Re: Semiautomatic PCB Drilling Machine Update

Thanks for the kind words. I have thought about extending the programming to
include automation etc. It would be nice to be able to repeat a drill
pattern with automatic correction for board rotation. I wanted to keep the
initial project simple, and the main target was one-off boards anyway. If I
want to do multiple boards I probably will use a regular drill file and CNC.

I have looked at AVR several times, but have never gained much confidence in
the tool suite. I have the MPLAB ICE2000 for the PIC micros, and it makes
programming and debugging incredibly fast and easy. I haven't found anything
similar for AVR. As for pattern recognition, that's probably more work that
I want to do right now. Besides, I'm already hip-deep in my next project
which is a gantry router for milling aluminum sheet metal for enclosures.
I'll document that as well when I get far enough into it to have something
of interest.
--
Phil Mattison
http://www.ohmikron.com/
Motors::Drivers::Controllers::Software

----- Original Message -----
From: stan <stan.distortion@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 06, 2008 5:21 PM
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Semiautomatic PCB Drilling Machine Update


> Nice idea.
> Don't mean to be pretentious, just a couple of first impression thoughts.
> Could you get it to output a g-code file so a second board could be
dropped in
> place and drilled with a few clicks once the first is done?
> Have you tried AVR's? I'm no expert by any means but I started out with
pic's
> and found them quite limited, mostly with communications as going through
W
> and swapping banks was taking more time than the actual program but the
same
> limitations where showing up at any speed. AVR's have their quirks too but
> they are much easier to work around.
> Image recognition. I have done a little with this and if you used
something
> like square or octagonal pads for all the spots to be drilled it would be
> quite simple to make the drilling fully automatic. Following on from that
it
> would be fairly simple to expand the same code for component placing,
> especially if pcb markings where used.
> Nice to see it working though, having the idea is only half the battle :)
> Nice site BTW, have it bookmarked.
> cheers