sugestions!

[watzmann]

Hi All ,

am building a cnc router as my graduation project with aa team of 4 collegues, but a part of my project is to build a program using any compilars of the available in the market.

am an average programmer using C# so for sure am going to build my program using C# but actually i don't have any idea about the function of that program , can anyone please advice me with any sugestions for building this program ?

i need any function even if it's a simple one , but surely i cannot build a G-Code generator as it required a high programming technique as i think .

hope to hear any sugestion !

[geoff p]

Surely you need to break the problem into its smallest elements: look at Mach2 (mach3), available as demos, and you notice that it is an 'interpreter' of G-code stuff. Mind you, as Art freely admits, it takes liberties with 'Windoze' to achieve the speed it does.
The g-code would normally be supplied from an external source, perhaps a drawing program or maybe hand-written.
Try to get hold of a copy of John Billingsley's 'DIY robotics and sensors', ISBN 0 946408 13 0. Whilst it was written for the BBC computer and is all BBC-Basic, the concepts are all there and I found it easy enough to translate to C (have never got around to C#). Your biggest problem will probably be slowing to begger down to suit the stepper motors.
Regards,
Geoff P

[watzmann]

i did that since one week i was watching mach3 demo tutorial , actually that helps alot.

but still looking to hear more sugestions

[Servo Wizard]

watzmann,

If one of the four of you possesses higher mathmatical skill then creating the motion path should not be a problem. If you're a C programmer then writing a G Code interpretor should not be a challenge. That leaves the generation of a pulse train, for that just call the ol' TimerProcess and you've got it.

Don't like that approach? Then just copy EMC's code like so many others have done.

I purchased some Galil DMC1800 series boards with the intentions of using them for CNC machine tool controllers. I totally dislike CamSoft and don't care for the other choices so that left no choices other than to write my own CNC machine tool control program. I had absolutely no programming experience so the project would be lesson #1 in programming. I wrote my own G code interpretor and Geometry processor and I find that to be far more rewarding than using code from another source.

If you REALLY WANT TO DO something then you'll do it, otherwise you'll talk about it.

Servo

[watzmann]

Originally Posted by Servo Wizard watzmann, If you REALLY WANT TO DO something then you'll do it, otherwise you'll talk about it. Servo

you are right!

[fractaledge3]

Hi Ali,
take a look to that links (w ed3eli don't forget).
http://www.homecnc.org/index.php/FCut
CNC Spirograph
and also to my old posts.

[fractaledge3]

Hi,
Other link (W ed3eli ziada).
Visual Basic Controller Project
kol sana w enta tyeb(Happy new year)

[watzmann]

Originally Posted by fractaledge3 Hi Ali, take a look to that links (w ed3eli don't forget). http://www.homecnc.org/index.php/FCut CNC Spirograph and also to my old posts.

so nice to meet an egyptain here , i sent you an private message

kol sana wentaa tayeb

[daedalus]

watzmann: what kind of programming do you excel at? Do you prefer emdedded / low level code or high level / gui work? How many of the 4 of you are programmers?

If this is a uni project, you might be better off not trying to reinvent the wheel, as it is a lot of work to produce 1/2 the result you would get with emc. Also the code you produce has very few real world applications (simply because there are so many machine controllers of various states of development).

Now from my experience of uni projects, you would be better off marks wise if you took emc, and worked on writing a more intuitive GUI / adding some more advanced features to the existing code. You benefit from showing a system that is genuinely better then everything out there (as no one else has your enhancements), you can contribute to a large opensource project, and it would be easy to do some user tests with your software vs vanilla EMC to prove your systems superiority.

The other benefit is that you are not dependant on the hardware working well to get your grade, as the software could be demonstated independently should something go wrong with the project. (and vice verca for the hardware guys).