Re: Optical mouse for DRO anyone? - not for WIRE!

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Graham Stabler" <grezmos@...>
wrote:

> That's a good idea, you could use rollers to transport and tension the
> cord and a single gripper on a linear track for measurement between
> the rollers. The gripper grabs the cord, the cord pulled by roller
> system, the grippers movement is tracked by cheap USdigital linear
> encoder or homebrew string encoder. The cord pull is stopped and
> gripper returned to start position by some simple means and the
> operation repeated.

And two gripper systems could allow continuous operation as long as
they don't interfere as they return to the start position.

I also think you could do a really clever continous system, think of a
chain and two sprockets with the straight section of chain lying next
to the cord between the two rollers mentioned earlier. There are
grippers mounted to the chain in some way that only grip the cord when
they are next to it in the straight section, the chain goes around and
around driven by the cord, a shaft encoder on the sprocket provides
the distance. They would just grab hold go for a ride and then
release. The devil is in the detail.

Graham