The illusive Boxford 260vmc

[i2i]

there is the old "burst the bubble" way to look at this. Why do you need a spindle tacho on the machine, when it shows you on the monitor what speed the spindle is doing. But most of all, you should know what speed it's going as you would have written the code.

[Ricardoco]

Well as i have said having a the ability to axis jog without using the PC appeals to me and having a nice RED led display of the speed of the spindle i think is a nice feature, and the other features that irving has mentioned is just a bonus. Besides which i like buttons so there :heehee:

[Ricardoco]

But most of all, you should know what speed it's going as you would have written the code.

Ahh yes but there is the speed mach is telling the motor it should be doing and there is the actual speed at the spindle which is what i am after for reference..

IE, belt snaps Mach says 2000rpm, actual spindle at tool 0 rpm.

[i2i]

Ahh yes but there is the speed mach is telling the motor it should be doing and there is the actual speed at the spindle which is what i am after for reference..

IE, belt snaps Mach says 2000rpm, actual spindle at tool 0 rpm.

You're still thinking manual, you've got to get on the cnc bandwagon and trust the machine.

[irving2008]

Thats a cool idea, in fact i wanted to put some axis jog buttons on the front panel as well so maybe i should consider a pic circuit based control panel along with the speed controller, im ok with writing the program i think (ive spent many a wee small hour with my copy of pic basic pro and a 16f877) but im not sure what the input format would be from the speed pickup and the output to the drivers, this is where my knowlege is lacking im afraid.

and thats not to mention how to do an interface that wont mess up Mach short of having a switch that swapped out all the lines lol. so if we are going down the DIY road im going to need to pick many brains!!!!

Interfacing is my speciality, ask away....

pic basic pro... hmmm, ok if you must lol... I'm a C man myself but can program in anything sensible... pic basic is interpreted I think, so not sure if you can get 'real-time' enough to do accurate inter-pulse timing, tho will depend on the PIC clock speed of course.

[Ricardoco]

Interfacing is my speciality, ask away....

pic basic pro... hmmm, ok if you must lol... I'm a C man myself but can program in anything sensible

Ok C it is if thats what you call it,lol, i will have to dig out all my software now ......

[irving2008]

Ok C it is if thats what you call it,lol, i will have to dig out all my software now ......

Yes, well sadly its not C#, but its still preferable to that basic stuff (reignites 1980's programmers flame wars lol)

[irving2008]

Who uses a text editor?... HiMem C for the PIC is a full IDE, with colour highlighting, in-circuit debugging, stack and variable tracing... I reckon I can match pic basic for time to executable on any reasonably complex real-world task (i.e. one requiring real hardware, interrupts, comms handling, etc.) making an LED flash is not a real world program!

but we digress......

BTW a PIC to handle the jog buttons and convert to keystrokes for MACH3 would save on extra input lines and the need to add another parallel port....

[Ricardoco]

Who uses a text editor?.......

I have,, many times.:confused:

HiMem C for the PIC is a full IDE, with colour highlighting, in-circuit debugging, stack and variable tracing.......

Not used it myself, in fact ive never used 'C' of any description for programming a Microcontroler.

I reckon I can match pic basic for time to executable on any reasonably complex real-world task (i.e. one requiring real hardware, interrupts, comms handling, etc.) making an LED flash is not a real world program!....

Yes I dont doubt that for a moment, but then you are obviosly quite intelligent and thats why i said, "many people just dont have a desire or mental capacity" in fact what I meant was "MOST" not "many":heehee: and also "time to executable can be faster with the other languages" the important word being CAN.

BTW a PIC to handle the jog buttons and convert to keystrokes for MACH3 would save on extra input lines and the need to add another parallel port....

I will have two parallel ports on the machine but thats just because I have two, not because it will need them both.

The thing is i will have to do some serios reading before im finished writing this code, because although I have had experience with both PICS and 'C', this has not been a vast amount, and never together. Ive never used them to interpret inputs and outputs to mach or even a PC parallel port, unlike yourself i think it would be safe to say.

I would like to thank you for speaking to me about this on an equal basis, however it is not equal, as your knowlege of all these subjects is obviosly way ahead of mine, however im willing to learn from you and indeed have already.

[ecat]

HiMem C always looked nice, for my sins I chose SourceBoost when playing with C on the 16f. Big mistake, a lot of time fighting the compiler.

These days I'd recommend using an 18f device and the free MicroChip IDE, makes for a solid combination and opens up a vast collection of sample code. A little work reading through the MicroChip documentation gives you the added benefit of source code compatibility with the newer pic32 series so if you ever need extra speed (80MHz!), io, memory, graphical user interface lol... heh, pic32 maybe overkill but it sure is sweet :)