CNC Mill + NES Controller + Arduino = Awesomeness!

[edward.ford]

This is nothing revolutionary, but maybe a few people will get a kick out of it.

I've been running my DIY CNC with an Arduino and recently hooked up an NES controller to "jog" the machine around with.

[Riceburner98]

Awesome! I've got one of those GIANT NES controllers (the one that's about 10" across with the big joystick) sitting around, every time I walk by it I think "gee, that would make an interesting control pendant". LOL!! I was going to build an Atmel processor into my breakout board, ran out of time and left it off to get the machine working. Good stuff! What's up with the X axis though, is it supposed to make that noise?

[edward.ford]

Thanks! As far as the X axis goes: It's jacked and has been since I tried dropping a new bearing in, LOL.

I tried boring the hole out to fit a larger OD bearing and being that my drill press has a ton of runout and I was trying to do it to MDF... well it didn't work out so smooth.

I'm basically just using this frame to finish up my R&D and hoping to have a new set of parts cut in the next 6 weeks. Besides that *horrible!* noise, it's working OK

[ihavenofish]

neat. i have been looking at the arduino for a stepper control function recently.

im curious how fast it can run. mach we know is limited to 100khz for pulse rate, and works best at 45khz or less. what can the arduino push out?

thanks

[edward.ford]

I'll start off by saying that I'm not an expert by any means. Just a dude thats pretty passionate about both the arduino and DIY CNC!

For the sketch you see in the video:
I have the delay between pulses set to delay(200); this is because speed profiling is not setup and as everyone knows you can't just start a stepper at top speed so in order to prevent stalling the motor out while running it with the NES controller, I opted to just run it at a medium speed. What you're seeing the Z and Y axis do is about 60-70% of their max rapid speed.

For the embedded program (grbl) that actually parses gcode:
At the current time, we have not experienced any stalling problems that were related to the Atmega168 not keeping up. Sort of amazing really.

Right now we have the duration of the step pulse set to 5 microseconds which figures out to a 100,000 pulses per second (with a 5 microsecond delay between pulses).

[ihavenofish]

Originally Posted by edward.ford I'll start off by saying that I'm not an expert by any means. Just a dude thats pretty passionate about both the arduino and DIY CNC! For the sketch you see in the video: I have the delay between pulses set to delay(200); this is because speed profiling is not setup and as everyone knows you can't just start a stepper at top speed so in order to prevent stalling the motor out while running it with the NES controller, I opted to just run it at a medium speed. What you're seeing the Z and Y axis do is about 60-70% of their max rapid speed. For the embedded program (grbl) that actually parses gcode: At the current time, we have not experienced any stalling problems that were related to the Atmega168 not keeping up. Sort of amazing really. Right now we have the duration of the step pulse set to 5 microseconds which figures out to a 100,000 pulses per second (with a 5 microsecond delay between pulses).

so it could actually deliver the pulses mach can... dependent of course on if you can make the data that quickly.

interesting. thanks.

my application is not for a machine control, but now im curious if this could be used a cheap and cheerful usb interface for mach.

[edward.ford]

now im curious if this could be used a cheap and cheerful usb interface for mach.

Indeed! We have already used it as a "cheap and cheerful" USB interface for EMC2. It's fantastic.

One of the problems we run into with both Mach and EMC (and most of the others, including turbo) is they all depend on an LPT port! Those are getting harder and harder to come by. So yes, arduino + grbl = a great USB interface for interpreting step/dir commands.

[ihavenofish]

Originally Posted by edward.ford Indeed! We have already used it as a "cheap and cheerful" USB interface for EMC2. It's fantastic. One of the problems we run into with both Mach and EMC (and most of the others, including turbo) is they all depend on an LPT port! Those are getting harder and harder to come by. So yes, arduino + grbl = a great USB interface for interpreting step/dir commands.

mmmm. now im gonna have to learn more and see what i can do with it.

[ninja87]

Love the controller idea. I was going to put a couple buttons on mine i.e whenever i am going to build a cnc. Simple and useful add on!

[marzetti]

Indeed! We have already used it as a "cheap and cheerful" USB interface for EMC2. It's fantastic.

Do tell me more! I use EMC2 and would really like to utilize USB.

[ckirchen]

Is it just me or is anyone else wondering what would happen if you hit "up up down down left right left right b a start"?

[stangtjk]

Cheater!!!