
cobble together some components that already exist for the task.

You might want to ask about this on the EMC-Users and/or the
EMC-Developers lists.

- Steve