Re: [Emc-users] uvcvideo vs v4l video
On 07/24/2014 09:06 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: the real problem that caused the usb disconnect? If the dmesg dump says something like: hub 1-0:1.0: port 2 disabled by hub (EMI?), re-enabling... Then I'll lay you long odds it really *is* EMI from your myriad steppers and suchlike. Spent quite a while figuring that out, but in my case it was an acrylic jacket: http://softsolder.com/2009/01/28/usb-disconnects-nobody-moves-nobody-gets-hurt/ Now, if that's not what dmesg says, I'd still suspect EMI... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] integrator manual
On 07/16/2014 04:35 PM, a k wrote: I did input # Read home switch inputs from I/O card. net x-home-sw = hm2_[HOSTMOT2](BOARD).0.gpio.026.in net y-home-sw = hm2_[HOSTMOT2](BOARD).0.gpio.030.in net z-home-sw = hm2_[HOSTMOT2](BOARD).0.gpio.034.in Did you change the *example* HOSTMOT2 and BOARD strings to match the actual hardware in your system? This *sample* for my hardware shows the commands that dump the names: http://softsolder.com/2013/06/17/mesa-5i25-7i76-hal-pins/ I believe there's a period (.) missing before the BOARD part of the identifier in what you have written. This seems more likely: hm2_5i25.0.gpio.032.in However, that's for my system, not yours, and you must modify the *examples* to match your actual hardware. -- Ed softsolder.com -- Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] integrator manual
I M does not shows any working sample Here's how I did it for my little Sherline mill... Modify the Sherline control box to accept the wiring. This is an example for the tool length probe line, but the same thing happened for the home switch input: http://softsolder.com/2010/04/11/sherline-tool-length-probe-adding-a-jack/ Connect the physical home switches to the parallel port pin and define the HAL wiring that connects the input pin to the homing signals: http://softsolder.com/2010/05/11/sherline-cnc-mill-adding-home-switches/ Define the homing parameters that control the motion on all three axes: http://softsolder.com/2010/05/12/sherline-cnc-mill-defining-home-switches/ That configuration worked back in the 2.4 days and has continued to work fine ever since, so it should get you reasonably close to your goal. Hope that helps ... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Want fast and easy access to all the code in your enterprise? Index and search up to 200,000 lines of code with a free copy of Black Duck Code Sight - the same software that powers the world's largest code search on Ohloh, the Black Duck Open Hub! Try it now. http://p.sf.net/sfu/bds ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Either I am a survivor, or he isn't ready for me.
On 06/07/2014 03:24 AM, Gene Heskett wrote: I keep telling myself he isn't ready for me yet. One of my aunts had stroke that knocked her flat out on the kitchen floor, but she thought Oh, no, you don't! Dragged herself over to the table, pulled the tablecloth off to get her phone, dialed 911, and yakked with the EMTs all the way to the hospital. Some years earlier, she insisted on *watching* while they carved a huge tumor out of her belly; evidently, they couldn't use general anethesia for some good reason. She's always been about the size of a sparrow, but losing 10% of her body weight didn't slow her down at all. As for you: every morning, the Devil wakes up, checks his status board, and says Whew, Gene's still alive! Now, get back to making chips... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book Graph Databases is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/NeoTech ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] 3D Models from photos
On 09/12/2013 03:04 PM, Sven Wesley wrote: Awkward and 99.999 % are printing yodas. Those of us in that tiny fraction print *useful* objects: http://softsolder.com/2013/05/23/led-photodiode-test-fixture/ http://softsolder.com/2013/04/01/broom-handle-screw-thread-replacement-plug/ http://softsolder.com/2012/07/09/wouxun-kg-uv3d-gps-voice-interface-improved-case/ http://softsolder.com/2012/11/27/propane-tank-qd-adapter-tool/ None of those are particularly complex or tight-toleranced, but when I need a plastic part that looks just like *that*, my Glorified Glue Guns are exactly the right hammers for the job. Went to an academic talk on the future of 3D printing; the speaker had some interesting observations: 1) The cost of manufacturing complex parts has gone to zero 2) A $1 megabuck printer works *much* better than a $1 kilobuck printer 3) Fancy laser sintering printers now produce metal parts that are essentially indistinguishable from solid metal, with geometries that cannot be machined-from-bulk by conventional processes. Yodas may be fun. I loves me some cookies: http://softsolder.com/2011/09/07/tux-cookie-cutter/ http://softsolder.com/2011/12/07/tux-cookie-cutter-it-works/ Yummy... -- Ed softsolder.com -- How ServiceNow helps IT people transform IT departments: 1. Consolidate legacy IT systems to a single system of record for IT 2. Standardize and globalize service processes across IT 3. Implement zero-touch automation to replace manual, redundant tasks http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=5127iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Best write up ever?
On 08/28/2013 04:27 AM, Sven Wesley wrote: But link rot is a dead link. That's what I mean: if they'd just put a link to the pages they ripped, when those pages go away, they've got link rot. Although I'm not planning to Go Away any time soon, they don't know that, which means ripping the content is the only way to keep the information around for their use. Not mad, slightly flattered, and pleased that they found my writeups useful... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn the latest--Visual Studio 2012, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, more! Discover the easy way to master current and previous Microsoft technologies and advance your career. Get an incredible 1,500+ hours of step-by-step tutorial videos with LearnDevNow. Subscribe today and save! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58040911iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Best write up ever?
On 08/28/2013 05:07 AM, andy pugh wrote: we do claim to embrace Open Source after all. Or, perhaps, Free Software. The license terms differ significantly between the Open and Free models, but I know what you mean: standing on the shoulders of giants and all that. Me? I'm about a millimeter tall on that scale. In any case, though, the license terms make the concepts work properly. The good thing about the CC-BY-NC-SA license I use is that it keeps the information out there and lets you use it with attribution, but I'll admit I don't put that linky inside every source page: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ Eh, you should see what spammers do with my text... [sigh] -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn the latest--Visual Studio 2012, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, more! Discover the easy way to master current and previous Microsoft technologies and advance your career. Get an incredible 1,500+ hours of step-by-step tutorial videos with LearnDevNow. Subscribe today and save! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58040911iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Best write up ever?
On 08/27/2013 06:11 PM, Sven Wesley wrote: Amazingly well written. If ripping someone's blog posts in their entirety counts as flattery, then I'm honored by their LinuxCNC Touch Probe writeups: items 1, 3, and 4 in that section seemed *very* familiar. [grin] Compare: http://www.vdwalle.com/Norte/EMC2%20%20Ugliest%20Tool%20Length%20Probe%20Station.htm with: http://softsolder.com/2010/04/14/emc2-ugliest-tool-length-probe-station-ever/ On the other paw, link rot being what it is, that's a good way to ensure they've got the information where they need it, when they need it. A citation in keeping with the Creative Commons license for my blog content would have been a nice touch, though... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn the latest--Visual Studio 2012, SharePoint 2013, SQL 2012, more! Discover the easy way to master current and previous Microsoft technologies and advance your career. Get an incredible 1,500+ hours of step-by-step tutorial videos with LearnDevNow. Subscribe today and save! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=58040911iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Semi-OT: AVRs on tiny PCBs Re: Emc-users Digest,
On 08/20/2013 05:20 AM, Tolip Wen wrote: I don't know where to get 3 Adruino's for $16 though. Knockoff Arduino Pro Minis go for $4.50 in lots of 10, direct from Shenzhen via the usual eBay vendors... The boards are 0.7x1.3 inch = 18x33 mm; they won't quite hide under a quarter, but they're small enough for most purposes. Admittedly, the ATmega328's ADC isn't anything to write home about. -- Ed softsolder.com -- Introducing Performance Central, a new site from SourceForge and AppDynamics. Performance Central is your source for news, insights, analysis and resources for efficient Application Performance Management. Visit us today! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48897511iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] query: how long was your longes G-Code program ever?
On 07/18/2013 02:04 PM, Stuart Stevenson wrote: I had a handful of mylar dots from a tape punch. A long time ago in a universe far away, our ancient college dorm had a huge in-wall vent fan blowing air from the corridor across the top of the shower stalls. Perhaps that was easier than routing electrical conduit across the room to put the fan in the outside window? Once upon a time, I poured a box of punch card flakes through that (running) fan, thoroughly coating one of my cronies in the first shower stall. Seemed like a good idea at the time, is all I can say... -- Ed softsolder.com -- See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] query: how long was your longes G-Code program ever?
On 07/18/2013 10:33 AM, Michael Haberler wrote: your biggest-sized G-code program ever Slicer programs for 3D printing spit out astonishingly long files; the biggest ones seem to be in the 10 to 15 MB range, with around half a million lines. Nothing very complicated, but a whole pile of it... -- Ed softsolder.com -- See everything from the browser to the database with AppDynamics Get end-to-end visibility with application monitoring from AppDynamics Isolate bottlenecks and diagnose root cause in seconds. Start your free trial of AppDynamics Pro today! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=48808831iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] LinuxCNC on the MakiBox?
On 06/30/2013 07:55 PM, Gregg Eshelman wrote: combined with a smaller nozzle hole. Below diameters of about 0.25 mm the nozzle tends to clog with ordinary room fuzz. Cleaning the filament helps, but, in round numbers, you're still stuck with barely sub-millimeter-ish XY resolution: a peninsula-shaped feature requires two side-by-side threads. My M2 has a 0.35 mm nozzle and produces a reliable 0.4 mm thread, so the thinnest wall works out to 0.8 mm. That's why all the manufacturers now tout their printer resolution as, oh, 50 microns and conveniently leave out the fact that they're talking about Z axis resolution. I suppose it's just marketing. -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Brain-Dead LinuxCNC G-Code Interface?
On 06/27/2013 02:37 AM, Steve Blackmore wrote: so I don't see what advantage having the printer connected to LinuxCNC could be It should avoid little nasties like this (scope pix near the end): http://softsolder.com/2013/06/04/marlin-firmware-stepper-interrupt-timing/ Arduino-class microcontrollers have reached a performance dead end, but it's not clear rewriting the same code for faster processors without hard-real-time scheduling will have a better outcome. Plus, AFAICT, if you want a headless / networked printer appliance with all the bells and whistles, it'd be much easier to make one using Linux than by homebrewing all the requisite code on bare metal. For sure, I'd rather use Touchy than a four-line LCD and buttons teleported from the mid 1980s... -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Brain-Dead LinuxCNC G-Code Interface?
On 06/26/2013 12:06 AM, Matt Shaver wrote: When the 3D folks discover that they need offsets or homing, or any of the other features of linuxcnc, we'll be there to help. That's what I plan to demonstrate: get the M2 running with LCNC as many folks have already done, then pile on improvements that can *only* happen with a real machine controller... -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] HAL Schematics: was Anyone seen a failure like this?
On 06/18/2013 03:41 AM, alex chiosso wrote: Is there any way to design a hal file graphically ? I've been tinkering with Eagle libraries and Eagle2HAL: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Eagle2HAL A complete schematic for my Sherline mill, including the USB gamepad Joggy Thing and a tool length switch: http://softsolder.com/2013/03/06/eagle-hal-configuration-sherline-hal-file-2/ A schematic of the TC4 USB HID temperature board: http://softsolder.com/2013/06/10/tc4server-eagle-hal-device/ I'm building Eagle components for the Mesa 5i25 + 7i76 that will eventually drive my M2 3D printer, but I'm still wrestling with automagic numbering. When I get that mess working, I'll update the wiki page. Eagle2HAL probably isn't adequate for a Real Machine Tool, but it works pretty well for my simple needs... -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] filament feed, was Re: Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/16/2013 01:24 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: Coyote being the handle I'd been using since about 1962. Ah, now, were you kye-OH-tee or COY-ote? I have an amateur radio in the van, but discovered I don't have enough brainpower to drive and talk at the same time. Heck, I can barely drive and *listen* at the same time. -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/16/2013 04:24 AM, Erik Christiansen wrote: current printer implementations just drag the spool with the filament feed capstan It's brutally simple: the filament drive hauls filament through a flexible tube that arches between a holder at the spool and the extruder, so the drive must overcome the tension required to unroll the spool plus the friction required to drag the filament: http://softsolder.com/2013/04/24/makergear-m2-filament-guide-tube-friction/ Bowden drives put the feed at the spool end of the guide tube, which makes retraction less effective. a couple of microswitches The gotcha is that the filament loop thrashes around as the extruder head zips back and forth. On the M2, that's only along the X axis, but printers like the Ultimaker and Replicator move the extruder along both X and Y. I'm not sure where the sensor would be happiest, because you don't want to constrain the loop motion too much: pinning it to a board at the top of the arch might be too confining. -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
Webcam. See? That's why I love LinuxCNC: you actually *could* replace a pair of microswitches with a webcam and a dollop of image processing software! And it would make sense, because the webcam would eliminate mechanical constraints. It might also give better performance at a lower cost, at least in this age of $5 webcams. A bit of optical trickery on a second webcam would give you a real-time, two-axis, filament diameter measurement tool. Yup, this could work... -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] filament feed, was Re: Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/16/2013 08:02 AM, Kent A. Reed wrote: relocating the filament spool above the printer The ones I've seen align the spool axis with Y axis, with the filament unrolling from the top toward the center of the printer along the X axis. I think that's a good non-powered approach that shouldn't change the printer's balance too much; rotating the entire spool with a motor might be feasible. spring-loaded idler arms I must puzzle over the normal filament motion, probably after relocating the spool, to see how much it would thrash switches or wobbulate arms or defocus images. I'd prefer to have the whole problem Go Away in the simplest possible manner... and rearranging the mechanics might just be the ticket. I like your 'voice'. Long ago, a Circuit Cellar editor told me I had one of the strongest writing voices he'd ever read. It wasn't clear that was a Good Thing, but I'm stuck with it. [grin] -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/13/2013 06:12 PM, Charles Buckley wrote: 1) None of the current GUIs are really good for this, I've been using http://gcode.ws/ to visualize the actual paths within each layer, but that's probably too weird for most folks. Keeping the spool sync'd with the filament feed rate Recently bumped on my priority list: a powered filament feeder that automagically maintains the loop feeding the extruder, specifically to eliminate the usual feed tube with all the usual problems. The drive gear/pulley/wheel ramming filament into the hot end shouldn't also drag filament through a long tube! I think the simplest approach will be a filament position sensor so a HAL circuit can run the feed motor as needed to maintain the loop height. Those I've seen in the wild can benefit from HAL... Given a filament position station, I have a notion that would add two-axis filament diameter sensing. That can feed into a HAL component that would produce the filament area, which could then twiddle the feed on the fly. PWM to control the heating element. With control based on actual thermal properties and measurements, rather than by-guess-and-by-gosh. I just laid in a stock of DC-DC SSRs for that very purpose! 4) Temperature reading. Dan Newman wrote some code for the TC4 thermocouple shield that converts it to a USB HID hal_input device that I'll be using with my M2 printer: http://softsolder.com/2013/06/10/tc4server-eagle-hal-device/ pushing as much of the machining steps into hardware as possible. I really want to use automagic probing to compensate for platform shape positioning, because there don't seem any cheap, flat, removable hotplates out there. Methinks this one is easier to fix in the kinematics than in the metal; the shape of the platform changes as it heats up and nobody wants to measure a hot platform by hand. The M2 is rigid enough to do XY axis homing once per session and be done with it, but the general case probably requires that on a per-print basis along with the platform compensation. Let many LinuxCNC installations blossom! -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/15/2013 08:43 AM, Viesturs Lācis wrote: take a look at probekins, That's exactly why I'm so enthused about automagic platform probing: somebody else wrote the kinematics module! [grin] -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/15/2013 12:04 PM, Charles Buckley wrote: you could treat the spool feed as an additional axis whose feed rate is the same as the 4th axis. I think that would come heartbreakingly close to working, because the feed rate depends so much on the effective diameter of the gear/pulley/wheel. A teeny difference in hobbing will eventually (i.e., over the course of a dozen hours) cause the filament loop to either vanish or spill off the table: gotta wrap some feedback around the filament coming off the spool. But it might be close enough. Do a coarse positioning at the start of the print to put enough filament in the loop, then run the two motors in parallel for a few hours without feedback. That would eliminate the need to keep track of the filament while it flops around, which sound like a Good Thing. measuring the table temp for a heated table bed would also be good. The TC4 board also has four thermistor inputs... and I now have some 25 A DC-DC SSRs on hand. [grin] -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/15/2013 09:01 AM, Viesturs Lācis wrote: I have no idea, how difficult that actually might be. Given the requirement that it match the extruder nozzle height to within 0.05 mm (more or less) over a wide temperature range, it's a *very* tough problem. I think separating the nozzle height measurement from the platform probe operation might be the only way to make both of them work properly. I put a simple switch on my much-modified Thing-O-Matic's platform and poked it with the extruder nozzle to set the zero height position, but that's obviously a poor general solution: http://softsolder.com/2011/05/18/thing-o-matic-z-minimum-platform-height-switch/ Those platform pictures come from the days of ABS slurry on Planet Barbie... [wince] I think a pogo test pin with a side flag tripping an optical interrupter, perhaps through an amplifying lever, might be workable for platform probing, but I won't believe it until I run the numbers. -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machinekit LinuxCNC-on-BeagleBone Beta Release
On 06/15/2013 07:50 PM, Charles Buckley wrote: a diff between the A axis and the B-spool axis for amount of material feed Ah, but then we must quibble about the difference coefficient, which you'd have to measure per filament, then have to worry about diameter changes messing it up. If you must measure it anyway, then automate the process and let the machinery (well, HAL) handle it. You're almost certainly right that full-time high-low feedback isn't needed, but I'd like to see it in action. Which is in the plan! [grin] to draw the filament Exactly: essentially a remote Bowden filament drive, but with the primary filament pusher located at the hot end. The former eliminates the guide tube and gives you essentially zero filament tension variation, the latter provides high drive force and fast, precise retraction to control short-term drool. It's a simple matter of HAL wiring! -- Ed softsolder.com -- This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Pendant recommendations
On 06/02/2013 03:16 PM, Dave wrote: If you are using a USB joystick as a pendant, which model are you using?? At least for my Sherline, a Logitech Dual-Action gamepad works wonderfully well. Here's the initial description: http://softsolder.com/2010/10/23/logitech-gamepad-as-emc2-pendant-eagle-schematics-for-the-joggy-thing/ It gives direct four-axis control: XY on the left, ZA on the right. The buttons along the top provide full-speed rapids and the joysticks go down to crawling speeds. The HAL circuitry detects which joystick axis starts moving and locks out all the others, which prevents inadvertent motion along an axis that you've already lined up against an edge. The buttons don't have that lockout, so you can slew diagonally at high speed when that's appropriate. More HAL wiring uses two of the four buttons on the cable side as an E-stop button: you must push both buttons to trigger the stop. Agreed, software should be in the E-stop loop, but this is a Sherline... and I haven't ever used those buttons, come to think of it, because shutting off the power to the motor driver box works even better. How practical are USB joysticks for use as pendants on a milling machine? Probably not very, at least on a real milling machine that's spraying coolants and hot chips and piles of swarf all over. On the other hand, gamepads are cheap and easily replaceable, so you don't form a deep emotional attachment to them... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Get 100% visibility into Java/.NET code with AppDynamics Lite It's a free troubleshooting tool designed for production Get down to code-level detail for bottlenecks, with 2% overhead. Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] BeagleBone + BeBoPr 3D Printing
On 06/02/2013 03:50 PM, Karl Schmidt wrote: improved surface finish Not really. The slicing software adjusts the extrusion speed to match the XY speed, so the printer lays down a consistent amount of plastic no matter what speed you choose. That's the theory. In practice (and for my setup), higher speeds produce worse results. I think part of the problem is that the extruder must paste the current molten thread onto the previous layer, which requires enough dwell time to melt them firmly together; higher speeds work against that, so things don't stick nearly as well. On the other hand, faster non-printing moves reduce the amount of time the printer spends *not* printing, which is generally a Good Thing... until something shakes loose. -- Ed softsolder.com -- Get 100% visibility into Java/.NET code with AppDynamics Lite It's a free troubleshooting tool designed for production Get down to code-level detail for bottlenecks, with 2% overhead. Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] BeagleBone + BeBoPr 3D Printing
On 06/01/2013 12:39 PM, Charles Steinkuehler wrote: I particularly like the acceleration control in LinuxCNC. It seems smoother than the Arduino code. At least on the Marlin firmware branch of the RepRap tree, the interrupt handler switches from one-step-per-interrupt to two/interrupt at 10 k step/s, then to four/interrupt at 20 k step/s, with abrupt step timing changes. These pictures show the step pulses to the X axis of my M2 during the ramp up to 450 mm/s at 5000 mm/s^2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/llrx2ik6vlq4ne9/X%20Axis%20450%20mm-s%2050%20mm%20-%20100%20us-div%2041.9%20ms%20dly.png https://www.dropbox.com/s/z4w4mg6wklnhvpm/X%20Axis%20450%20mm-s%2050%20mm%20-%20200%20us-div%2019%20ms%20dly.png The top trace is the motor winding current, the bottom trace is the Step pulse from the Arduino to the driver chip. The pulse clusters on the right side show how a single interrupt produces multiple steps, with the *average* rate remaining constant. However, speeds over about 112 mm/s (on the M2, anyway) have irregularly spaced Step pulses. I'm getting ready to disconnect the stock RAMBo board and hitch up LinuxCNC through a Mesa card and some stepper driver bricks to the M2; I think it'll be happier with regular Step pulses! -- Ed softsolder.com -- Get 100% visibility into Java/.NET code with AppDynamics Lite It's a free troubleshooting tool designed for production Get down to code-level detail for bottlenecks, with 2% overhead. Download for free and get started troubleshooting in minutes. http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_d2d_ap2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Correct use of subroutines
On 05/14/2013 07:08 PM, Eric Keller wrote: cut a hole in the family room floor My buddy Eks got a spectacular deal on a CNC mill that was too tall for his shop doorway: he had to dismount the head. Then, of course, there was no clearance for a hoist between head and ceiling, so he drilled a hole into the bedroom above the shop, put a plate on the floor, threaded a cable through the hole, hauled the hoist into the bedroom, and finished the job. As he put it, Heck, it's just a little hole under the bed. Nobody will ever notice it. He *does* have a wife, but she's used to his, ah, quirks... -- Ed softsolder.com -- AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM) platform delivers complete security visibility with the essential security capabilities. Easily and efficiently configure, manage, and operate all of your security controls from a single console and one unified framework. Download a free trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/alienvault_d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Correct use of subroutines
On 05/15/2013 10:46 AM, Gene Heskett wrote: he'd have to patch it Oh, he did, and IIRC cut the carpet as a flap that laid down neatly over the plug... he's that kind of guy. But even if had been a hardwood floor, well, he *is* that kind of guy. a job fixing them newfangled TV thingies Which, as nearly as I can tell from here, was a perfect fit! -- Ed softsolder.com -- AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM) platform delivers complete security visibility with the essential security capabilities. Easily and efficiently configure, manage, and operate all of your security controls from a single console and one unified framework. Download a free trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/alienvault_d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Correct use of subroutines
On 05/13/2013 02:01 AM, Rafael Skodlar wrote: emerging personal 3D printing. G-Code is largely irrelevant for 3D printing: it's nothing more than an intermediate machine language between the slicer and the printer. The complexity of the motions required to produce a single layer of a model prevents anybody from writing or even modifying that code by hand: the slicer output is essentially a write-only code blob. A typical G-Code file for a small object contains half a megabyte of instructions; some of my models exceed 10 MB. For example, a 6 MB file has 141000 lines of G-Code. The slicers add short, hand-written G-Code routines to the beginning and end of the automatically generated G-Code blob, as well as insert shim routines at each layer and tool change. However, those routines perform stereotyped functions, such as axis home, nozzle wipe, motor disable, and camera trigger, that would be configured and written by the machine integrator rather than the machine operator. In the current DIY 3D printing world, one person may play both of those roles, but that era is coming to an end. In any event, unlike a subtractive machine tool, you can't pause a 3D printer, hack the G-Code, and fire it up again: time, tide, and molten plastic wait for no operator! To a reasonable approximation, a 3D printer's software stack eats solid models and produces plastic shapes, with no human intervention along the way. The typical user has no idea what G-Code is and really shouldn't get involved at that level: the high level language describes the object geometry, not the production method. -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book Graph Databases is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. This 200-page book is written by three acclaimed leaders in the field. The early access version is available now. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/neotech_d2d_may ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Correct use of subroutines
On 05/13/2013 08:43 AM, andy pugh wrote: feed it STL rather than G-code Or, perhaps, an OpenSCAD model in source-code format, although you'd really want a better set of primitives that take advantage of arcs and suchlike. STL can't handle multiple colors / materials, has only triangle tesselation, and really shouldn't be the basis of further development. Just like G-Code, it'll live forever. [grin] doesn't let you control things like fill patterns. The newer, more consumer-oriented UIs have eliminated the myriad knobs we enjoy fiddling with, replacing them with a linear scale: fine, medium, coarse. It (or the original programmer) then chooses detailed settings based on the desired outcome, slices the model accordingly, and drives the printer. The real problem (and it *is* a real problem) then becomes generating the model geometry. Based on a very small sample, non-techies have trouble with 3D modeling and fancier CAD programs aren't the answer... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book Graph Databases is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. This 200-page book is written by three acclaimed leaders in the field. The early access version is available now. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/neotech_d2d_may ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Easy 3D Re: Correct use of subroutines
On 05/13/2013 06:41 PM, Gregg Eshelman wrote: As for sketchup, unless it's seen some massive debugging and improvements, it's a very nice utility for creating some of the most fouled up 3D geometry Aye! But the objects *look* good, so they should print fine. Right? [wince] I've given up explaining why Sketchup isn't good for solid modeling, but I also no longer (try to) advise people who have a totally botched model what went wrong. That maximizes the total happiness. But Sketchup seems to be the least user-hostile program out there for folks who want to build things. OpenSCAD definitely isn't the answer and traditional CAD/CAM packages aren't for those folks, either. 'Tis a puzzlement. -- Ed softsolder.com -- AlienVault Unified Security Management (USM) platform delivers complete security visibility with the essential security capabilities. Easily and efficiently configure, manage, and operate all of your security controls from a single console and one unified framework. Download a free trial. http://p.sf.net/sfu/alienvault_d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machine documentation: software, best practices
On 04/16/2013 07:53 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: That long? Back in the day, when the usual group met at a friend's house for burgers and car fixin', that was his standard warranty. He also had a caveat: while he was willing to help you fix anything, you couldn't complain if you took some leftover parts home in a brown paper bag. A good time was had by all... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Precog is a next-generation analytics platform capable of advanced analytics on semi-structured data. The platform includes APIs for building apps and a phenomenal toolset for data science. Developers can use our toolset for easy data analysis visualization. Get a free account! http://www2.precog.com/precogplatform/slashdotnewsletter ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machine documentation: software, best practices
On 04/16/2013 08:48 AM, andy pugh wrote: It would be nice to be able to generate a nice HAL diagram I recently beat the Eagle-to-HAL scripts and libraries into producing a complete HAL configuration for my Sherline, with USB Joggy Thing, XYXA axes, probe home switches, plus the default manual toolchanger: http://softsolder.com/2013/03/06/eagle-hal-configuration-sherline-hal-file-2/ Shorter link: http://wp.me/poZKh-3k2 Those schematics describe everything in the (admittedly few) HAL files for the Sherline and produce one monster auto-generated HAL file with the complete set of interconnections. The tedious part involves creating Eagle library parts to match the HAL components, but there's a good selection of the basics already available. I'll be forcing myself to do Mesa 5i25 / 7i76 boards (for some of the many firmware loads) in the near future. With the Eagle parts in hand, wiring 'em up in a schematic is straightforward. I think it's easier to see what's going on and *definitely* easier to make changes in a schematic than in the raw HAL text files. but I am not sure any have been shown to work properly. Hasn't blown up on me yet, but the warranty covers only 30 seconds or the end of the driveway, whichever comes first... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Precog is a next-generation analytics platform capable of advanced analytics on semi-structured data. The platform includes APIs for building apps and a phenomenal toolset for data science. Developers can use our toolset for easy data analysis visualization. Get a free account! http://www2.precog.com/precogplatform/slashdotnewsletter ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] A project I want to do on a CNC mill
On 04/11/2013 11:20 PM, Gregg Eshelman wrote: The radius of the points of the triangles is given as 0.228 inch I read it as 0.22R, which is almost exactly half the 0.438 DIA given for the holes. Using 0.438/2 would be Close Enough, methinks. That'd be fun to construct on a 3D printer... one with a build platform the size of my living room! -- Ed softsolder.com -- Precog is a next-generation analytics platform capable of advanced analytics on semi-structured data. The platform includes APIs for building apps and a phenomenal toolset for data science. Developers can use our toolset for easy data analysis visualization. Get a free account! http://www2.precog.com/precogplatform/slashdotnewsletter ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] LinuxCNC for DIY 3D Printing
On 01/14/2013 03:35 PM, Chris Morley wrote: added to the 5i25/7i76 combo I missed that; it would certainly solve the I/O problem in big way, too. Have I also missed a giant Mesa configurator showing how all the bits pieces fit together? Admittedly, I must spend more time pondering the manuals, but I really don't have a good overview of what's available and how it all fits together. a USB themometer That's cute! It would be fine for monitoring motor temperatures and suchlike, as the heated bed and extruder would shrivel that plastic cable right off... [grin] Thanks for the ideas! -- Ed softsolder.com -- Master Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL, ASP.NET, C# 2012, HTML5, CSS, MVC, Windows 8 Apps, JavaScript and much more. Keep your skills current with LearnDevNow - 3,200 step-by-step video tutorials by Microsoft MVPs and experts. SALE $99.99 this month only -- learn more at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/learnmore_122412 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
[Emc-users] LinuxCNC for DIY 3D Printing
TL;DR summary: advice needed on a LinuxCNC-based 3D printer project. The background... About a year ago, high-end DIY 3D printers outstripped the capabilities of Arduino-based controllers: the gymnastics required to stuff acceleration control into 8 bit microcontrollers appears to be a dead end. There's a notion of re-re-writing the Arduino firmware in 32 bit style for [ARM | Beagle | RPi | whatever] running on another generation of custom microcontroller boards. Rather than waiting for more of the same, I want to explore what LinuxCNC can enable for an advanced (albeit Cartesian) DIY 3D printer, starting with a solid motion-control foundation plus all the other features LinuxCNC provides, the ones that would require serious firmware development for Arduino-based code. For example... Hard real time motion control, rather than interrupt-based motor handlers that go awry when userland code inadvertently disables interrupts to bit-bang an I2C peripheral. Userland scripting, extensible language features, a G-Code dialect with loops / branching / subroutines, stuff like that. Probing the build platform to correct for for height variation and misalignment: probekins. I think a HAL-based extruder model that could include second- and third-order effects should provide better control than a simple linear/angular axis, particularly for a printer with multiple extruders. The plasma torch controller modules seem like good starting points. Similarly, ladder logic offers interesting possibilities for an extruder tool changer. LinuxCNC offers a *much* better UI, with devices that aren't teleported from 1990. I want to get a Touchy interface running early, just to show it off, plus the usual gamepad jogging and suchlike. Network-aware capabilities right out of the box, a real operating system, and enough compute power storage to make everything work. Plus all the topics I can barely pronounce when you folks discuss using them on your industrial machinery. The hardware plan... I'll start with a stock Makergear M2, which seems to be the most solid and well-designed DIY printer currently available. I'd prefer an enclosure to stabilize the ambient temperature, but that's basically a big box. Once the stock M2 works well enough, replace its RAMBo controller with Mesa 5i25 + 7i76. The 7i76 has enough robust digital outputs to drive SSRs for heaters and whatnot, with HAL components closing the temperature loops. The thermal time constants seem long enough to not require high-frequency PWM proportional control, which should simplify things. It also has sufficient digital inputs for home switches, probe contacts, and stuff like that. However, the printer controller also needs multi-channel thermocouple inputs, because thermistors seem underqualified for long-term measurements at 200+ C. I'd like to use a Mesa 7i87 for analog input, but it appears unsupported by the HostMot2 driver: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Mesa_Cards An alternative might be some Arduino love with this shield, although four channels seems limiting: http://www.mlgp-llc.com/arduino/public/arduino-pcb.html The Mesa 7i32 stepper driver board doesn't connect to the 5i25 at all. I don't know whether a Gecko G540 4 channel board (which is one axis shy of what I want) would make more sense than a quintet of M542H boards hot from the usual eBay vendor, but, for sure, blowing a single-channel board would be much less painful than taking out the Gecko. Although I have some of those tiny Pololu drivers, I think they're underqualified for this job. I'd love to be proven wrong. The goal is to produce a 3D printer with a contemporary control system that's easily extensible and isn't constrained by the quirks of DIY 3D history. Eventually, I want to tinker with better printer mechanics, in particular extruders, but the M2 should suffice for much of the proof-of-concept work. I have the attention of a guy who knows his way around the innards of the latest accelerated-motion-control Arduino firmware. I'll get my M2 running to show it's possible, then poke around at system improvements, after which he can build a similar setup and begin doing wonderful things. What I need... Guidance around my blind spots! F'r instance, I'm sure I've missed a hardware gotcha. Are there more practical ways to drive five stepper axes, get a bunch of digital I/O, and read thermocouples? Although I'm generally a big fan of lashing up surplus parts in my shop, I want to do this with reasonably standard hardware, so as to simplify building the next one. It's coming out of my pocket, however: the sky is *not* the budgetary limit. I'll surely have a bunch more questions as I make progress over the next few months (the M2 will likely take several months to arrive), but I'd appreciate any advice in the interim. Thanks... -- Ed softsolder.com
Re: [Emc-users] I crashed my machine, now I need a new drill chuck
On 10/30/2012 10:12 AM, Gene Heskett wrote: anyone who will sell me carbide #68's in ten packs w/o a 3 digit price yet eBay is my parts tool locker: http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-10pcs-68-Wire-Size-Solid-Carbide-PCB-Print-Circuit-Board-Drill-Bits-/120995129465?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0hash=item1c2bdf2879 OK, OK, it has a *four* digit price, but the decimal point is in the right place for me... [grin] I got good resharp bits from Drill Bit City, but it seems they're going out of business. Their broken website offers a few odd drill sets and a drill resharpening machine for 13 large: https://www.drillbitcity.com/Default.asp -- Ed softsolder.com -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_sfd2d_oct ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT - CNC Workshop not to be hosted by Digital
On 10/18/2012 07:59 AM, Ron Ginger wrote: Any volunteers to give a talk? I could spiff up my Intro to 3D Printing presentation and do an hour of performance art: http://softsolder.com/2011/10/11/lilug-meeting-presentation/ My talk for the local ACM chapter covered more of the math and modeling, which may be too much tech: http://softsolder.com/2012/05/18/presentation-for-poughkeepsie-acm-diy-3d-printing-hardware-software/ A 3D printer build class, along the lines of what you do with the mini-mill, could be a lot of fun. Start with, say, a box containing a Makergear M2 printer: http://www.makergear.com/pages/m2-assembly-instructions Gorgeous hardware and, from all the early accounts, great performance. I kinda-sorta want one, with an eye to retrofitting LinuxCNC, not that there's a pressing need for *another* 3D printer in my shop. [grin] Given the venue logistics, I doubt we could pull off two build classes in that lecture room, but ... maybe for 2014? York sits on the outer edge of how far I can drive in a day; doing the trip in April makes that day *much* more enjoyable. Ann Arbor might as well be on the far side of the planet, alas. -- Ed softsolder.com -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_sfd2d_oct ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Crowdsourced mass CNC produced private weapons
On 10/16/2012 06:10 AM, charles green wrote: what would it take to produce printed armor? If you're not too fussy, you can print (small pieces of) chain mail in one pass: http://softsolder.com/2011/06/03/thing-o-matic-chainmail/ Which might protect you from the Barbie Pistol: http://softsolder.com/2011/05/02/what-would-barbie-pack/ But not against heavier weaponry: http://softsolder.com/2011/10/21/zombie-apocalypse-preparations/ I loves me my 3D printer... [grin] -- Ed softsolder.com -- Don't let slow site performance ruin your business. Deploy New Relic APM Deploy New Relic app performance management and know exactly what is happening inside your Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, and .NET app Try New Relic at no cost today and get our sweet Data Nerd shirt too! http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Crowdsourced mass CNC produced private weapons
On 10/16/2012 06:35 PM, Igor Chudov wrote: having some real fun with their 3D printers! Oh, no, that's not fun. It's *practice* for serious projects! Like, for example, we decided to reinstall a freezer shelf after quite a few years of disuse, only to discover that one of its brackets had gone missing. An hour to build the solid model, another to produce the object: it snapped into place and works perfectly. A strictly non-lethal application, I assure you... -- Ed softsolder.com -- Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://p.sf.net/sfu/appdyn_sfd2d_oct ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] USB KVM switches
On Sun, 2012-09-09 at 12:37 -0400, Kent A. Reed wrote: Using the hot key sequence I can switch between ports connected to MS Windows systems or from one of them to a port connected to a Linux system but not vice versa. I have to use the port-selector buttons on the case to switch from a Unix system. These may be relevant: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49t=26548 http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-general-1/kvm-switch-hotkey-does-not-work-781707/ It seems NumLock can also serve as a hotkey, which I would *not* have expected in the least, or that you can work around the problem by switching to a console, rather than the GUI. Now, as to how a PC swallows keystrokes from a USB keyboard that's plugged into a KVM switch *upstream* of the PC, I have no idea... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] MSL Landing: Success!
On Mon, 2012-08-06 at 10:10 -0400, Dave wrote: I think I would have looked (desperately) for a different solution. One of the engineers (in the movie they put out before the event) observed that the whole series of maneuvers was crazy, but it was the *least* crazy way to accomplish the mission... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rapid Prototype for CNC mill
On Thu, 2012-07-26 at 22:04 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: deliver low cost more than anything There's a good reason why the commercial outfits charge what they do (other than that they can). But the resolution of DIY printers is now good enough that second-order stuff like rigidity and control bandwidth matter, so ... that must start happening. I am also curious how the filament feeders could be improved. Use a ribbon filament fed into a cylindrical heater; the increased surface area improves both traction and heat transfer. The original patents cover a spring-loaded shutoff valve that might not work nearly as well as described when immersed in viscous goo. IIRC, there's a crosswise plunger shutoff, too. Rather than retracting the filament with the feed motor, lift the feed assembly with a solenoid by a specified amount to depressurize the nozzle. I should have taken better notes; it got overwhelming after a while. Not to mention that reading patents makes an absolutely marvelous insomnia cure... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rapid Prototype for CNC mill
On Wed, 2012-07-25 at 22:19 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: like what for instance? Stabilized build environments, extruders with flow-control valves, improved filament feeders, less rickety mechanics... Basically, all the obvious improvements. [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rapid Prototype for CNC mill
On Wed, 2012-07-25 at 01:15 -0600, a...@conceptmachinery.com wrote: problem with reprap is that their main idea is to make cheap machine -under $ 1000- but not real rapid prototype machine. Although I don't have any inside information, I believe the reason DIY 3D printers have (or don't have) specific features is that most of the original patents remain in effect. These seem to be the fundamental patents: http://softsolder.com/2012/06/29/fundamental-3d-printing-patents/ The patent documents include links to more recent patents that refer back to them, so you can devote as much time as you wish to determining that the neat idea *you* just had has already been invented, patented, and reduced to practice. It worked that way for me, anyhow... [grin] Although converting a CNC mill to a 3D printer seems attractive, I think the second-order effects will make it impractical: speed, cleanliness, ambient environment, stuff like that. As one of my managers put it: You must first decide whether you're designing a waffle iron or a toaster. Which is not to say that you can't do it for yourself. What you almost certainly *can't* do is invent a commercially viable 3D printer and sell it with impunity... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rapid Prototype for CNC mill
On Wed, 2012-07-25 at 11:14 -0600, a...@conceptmachinery.com wrote: Patent in US has only 15 years life. That is, unfortunately, incorrect, but the right answer isn't easy to figure out: http://www.patentlens.net/daisy/patentlens/2973.html All those patent that you refer are too old and antiquated. The earliest 3D printing patents are, indeed, beginning to expire, so I expect to see a bunch of interesting developments in the DIY field. However, the fact that older patents expire does not mean that the companies haven't been busy filing derivative patents with similar claims. Following the patent trail up to the present time can provide hours of mingled admiration and horror ... [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Status of Linux-emc and 3d printing?
On Fri, 2012-06-29 at 00:59 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: Ultimaker is currently the fastest (possibly highest quality too) hobby plastic extruder The Bowden extruder notion seems to have more trouble with ooze: half a meter of filament beyond the drive wheel prevents fast retraction. Reducing the extruder mass certainly improves the speed, at least given the usual under-powered and over-loaded stepper drives... [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Status of Linux-emc and 3d printing?
On Thu, 2012-06-28 at 10:50 -0400, John Stewart wrote: I don't remember being that impressed with their x/y speeds They tend to produce better results below 30 mm/s, mostly because the stock firmware doesn't use any acceleration limiting at all, and I've seen some down around 10 mm/s near my Sherline's limit. Using firmware that applies acceleration limiting helps with the non-printing moves, but the plywood-and-acrylic frame isn't rigid enough to print accurately much above 40 mm/s. The dreadfully heavy custom build platform in my TOM requires a rather low acceleration, but even the stock platform isn't a real featherweight... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Status of Linux-emc and 3d printing?
On Wed, 2012-06-27 at 21:20 -0400, Stephen Dubovsky wrote: his X3 sized mill does 300ipm That certainly puts it in the running! What are the acceleration rates on the dedicated machines? Given my heavy custom build platform and 12 V stepper supplies, the accelerations aren't all that spectacular: X = 15 k mm/s^2 and Y = 5 k mm/s^2. The Z axis uses the stock motor, which isn't well suited for microstepping drive, and runs at 1000 mm/s^2. My Sherline runs X and Y at a sleepy 5 in/s^2 = 125 mm/s^2 and Z at 3 in/s^2 = 75 mm/s^2... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] 3D Printer Parts
On Mon, 2012-06-11 at 22:07 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: it supports two extruders It has only one thermocouple input, so I'm not sure how you'd control the second extruder head temperature. Being an Arduino, it does have half a dozen analog inputs for thermistors. I don't know whether the stock firmware supports more than one input for the build platform temperature. the 2nd link you provided fixes that issue? Alas, not at all. Beefing up the traces reduces the power loss on the board and eliminates some of the glitching. It's apparently one of those weird firmware issues that's ascribed to a myriad causes. All I know is that after improving everything, non-MBI firmware on the Motherboard still occasionally kvetches about the extruder controller being nonresponsive. It recovers, though, which suggests the EC firmware gazes into its own navel for a while. The power MOSFETs could be driven by three parallel port pins and a dab of HAL code. Hand-wiring transistors on a protoboard would actually give you enough copper to handle the current. There's been some work on reading analog values from various microcontrollers into HAL through USB. That'd be the hard part of the job, as the MAX6675 seems to be obsolescent, but hand-rolling another thermocouple input is required for a second extruder head, anyway. Note that the EC is out of stock, which seems to be the fate of backlevel electronics everywhere. Good luck ... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] 3D Printer Parts
On Tue, 2012-06-12 at 13:22 +0200, Joachim Franek wrote: Why not use a dmm with rs232 or usb? A quick glance at the search results suggests that the combination of thermocouple and usb runs about $100 direct from China and *much* more than that from a reputable supplier. You'd need a pair for two extruders, although that might still be cheaper than cobbling up something Arduino-oid on your own. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] 3D Printer Parts
On Sun, 2012-06-10 at 18:09 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: try the MakerBot extruder controller My experiences with that thing may save you some heartache confusion: http://softsolder.com/2011/01/06/thing-o-matic-extruder-controller-power-supply-improvement/ http://softsolder.com/2011/01/07/thing-o-matic-extruder-controller-mosfet-supplies/ The MK7 extruder uses a cartridge heater, but I still recommend electrically isolating the thermocouple from the block, as their method of securing the bead to the hot end leaves a bit to be desired. http://softsolder.com/2011/02/06/thing-o-matic-mk5-extruder-protecting-the-thermocouple/ http://softsolder.com/2012/01/07/thing-o-matic-improved-ec-thermistor-connector-orientation/ It is a rather expensive complex board, given that you'll be using only one thermocouple readout and two MOSFET drivers. It's not obvious that the RS485 interface is as simple as it appears, either, because a common failure seems to involve the Motherboard losing contact with the Extruder Controller. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: and Soapbox: 3D Printer Mods?
On Sun, 2012-06-03 at 21:08 -0400, Dave wrote: buy one or two PID controllers. The slicing software can produce different extrusion temperatures for different layers (or classes of layers), so the printer needs programmatic control over *everything*. You may as well integrate all that in LinuxCNC, where it belongs. The thermal time constants of small extruders seem to be on the order of tens of seconds, while my hunk o' steel requires minutes. The whole extrusion process is strongly nonlinear along many axes, which is something that's becoming more difficult to ignore as extrusion speeds increase. With XY speeds under about 30 mm/s, the linear assumptions work reasonably well. Moving faster than that shows the limits: oozing from a stopped extruder, nonlinear flow-vs-pressure, nonlinear flow-vs-acceleration, and (for my printer) unstable mechanical construction. The threshold obviously varies with printer design implementation, but the high end of of DIY 3D printing has now collided with the low end of CNC machine control. The limits of the Arduino-class controller programming model are becoming apparent (at least to me, anyhow). LinuxCNC could implement a complex extruder model as a HAL component, with inputs from temperature sensors and motion control, far better than an Arduino-based controller. Handling multiple extruders with different material properties would be relatively straightforward in HAL. Doing all the soon-to-be-required toolchanging, height probing, and platform leveling in HAL / Classic Ladder makes a lot of sense (again, at least to me). Methinks anyone working on such a contraption would receive a visit from a nattily attired lawyer who would explain his employer's view of the US patent system... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: and Soapbox: 3D Printer Mods?
On Mon, 2012-06-04 at 08:44 -0400, Dave wrote: Who hold the patents? The big players that have been doing 3D extrusion since the mid 80s, the ones with positive cash flow and actual engineering teams. The Wikipedia article has a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Industrial_uses Although the earliest patents have expired, a guy at the presentation I gave to the local ACM chapter mentioned that the reason none of the DIY printers have an enclosed, temperature-controlled build chamber is because whoever (Stratasys or 3DS, I don't recall) holds *that* patent and licenses it with some vigor. I can't cite the number, though, so the story may be n-th hand hearsay. To a good first approximation, machine-shop 3D printing technology is a solved problem at industrial scale (the nanoscale stuff seems blue-sky handwaving). DIY printers started about 25 years behind the state of the art and now lags by just under one patent lifetime, where it's likely to stay. Basement-shop DIY is one thing, building a business around that tech is entirely another matter. None of the DIY players amount to pocket lint in the major league. I expect Makerbot's recent 10 megabuck infusion triggered some talks that circumscribe their enthusiasm, but I have no actual data. That said, I'd love to do a LinuxCNC-based printer, starting with extruder modeling. So many projects, so little time... [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: and Soapbox: 3D Printer Mods?
On Mon, 2012-06-04 at 11:53 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: you are basing this on what? Rumor, supposition, hearsay, random tales, and watching the slow-motion destruction of mobile phone innovation through internecine IP warfare. The fact that a judge had to rule that APIs can't be copyrighted tells you pretty nearly everything you need to know about the state of the art. Given the current attitude toward IP, there's no reason to expect benevolent behavior from the major players. The only reason we don't see lawyers catapulting over the parapets seems to be that the minor players lack enough money to make it worthwhile... [grin] I've started reading the old 3D printing patents. It's heavy going, but many of the clever ideas I've had / seen elsewhere seem to be covered. Verily, there's little new under the sun and, of course, I'm now coated with a thin layer of precious IP floobydust. As the saying goes: It's not whether you're paranoid, it's whether you're paranoid *enough*. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: and Soapbox: 3D Printer Mods?
On Mon, 2012-06-04 at 18:31 -0600, Jeshua Lacock wrote: Also, as far as I know, Makerbot et al have not had much of a legal battle so far. True, but now that they're doing something over $5 M/yr with substantial funding, they look more like a target. Again, I know nothing other than the fundamental truth that money changes *everything*... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: 3D Printer Mods?
On Wed, 2012-05-30 at 19:29 +0200, Roland Jollivet wrote: The thing is, what do you do with these parts? Some examples of stuff I've designed build used... A case for a GPS+voice amateur radio circuit: http://softsolder.com/2012/04/13/wouxun-kg-uv3d-gps-interface-functional-case/ Adapter to hold a camera on a microscope, a macro lens holder for that camera, plus an LED ring illuminator for the microscope: http://softsolder.com/2011/11/14/canon-sx230hs-microscope-and-close-up-macro-adapters/ http://softsolder.com/2011/04/11/microscope-led-ring-illuminator/ Caliper repair part (no finishing required!): http://softsolder.com/2011/05/27/thing-o-matic-caliper-repair-perfection/ Bike helmet mirror mount (ugly, but better than commercial units): http://softsolder.com/2011/07/01/helmet-mirror-mount-first-light/ http://softsolder.com/2011/06/29/helmet-mirror-mount-solid-model/ Blinky light mount for my recumbent: http://softsolder.com/2012/01/03/planet-bike-superflash-tour-easy-mount/ Cookie cutter: http://softsolder.com/2011/09/07/tux-cookie-cutter/ Fuzz blocker for a Kindle Fire: http://softsolder.com/2012/04/10/kindle-fire-power-button-protector/ Simple stepper motor mount: http://softsolder.com/2011/08/23/nema-17-stepper-motor-mount/ And, of course, improve the 3D printer: http://softsolder.com/2011/04/20/thing-o-matic-x-axis-rod-follower-installed/ Beyond their hand-knitted appearance, the parts are entirely serviceable for most of the things I do. Of course, that may just mean I do simple things that don't involve a lot of stress on either the operator or the user. [grin] Now, admittedly, those parts emerged after the better part of half a year of rebuilding to persuade my Thing-O-Matic to work the way they claimed it would. That's a whole 'nother story... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: 3D Printer Mods?
On Fri, 2012-06-01 at 08:44 -0400, gene heskett wrote: the bolts are 3/8 but the holes are 7/16 In this case, the bolts were 7/16 and the holes 3/8... [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] OT: 3D Printer Mods?
On Fri, 2012-06-01 at 10:10 -0400, Eric Keller wrote: anyone that makes things Unlike folks who use industrial-grade machinery to build exquisite widgets (you know who you are), mostly, I fix stuff. Being able to sketch out a solid model and then have it *happen* is wonderfully liberating. The Sherline CNC mill does great work (I just made a plug-ugly manual-CNC scabbard for a garden knife yesterday), but for complex shapes the 3D printer can't be beat. That radio case was what compelled me to get the printer: I couldn't imagine carving another case from solid acrylic on the Sherline. It took a few tries to get the design sizes right, but now I can build a second and a third with only a few minutes of finishing fitting; the printer can be building a case while I'm making the PCB to go inside. When we eventually downsize, I know which machine tool is a keeper... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] database Q?
On Mon, 2012-04-02 at 23:12 -0400, gene heskett wrote: so if it did do an automatic save Among the other things I set up with a new OO/LO installation: Tools - Options - Load/Save General - check Save AutoRecovery information every and set the timer for 10 minutes That dramatically improves the chances of recovering *something*, because if it's turned off, you're stuck with whatever's been manually saved. That might be nothing at all, as you've discovered. But, come now, you *know* recording data on a crash-test dummy box is Bad Technique. Case in point: this past weekend at a robot contest, an otherwise useless stack of shredded dead trees turned out to be absolutely vital... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Better than sec? Nothing is better than sec when it comes to monitoring Big Data applications. Try Boundary one-second resolution app monitoring today. Free. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Boundary-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Q re lathe vs axis
On Wed, 2012-03-14 at 22:23 -0400, gene heskett wrote: PClos on this quad core phenom. Well, OK, use whatever *PClos* uses for remote desktop sharing... it's not like PClos is some mutant without all the usual Linux stuff tucked away under the hood. linuxcnc runs just fine from its own keyboard, but not from an ssh login Which is why I'm recommending you do something *other* than wrestle with X through SSH: export the whole [mumble] desktop and be done with it. That's stock technology, designed to Just Work. Anything Linux-oid with a package manager should have *something* that speaks VNC to the far end of the network. Set up the milling box to allow desktop sharing with VNC, set up your desktop box to connect with a VNC desktop, and you're done. Modulo, of course, having your network running, which may not be a given at this point. That, alas, is a real swamp... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- This SF email is sponsosred by: Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Q re lathe vs axis
On Wed, 2012-03-14 at 11:04 -0400, gene heskett wrote: And that man page is as obtuse as any I've seen. Rather than hammering that out by hand, use the remote desktop built right into Ubuntu? On the Ubuntu machine attached to the mill, clicky: System - Preferences - Remote Desktop Then select: Allow other users to view your desktop Allow other users to control your desktop Set up the Security section to suit your paranoia. On the Ubuntu machine attached to your Comfy Chair, clicky: Applications - Internet - Remote Desktop Viewer It'll show you a list of what's available on your network, which should include the milling machine. Clicky to select, feed in a password if you set it up that way, blow that window up to full screen, and you're there... Works for me, anyhow. I do pretty nearly all the setup fiddling from the Comfy Chair for both the Sherline Thing-O-Matic, then drop down to the Basement Lab to actually start building things. Not quite so manly as mud-wrestling with X, but ... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Virtualization Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Need an electronic tech smarter than me
On Tue, 2012-02-21 at 16:15 +1100, Erik Christiansen wrote: But it has banana sockets, so it'll do me. Murphy also has his way with them, particularly nowadays: http://softsolder.com/2012/02/08/power-supply-banana-jack-misfit/ Grumble... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Need an electronic tech smarter than me
On Tue, 2012-02-21 at 23:37 +1100, Erik Christiansen wrote: the last paragraph of the wikipedia entry for banana connector Seems to me that's an eBay market opportunity: who could possibly object to a small envelope with a gift from afar? -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] The future of LinuxCNC mailing lists and bug tracking
On Tue, 2012-02-21 at 10:46 -0600, Jeff Epler wrote: approval of a user's initial post will be required. My admittedly limited 3-year experience with my Wordpress-based blog shows that exactly zero spammers have figured out how to post one meaningful, on-point comment in order to clear the approve-first-comment bar and then hose the place down with junk. I have seen a few borderline cases, but right up front I say that I reject first comments along the lines of Cool post!... and I do. So my data point says approval should work pretty well. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Need an electronic tech smarter than me
On Mon, 2012-02-20 at 17:42 -0500, gene heskett wrote: 4. All logic outputs with the slots open are sitting at about 18 millivolts. The doc says a high output when the optical path is clear, so something's definitely wrong... If that were my board, I'd expect the top-surface ground line running barely 25 mils from the screw terminal pads to be at least mildly shorted to all three output pins. Given the weak pullup, that'd hold all three to ground. With the power disconnected, are all three outputs isolated from each other *and* ground? With both polarities of the DMM? The bottom surface trace from the B terminal along those same pads may give you a clue. Whip out a magnifier and check that clearance. If you have a duplicate unsoldered board, check that one out... Is the board drawing (3 x 25 mA) for the LEDs + maybe (3 x 10 mA) for the detectors? If the detectors aren't powered up, that's a hint. If they *are* powered up, then their outputs are shorted to ground. The datasheet recommends a 100 nF cap between VCC and ground near the device. That probably doesn't make much difference in a test setup, but I'd be superstitious and slap one cap in place across the board power input. Having just brought up a homebrew PCB, I never cease to be amazed at the wide variety of things that can go wrong. Like having to scratch off a tiny un-etched copper filament shorting a IC pin to ground *under* the IC; it was visible, but just barely, only after I soldered the IC in place. Before that, it wasn't there. [sigh] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] US Digital encoders?
On Thu, 2012-02-02 at 22:21 -0500, gene heskett wrote: what can he use for an exciting signal? It seems I'm missing something obvious. I thought the idea was to move the motor back forth while comparing the commanded (presumably, the actual) position with the encoder's (also, presumably, the actual) position to see if there's any lag / jitter / instability between the two. Using freqgen (plus stepgen or whatever the motor might require) to drive the motor should accomplish the first part. Triggering halscope on (some part of) the output signal, then displaying both output and input traces will reveal their relation. Then use siggen to ramp / sawtooth freqgen and you'll see how the relation varies with speed acceleration. Yes? -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] US Digital encoders?
On Thu, 2012-02-02 at 09:36 -0500, gene heskett wrote: that would require a function generator Perhaps gimmicking up a HAL circuit with siggen or freqgen to drive the stepper, then compare the encoder input with the motor output? You probably don't need a sine wave, just drive the motor back and forth at a variable rate: siggen providing a sawtooth wave to freqgen? Surely it'd be more complex than that, but triggering on one edge of the motor output and looking at the corresponding encoder edges should be revealing... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Back to isolcpus=1, again...
On Wed, 2012-02-01 at 10:59 -0500, Tom Easterday wrote: run the latency-test on the idle core AND run glxgears there (using taskset to move it too), my latency is very bad. That makes perfect sense: the video involved in glxgears locks out interrupts for protracted periods, so running it on the same core as the real-time handler should dramatically increase interrupt latency. It seems the AXIS UI is much better behaved, so running it on the real-time core doesn't affect latency all that much. Of course, running AXIS on an otherwise idle core will vastly improve overall performance, but that's not really the point of fencing off that core. I'd want to study the whole latency thing a lot more closely, with steppers whining away and the interpreter chewing through G-Code, before concluding that running *anything* other than real-time tasks on that core was a Good Idea. Now, if you had a four-core CPU, you could put the real-time stuff on one core, AXIS on another, have two left for everything else, and get wonderful performance... but, then, that's not a cheap Atom box. [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Back to isolcpus=1, again...
On Mon, 2012-01-30 at 23:35 -0500, gene heskett wrote: htop shows 2 cpu's with the 2nd one sitting at 0.0% use. As I understand it, that's the way it should be. The point of isolating the second CPU / core / whatever is to dedicate it to the real-time parts of RTAI, thus reducing interrupt latency. The CPU will sit there, completely idle, most of the time, so that when a real-time interrupt / task needs work, it can be dispatched immediately. Pinning AXIS to that idle CPU will definitely make the UI run much faster, but then the interrupt latency will (uh, should) get much worse, with the usual horrible effects on software step pulse generation. At least, that's how I think it works... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] DIY output driver
On Fri, 2012-01-27 at 12:26 -0500, gene heskett wrote: The LM317T is a linear regulator device and could be made adjustable so as to compensate for the wiring and switching loss in your controller. Judging from Viesturs' description in a later message: Nope, I see 2 resistors in series for the middle leg. The LM317 is probably wired up as a current controller, not a voltage controller: it's providing a fixed *current* to the laser diode, not regulating the voltage across the wires. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LM317_1A_ConstCurrent.svg In that mode, the voltage drop from controller to laser doesn't make much difference, at least within reasonable limits. What *does* matter is the voltage supplied to the controller (which sets the compliance it needs to regulate the laser current) and the current available from the raw +12 V supply (which must be greater than the laser current). Tweaking the resistors or substituting a voltage source for the laser controller will let the magic smoke out of the laser! The BD139 has a 1.5 A current rating, with a fairly low hFE = 40. That says it must have 1.0 / 40 = 25 mA of base current to saturate while carrying 1 A. More base current will be better. The 4N25 has a current transfer ratio of 20%, which means the LED current must be 25 / 0.20 = 125 mA. Anything less than that won't provide enough base drive, so the transistor won't saturate, so the laser controller won't get enough power, and the transistor will eventually overheat and die. However, you can't jam that much current through the 4N25's LED. At the risk of sounding like an Olde Farte, the easiest way to get this contraption working is a small mechanical relay: a few tens of mA in will switch an amp of DC on the output. No voltage drops, no muss, no fuss. The optoisolator won't have enough current capacity for the relay, so you will probably need the driver transistor to power the *relay* from the digital output. But there's no need for the optoisolator in that case. Or, of course, I could be completely wrong... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rotary homing.
On Tue, 2012-01-24 at 18:04 -0500, gene heskett wrote: if I can insert those few lines of code after the M6 T# command. If you add: [EMCIO] TOOL_CHANGE_AT_G30 = 1 Then M6 will move to the G30 position, which you've cleverly set right above the probe switch. Admittedly, you must then call the probe subroutine, but a little sed-fu [grin] should do the trick if pcb2gcode doesn't have an option buried in there to wrap some user code around the tool change. The sourceforge pcb2gcode page has a bullet item: output can be adjusted for automated height probing, see http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82628 That discussion points to: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/pcb_milling/82628-cheap_simple_height-probing.html Which seems to be a generalized planar-surface probe process that's likely too complex. All you must do is insert a G38.2 probe-and-set subroutine, because you've already solved the PCB flatness and alignment problems. Some sed-fu should do the trick. I vaguely recall reading that stuff while building my hand-hewn G-Code routines. Mercifully, those didn't have the problem of integrating with anything else in the known universe... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rotary homing.
On Wed, 2012-01-25 at 22:20 +, andy pugh wrote: Even that is potentially optional: Oh, *wow*... Yet Another Way to confuse myself beyond recognition. I must put the tool probe switch somewhere more-or-less fixed before I start invoking that code, but I like what it can do! -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rotary homing.
On Tue, 2012-01-24 at 00:12 -0500, gene heskett wrote: Its doing all moves on the .bot. files in negative X from the reference point I'm pretty sure there's a checkbox along the way that reads Mirror X axis to make that answer come out right without any further attention. The Eagle gerbv274x CAM file has a mirror option that might do exactly what you need. Probably applies only to the bottom layer, though. [*fails to install pcb2gcode due to dependency hell*] The pcb2gcode man page seems to imply (in --mirror-absolute) that backside mirroring normally takes place at the middle of the board. Perhaps you have one or more of: - the Eagle origin at the wrong spot - the backside Gerber file exported without mirroring - the --mirror-absolute option set/unset I'd expect some option twiddling would solve the problem without resort to G-Code hackage. After all, you're not the first person to mill the backside of a PCB with this tool chain! And you really need an automatic tool height probe switch... really you do! -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rotary homing.
On Mon, 2012-01-23 at 14:56 -0500, gene heskett wrote: by destroying that known position as the homed flags are set. Although I *do* have home switches on the Sherline, I also inserted [TRAJ] NO_FORCE_HOMING = 1 So it doesn't enforce the must-home-before-moving rule. Axis then starts up wherever it shut down, with the previous position in place, and runs just fine. It doesn't display the homed crosshairs, but that really doesn't matter. Ought to work for you... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Rotary homing.
On Mon, 2012-01-23 at 22:34 +0200, Viesturs Lācis wrote: also tells Axis to remember joint positions on shutdown It's a simpleminded XYZA Sherline mill that wouldn't know what to do with a joint if it saw one... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] question on gcode parsing
On Sat, 2012-01-21 at 12:44 -0600, Jon Elson wrote: Every numeric value is preceded by a letter telling what it is. Except in the wonderful world of RepRap, wherein they're now (contemplating?) dual-extruder G-Code with multiple numeric values after the E axis to mix / simultaneously extrude multiple materials: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code#M160:_Number_of_mixed_materials The E axis must then absorb a linear distance of filament, plus the mix fractions for each material. The RepRap dialect seems to be diverging fairly rapidly from what the LinuxCNC parser understands; in particular, their myriad M codes look like a problem. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] question on gcode parsing
On Sat, 2012-01-21 at 21:27 +0100, Michael Haberler wrote: LinuxCNC in the chipmaking corner of the CNC universe. Which it does exceedingly well! For a number of reasons, I don't like the Arduino-based motion control that's common to DIY 3D printers and would vastly prefer LinuxCNC for the high-performance printer that's on my far back burner. The language is close enough, right now, but it'd take some effort to make the answer come out right; which is why I'm spring-loaded to notice discussions about parsers. Returning to my lurking niche... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Try before you buy = See our experts in action! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] eagle-6.1.0 (again)
On Wed, 2012-01-18 at 00:03 -0500, gene heskett wrote: Alright, how about this one? That'll work! [grin] And who knows? My Larval Engineer may remember how to poke around inside the safety covers without dying, in some future day when they desperately need a fix right *now*... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] eagle-6.1.0 (again)
On Wed, 2012-01-18 at 13:46 +1100, Erik Christiansen wrote: Nope, to update the library info used in an open schematic editor, hit Library-Update and select the modified library, or just use Library-Update_All. That's exactly what I expected to work, but it didn't: http://softsolder.com/2011/11/13/emc2-logitech-gamepad-trigger-button-name-change/ Of course, that involved a pin name change, rather than a footprint or wiring change, which may make all the difference. Mutter... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] eagle-6.1.0 (again)
On Tue, 2012-01-17 at 20:30 -0500, gene heskett wrote: If I fix the library, will that fix the schematic when it is next loaded? Nope, the schematic holds copies of all the components, so that you can't inadvertently wreck all your circuits with a single library change. You must delete all instances of the old part from the schematic, refresh the library to get the new part, and then re-place all of them. It's a pain, but it does make a certain kind of sense. those manuals were in my mailbox this evening. Excellent! Now, keep telling the occasional war story... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] steppers
On Fri, 2012-01-13 at 10:09 -0700, Cathrine Hribar wrote: if the steppers are wired in series, like I wired mine, they would require twice as much current Having waded through this mess not too long ago, here's what I (think I) know... Putting the two halves of a single pole's winding in series doubles the number of turns, doubles the winding resistance, and increases the inductance by a factor of four. Doubling the turns doubles the magnetic flux density in the pole, which is easier to see with the old-school unit of Ampere-turn instead of the fancy-pants metric Gauss or Tesla. Because torque is proportional to magnetic flux, you should get twice the torque for the same current. Unfortunately, the armature will probably saturate because you're now running it at twice its design flux, which will kill the torque and perhaps the motor, too. That's not a desirable outcome, so, paradoxically, a motor rated at 2.8 A per winding should run at 1.4 A with two windings in series. The resistive power losses would double at the same current, but will go down by a factor of 2 at half that current. If the motor has enough magnetic headroom, you can reduce the current by 1/sqrt(2) to dissipate the same amount of power: 2.8 A * 0.707 = 2 A. The increased inductance increases the overall L/R rise time by a factor of 4, assuming the external circuit is supplying substantial resistance (as in antique L/5R DC drives with hulking power resistors). With modern current-limiting chopper drivers, however, the rise time depends mostly on the winding's internal resistance, which increases by a factor of 2, so the net L/R increases by a factor of only 4/2 = 2. So, with the series-wired windings connected to the same supply voltage, the current rise time doubles. If you were pushing the motor's upper speed limit, the torque will fall off because the current reaches the limit set by the driver much later in each microstep. In the worst case, it no longer reaches the limit at all. It's enough to make your (well, my) head spin... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- RSA(R) Conference 2012 Mar 27 - Feb 2 Save $400 by Jan. 27 Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsa-sfdev2dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] gEDA / Correcting for workpiece warpage.
On Thu, 2012-01-12 at 17:28 -0500, gene heskett wrote: get another armload of 2 1/2 ring binders If you can stand to wait for a bit, I'll run off a booklet-sized version and send it to you. The printer uses bulk ink, I've finally got the restack orientation down to a reflex, and I have a comb binding machine. The booklet will be half-letter size, which is about what the old EAGLE manuals used to be, back in the day. Color, too, if the PDF has any. A 334 page manual will boil down to 84 letter-size sheets of paper, cut in half to make 168 half-size sheets, so it'll be maybe 3/4 inch thick. Thinner than the stack of EMC2 manuals everybody wanted to buy off me at Cabin Fever a year or so ago... Send me your mailing address and I'll get one off as soon as the CadSoft site recovers from the 6.0.0 - 6.1.0 onslaught. Your payment: keep telling war stories that I can send to our Larval EE in up Rochester as examples of what she won't learn in the classroom. Deal? -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- RSA(R) Conference 2012 Mar 27 - Feb 2 Save $400 by Jan. 27 Register now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsa-sfdev2dev2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] stepper power supply
On Thu, 2011-12-29 at 21:14 -0500, gene heskett wrote: pointers to the articles That was a series on transformers triac triggering, with a resistance soldering setup as the McGuffin. CC doesn't put articles online (if you know where to look, go for April/June/August 2008), but I put up some notes a while ago; start at the first post and rummage through the next few days: http://softsolder.com/2010/09/07/resistance-soldering-gizmo-overview/ The transformer notes, complete with a B-H curve, may be most useful: http://softsolder.com/2010/09/08/resistance-soldering-transformer/ The triac trigger circuitry was *insanely* complex, because I wanted to show what happens during four-quadrant triggering with sub-cycle control. In real life, you'd just fire a triac driver for the entire heating pulse and be done with it. A while back, Eks forced me to take his homebrew water-cooled pulser built around a stack of hockey-puck transistors that he'd been using for EDM. All I need is a bulk supply behind the thing, a bit of Z axis control, and I could sink dies with the best of 'em... [sigh] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. Try it free! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Citrix-VDIinabox ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] stepper power supply
On Fri, 2011-12-30 at 16:33 -0500, Jim Coleman wrote: how stable the voltage remains across a range of loads I really didn't measure that, but I think the core losses are just this side of terrible. After all, they used core saturation for output power control, so reducing losses probably wasn't particularly important. Some handwaving: It pushed 280 A into a 14 m-ohm load with 4.1 V at the lugs, which made the winding + terminal resistance 3 to 4 m-ohm. That's higher than I expected for four parallel #10 wires: 1 m-ohm/ft x 4 ft = 4 m-ohm each, so you'd expect 1 m-ohm total. Frankly, my measurement accuracy isn't up to the task and I'm ignoring core losses. Putting three of those #10 wires in series, rather than parallel, would give 15 V with maybe 10 m-ohm. You pull 75 A for 1 kW at 13.5 V, so the voltage would drop a bit under 1 V due to copper resistance. Add or subtract a turn or two for the right answer. It might come heartbreakingly close to working. any reason this technique couldn't be used for higher voltages The original secondary had a bazillion turns of fine wire to stuff what, 4 kV or so into the magnetron. The catch would be winding the heavy wire you need at 1 V/turn: a dozen or so turns would be do-able, but much beyond that won't fit through the core windows. You could, I suppose, delaminate the transformer and start all over again, but that starts to resemble actual work. Also, the recycled Romex wire I used is, , suboptimal in a high-current transformer. I'm not sure you (well, I) could feed enamel (or whatever they use these days) insulation through the core windows without nicking it; the thick plastic insulation on that Romex gave me decent results with crude techniques. But, again, it'd probably come pretty close to working... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. Try it free! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Citrix-VDIinabox ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] stepper power supply
On Wed, 2011-12-28 at 12:03 -0500, gene heskett wrote: There are hall effect based ammeters A while back, I mooched a Tek Hall-effect current probe from my buddy Eks to take some interesting pix: http://softsolder.com/2011/06/20/stepper-sync-wheel-current-waveform-first-light/ http://softsolder.com/2011/06/27/stepper-motor-winding-current-rise-time/ The winding current stays within a skosh of the setpoint for each microstep, which the driver determines by applying the sine cosine of the microstep (electrical) angle to the overall peak current setpoint. That may also contribute to the mystical 70% derating factor, because in full-step mode the driver (well, Allegro drivers, anyway) applies 1/sqrt(2) = 0.71 of the peak current setpoint to *each* winding. That keeps the overall motor power dissipation the same, but the total current into both windings is 2*(1/sqrt(2))*peak = 1.4*peak. Perhaps the person who first stated that factor, back in the dim past, forgot about the current in the *other* winding? While I was doing that, I managed to stoke a mechanical resonance that back-drove the winding current something awful: http://softsolder.com/2011/09/12/stepper-dynamometer-mechanical-resonance/ Keeps me off the streets at night... [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Ridiculously easy VDI. With Citrix VDI-in-a-Box, you don't need a complex infrastructure or vast IT resources to deliver seamless, secure access to virtual desktops. With this all-in-one solution, easily deploy virtual desktops for less than the cost of PCs and save 60% on VDI infrastructure costs. Try it free! http://p.sf.net/sfu/Citrix-VDIinabox ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Emc vs modern lcd monitors
On Sat, 2011-08-13 at 08:50 -0400, gene heskett wrote: under the vesa driver on an ati x1650 video card I ran into something like that on a Foxconn dual-core Atom D520 box that I'm sliding under my Thing-O-Matic: the default video setup sent 1024x768 dots to a 1280x1024 monitor and didn't offer anything better. The gotcha lay inside the Ubuntu 11.04 monitor settings, wherein unchecking the Show same thing on both monitors box suddenly revealed a second monitor! The Atom board has bone-stock Intel graphics with (to the best of my knowledge) no second video output, but the second monitor config showed all the myriad resolutions supported by the actual display. So I turned off the first monitor, picked 1280x1024 for the second monitor, the LCD went *blink*, and it's now fine. BTSOOM. Dunno if that applies to the VESA driver atop an ATI board, but it's certainly worth checking. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- uberSVN's rich system and user administration capabilities and model configuration take the hassle out of deploying and managing Subversion and the tools developers use with it. Learn more about uberSVN and get a free download at: http://p.sf.net/sfu/wandisco-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] stepConf configuration | EMC conversion
On Mon, 2011-06-27 at 13:41 -0700, For Sale Sticker wrote: 'leadscrew pitch' (do I just count the number of threads per inch?) It's barely possible that the leadscrew will have a multiple-start thread, making the linear-motion-per-turn higher than you'd expect from a simple count of the threads-per-inch number. Turn the leadscrew by hand and count the number of threads that vanish / appear at the edge of the stage for each turn: mark a thread, then watch it for one turn. If one thread vanishes / appears, then the leadscrew doesn't have a multiple-start thread. If it has a multi-start thread, then the stage will move more than the threads-per-inch by the number of thread starts. (The Z axis on my Thing-O-Matic has a four-start leadscrew, so I had to puzzle through this mess while figuring out the mechanics...) -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously valuable. Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c2 ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Extrusion-based RP
On Sun, 2011-06-12 at 14:33 -0700, Mike Payson wrote: a bit of a Makerbot champion The *idea* behind the Thing-O-Matic is great, but the *implementation*, well, not so much. Plus, all the things on the their wishlist seem to be done deals with EMC2, but I digress. ship it, then sell them an upgrade when they complain. Which is why I have trouble recommending that anybody buy a Thing-O-Matic: it costs about $2k by the time you get it gussied up with everything required to make it work the way they described it late last year when I bought it. That's ignoring the inconvenient fact that not everything you'd get actually works the way it should; it's still a shop project. ARM chips are cheaper than an 8-bit ATMega *pumps fist* Yes! I had a ten-cent bet with myself that when everybody finally admitted that an Arduino couldn't handle the load, they'd step up to an ARM and start from scratch. since those same points are true of the RepRap today with the host software. Ah, but look at it a bit differently: A dual-core Foxconn Atom (with parallel port!) + 1 GB DDR2 + 80 GB SATA is $150 *retail* at Newegg, so it's under $70 OEM. Add a custom interface board with the stepper interface and an Arduino-class micro that handles the heaters / fans / thermocouples for maybe $50 OEM. You get a headless EMC2 system for $120 OEM that runs rings around a de novo ARM, particularly because you don't have to re-write all that motion control and UI code. Example: Want a higher-end 3D printer system with touch screens, keyboards, joysticks, whatever? Would you rather have this: http://www.makerbot.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Interface_Text.jpg Or this: http://www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.5/html/gui/touchy.html Given that a VGA-resolution 8-inch touch screen costs the same (admittedly, on eBay) as the MBI kit (modulo shipping), I think you see where I'm coming from. With EMC2, you just plug it in, load up the HAL code, and you've got a touch screen interface. Which printer UI would be an easier sell to the *next* 10,000 customers who aren't gearheads like us? Attracting their attention might be worth a hundred bucks right there... /rant [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Extrusion-based RP
On Sat, 2011-06-11 at 23:54 -0700, Mike Payson wrote: that is a limitation of the Makerbot firmware. As nearly as I can tell, ReplicatorG has become sufficiently intertwingled with the firmware that it's best to not stray too far from the beaten path, so I'll continue to use the 2.7 firmware until things settle down a bit. RepG 24 has 17 different drivers for various combinations of machines / firmware / configurations and it's not at all clear what works with what. I used to like being a beta tester, but I've gotten over it... integrated MCU based driver The problem with that is economics: right now, the hardware cost for the microcontroller(s) and motherboards has run up against the cost of an ATX system board. In fact, the MBI retail price for the Ardino / Motherboard / Extruder Controller exceeds the full-up Atom I'm using with the Sherline. There's not all that much horsepower in an 8-bit microcontroller and the firmware is bumping up against those limits, too. I expect the next generation will use an ARM or some such, at the economics will definitely favor a commodity PC and a very cheap analog interface board; you need pretty much the same stepper drivers for either one. All the firmware does is eat G-Code and spit out parts; that's exactly what EMC2 does with my Sherline mill. I think it'd be a whole lot easier and less expensive to use EMC2 for motion control than to re-invent all those functions and jam them into an Arduino. Plus, you'd get a much better user interface, bigger displays, better keyboards, and a much more stable system for free. The fact that the computer inside the printer is a PC running EMC2, instead of a microcontroller running something else, is largely irrelevant. From the outside, you feed either printer with G-Code from Skeinforge it produces parts; the advantage of using EMC2 is that developers can concentrate on improving *printing* rather then reinventing motion control / UI wheels. I'd like to do it just to show how it works, but ... not right now. -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Extrusion-based RP
On Sat, 2011-06-11 at 19:17 -0400, Colin K wrote: you can make very complex geometries without multiple setups or fixtures That's why I got a Thing-O-Matic: create near-net parts that don't need much finishing. This one came out perfectly: http://softsolder.com/2011/05/27/thing-o-matic-caliper-repair-perfection/ The parts have a rather hand-knitted aspect that doesn't matter for the things I build. Some close-ups: http://softsolder.com/2011/04/18/hbp-aluminum-build-plate-abs-film-win/ It's handy for cranking out one-off parts on short notice: http://softsolder.com/2011/06/11/stepper-motor-sync-wheel/ Fortunately, some parts really don't have any accuracy specs: http://softsolder.com/2011/06/02/thing-o-matic-graduation-day/ Being that sort of bear, I've tweaked / improved / rebuilt / replaced much of the printer's innards and now have something that works quite well. Other folks have had zero problems with the stock printer, so much of what I've done has been along the lines of That doesn't seem quite right, I'd rather do it this way rather than the rare Dang, it's busted! Like, for example, my experience with the stock stepper motors: http://softsolder.com/2011/05/05/thing-o-matic-mbi-stepper-motor-analysis/ It now produces good parts almost every time, although you must design parts with the printer's limitations in mind. The smallest feature will be a bit under 1 mm, you can put edges anywhere with resolution around 0.05 mm, it doesn't do steep overhangs very well at all, and the objects must fit in a more-or-less 100 mm cube. But you can print some truly odd things: http://softsolder.com/2011/05/02/what-would-barbie-pack/ The firmware doesn't apply acceleration limiting, which I regard as a major limitation on performance and dependability. I'd like to plug the motrors into EMC2 and whip up some HAL / ladder logic to control the extruder temperatures, but I've reached my tinkering limit for a while. DIY 3D printing is *definitely* not a plug-and-play experience! If you have nothing better to do for a while, my blog's Thing-O-Matic category may be amusing... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- EditLive Enterprise is the world's most technically advanced content authoring tool. Experience the power of Track Changes, Inline Image Editing and ensure content is compliant with Accessibility Checking. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ephox-dev2dev ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Monitor and control my CNC through an IP camera ?
On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 09:51 -0700, Kirk Wallace wrote: a page on the wiki covering the making of bellows. For those of us with Sherline mills and no flood coolant, plain old paper works surprisingly well. You don't form a deep emotional attachment to it, so throwing it out when it gets really crusty doesn't hurt at all... http://softsolder.com/2010/02/26/improved-sherline-way-bellows/ -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Forrester Wave Report - Recovery time is now measured in hours and minutes not days. Key insights are discussed in the 2010 Forrester Wave Report as part of an in-depth evaluation of disaster recovery service providers. Forrester found the best-in-class provider in terms of services and vision. Read this report now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/ibm-webcastpromo ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Beating Grub2 into submission
On Sat, 2011-04-09 at 21:41 -0400, Kent A. Reed wrote: Kudos, brickbats, big yawns, gleeful nitpicking, all willingly accepted, Well, here's a heaping double handful of kudos from me! Your script bottles up a whole bunch of magic that I certainly couldn't have figured out on my own. Thanks... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Forrester Wave Report - Recovery time is now measured in hours and minutes not days. Key insights are discussed in the 2010 Forrester Wave Report as part of an in-depth evaluation of disaster recovery service providers. Forrester found the best-in-class provider in terms of services and vision. Read this report now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/ibm-webcastpromo ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] multiple instances of emc?
On Sat, 2011-04-02 at 15:33 +0100, Steve Blackmore wrote: The custom kernel says edit menu.lst - doesn't exist any more The Grub2 file is /boot/grub/grub.cfg. It looks different, but gets basically the same treatment as Grub1's menu.lst. But it's actually worse than that. The grub.cfg file gets rewritten every time there's a kernel update; there's a warning at the top of the file to *not* hand-edit it. You're supposed to futz with the configuration files in (IIRC) /etc/grub that tell Grub2 how to automagically create grub.cfg as part of the kernel update. HOWEVER, I've been unable to figure out how to do something special with the RTAI-modified kernel: there's no way (that I can find) to *not* regenerate a standard kernel boot line for the RTAI kernel. So whenever I hand-edit grub.cfg, I add a note to the RTAI menu entry showing that it's decorated with isolcpus=1. After every kernel update, that note vanishes: it's time to edit grub.cfg again. Maybe there's a way to do that automagically, but ... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Create and publish websites with WebMatrix Use the most popular FREE web apps or write code yourself; WebMatrix provides all the features you need to develop and publish your website. http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-webmatrix-sf ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] manual tool change
On Fri, 2011-03-18 at 20:58 -0500, Jon Elson wrote: pre-measuring all your tools and entering the length offsets in the tool table, so you don't have to touch off at each tool change. Or you can add a tool length probe station and have tool length measurement happen automagically, without interrupting the program. You *definitely* need something far more rugged on a real milling machine in an actual machine shop, but the switch itself need not be more complex than a snap-action button: http://softsolder.com/2010/12/06/improved-tool-length-probe-switch/ The stability and repeatability are surprisingly good: http://softsolder.com/2010/12/07/improved-tool-length-probe-switch-repeatability/ http://softsolder.com/2011/01/15/improved-sherline-probe-length-switch-repeatability-selah/ When it comes time for a tool change, the G-Code does the G30 / Tx M6 dance and puts up a prompt. My ArmStrong tool changer swings into action; it finishes by whacking the spacebar to continue. A subroutine measures the new tool length, adjusts the offset, and the G-Code continues with a properly adjusted tool. That doesn't solve the my tool broke and I can't jog manually problem, but for my simple needs it's *wonderful*: swapping tools is no longer a major pain. One gotcha: Axis will occasionally leave the machine in the G59.3 coordinate system (which has absolute machine coordinates) after I interrupt the program, even if I interrupt it when G54 (which has the tool fixture offsets) should be active. This is most likely due to my misunderstanding of how coordinate systems work, not an intrinsic flaw. Highly recommended... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Colocation vs. Managed Hosting A question and answer guide to determining the best fit for your organization - today and in the future. http://p.sf.net/sfu/internap-sfd2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Single to Three Phase Rotary Converters
On Mon, 2011-03-14 at 11:00 +, andy pugh wrote: which caused some worrying sizzling noises. Obviously, your radio isn't turned up nearly loud enough... (Which helps with car repairs, too.) -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- Colocation vs. Managed Hosting A question and answer guide to determining the best fit for your organization - today and in the future. http://p.sf.net/sfu/internap-sfd2d ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Temperature Controller with nested PID loops
On Fri, 2011-02-18 at 19:53 -0800, Kirk Wallace wrote: I might not have to be the only one that's always right. I regard it as my solemn obligation to be one of the two dozen folks who are (almost) always wrong... after all, without me, how could you possibly look so good? [grin] -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Joypad button to tell axis to move?
On Thu, 2011-02-17 at 13:39 -0600, Igor Chudov wrote: I would like to use regular joypad buttons I did that with my Logitech gamepad: the joysticks do gradual motion and the buttons do on-off motion. This should get you started: http://softsolder.com/2010/10/23/logitech-gamepad-as-emc2-pendant-eagle-schematics-for-the-joggy-thing/ I wrote up a somewhat more elaborate version for Digital Machinist magazine. You can fetch the files (but not the article itself) from: http://www.digitalmachinist.net/files/downloads/2010Winter/DM%205.4% 20Nisley.zip There's a bit of trickery in that version to avoid some race conditions, but the overall logic is straightforward. As soon as I got it set up, there was no going back! -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Multiplexers
On Sun, 2011-02-13 at 07:59 -0600, John Thornton wrote: use a multiplexer to get 4 thermocouples into one MAX6675 Given the microvolt-level signals from a thermocouple, it's not clear the signal emerging from a multiplexer would bear more than a casual relation to the actual temperature. With any additional conductors / connectors in the middle of a run of thermocouple wire, each temperature gradient adds *another* thermocouple joint with its own voltage to the mix. An analog multiplexer adds several solder joints socket pins, each with its own temperature gradient, to the input and output signals. Inside the chip, the signal faces silicon offset leakage voltages that are about the same size as the thermocouple signals. While I'm sure multiplexing thermocouples can be done (nay, has been done), it's a nontrivial project to get *accurate* measurements out of the far end. The MAX6675 is actually a pretty good deal, considering that it goes directly from thermocouple microvolts to Celcius digital values: think of it as buying engineering expertise. DIY op-amp circuitry faces similar problems: while it can be done, *accurately* amplifying microvolt DC signals and stabilizing the result is a nontrivial project. If you do use MAX6675 chips in a situation where the thermocouple bead could contact a live wire, take this problem into account: http://softsolder.com/2011/02/06/thing-o-matic-mk5-extruder-protecting-the-thermocouple/ Sounds like you've got a fun project, though... -- Ed http://softsolder.com -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
