Re: digital protractor for faceting machine

OM,
Do you want to cut stones or mess around with electronics ? If you
want to cut stones, then I would just use the stuff that's already
available for this application. US Digital has all the stuff needed to
get more accuracy than your machine can use and the cost is only in
dollars, not your time. You can combine their absolute encoder which
is here:
http://www.usdigital.com/products/a2/
with their digital readout which is here:
http://www.usdigital.com/products/ed2/index.shtml

This is a complete package which can be programmed with to your
preferred accuracy and the digital readout can be replaced by an
existing computer if you've got a spare floating around. No need to
re-invent the wheel, when a professionally designed wheel is available
at a lower cost than you can make one for.

Check out the faceters digest forum for Jeff's use of this setup on
his machine. Here's a link to the digest:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/usfgfaceterslist/
Send Jeff a note and I'm sure that he'd be willing to share his
experience in using this setup !


Michael E.