OPEN SOURCE DIY CNC "thing"

[High Seas]

Greetings - Here is a new thread to assemble the "stuff" we've got going for the OpenSource DIY CNC - mother -of -all things.

The name need a little work - but we'll get plenty of help I'm sure!

Started this thread to give us a place to start the voulnteer list. Collected the following names from the other thread - and everyone have a review and validate or add your name, any thing you need to say, maybe even indicate any preferences as to which team(s) you'd like to be involved in

Please make sure you've had a read of the documents that follow:
the Roadmap;
the intro to IPT;
the Draft Charter; the Mission, Vision, Goals (draft),
and
Timeline.

These can be considered "DRAFT" and offer a baseline for discussion. That said, the sooner we settle on them, the sooner we get our project completed.

The thread pminmo started is comming along and represents the type of communications I believe we'll see.

[High Seas]

Please Review the following: This is the Charter - It what we'll be getting on about:

[High Seas]

This is a copy of previous posting (if you've read it before it shold be the same)

[High Seas]

Here is a sample of the proposed Mision, Vision and Goal statement for the effort. Teams will need to review, validate, develop, ratify, theirs and this set as well. Offered for our discussion and consideration.

[High Seas]

We need some sort of schedule to get things going and organized - here is a target we can all take a shot at:

Week 1
Within each Element:
Team members volunteer and choose the element(s) they wish to work in
Teams develop the organizational style they wish to operate in (flat, tree, nuclear, etc)
Teams develop a means for self assessment Team members identify the components and processes associated with their element "virtual brainstorming"
Team members develop a means of cataloging and recording their activities and findings
Team members identify their interfaces and constraints with adjacent elements
Teams allocate their resources (membership) to the tasks
Teams initiate a "test" communication with their adjacent element
Teams identify and correct any problems in the process

Week 2
Teams begin communication with each other
Identifing which team is the fixed constraint - and which team will record the information
Teams continue communications until the interface is fully documented for each Size and Style as identified in the
"Roadmap"

Week 3
Teams continue communication with each other
Teams continue cataloging and recording their activities
Teams begin developing alternatives and means to present their results
Teams begin integrating their results into alternative design "schemes"

Week 4
Teams begin assembling their final products
Teams/team members begin developing a draft set of mini-plans using their products

Week 5
Final preparation of product(s)

[High Seas]

I reviewed the posts from start to finish over the weeked and was very happy to see that we're getting new volunteers all along. I compiled a list (as of 04/18/04) and I may have a few off but ask for you to review and make your volunteer statenments on the following thread:


Volunteers to date - these have sotta clearly oput up their hands - but beofe getting too far down the track:

BENHILL
berin
cadesignr
CamIam
chuckknigh
Clyde
Hack
High Seas
lsfoils
teilhardo

Potential Volunteers - Have expressed interest - but not quite there in their posts - I read quickly though:

arvidb
dart70ca
Ferenczyg
HiString
JEFFY
ML1
mvaughn
samualt
vacpress

High Posters - You guys read a lot and post well too - any thoughts as to joining? Feel free to raise you hand.

Al_The_Man
MrChips
turmite
wbjzone
ynneb

Review the previous documents then raise you hand - The timeline, MVG, and charter are all in draft and subject to revision - I think we're pretty much settled on the structure (9 teams) though - any discussion though we ought to clear up before we go to far down the track.

Cheers - Jim

[Ferenczyg]

Count on me for the orange-cyan blocks of the cpt charter.


Fer

[CamIam]

i think i would be most helpful in the mechanicals, frame design style linear ways team. Kind of a nuts and bolts guy i guess.

[BENHILL]

Well I design electronics, I can wire a mains plug too...lol. I'm disabled, so I don't do running!

I can check ccts for those who may need that. Seems pointless to design a driver when others have such pro work almost finished.

Tell me what you want, & I'll see what I can do

[Ferenczyg]

Originally posted by BENHILL Seems pointless to design a driver when others have such pro work almost finished.

Agree 100%. Maybe good work can be providing a good one side pcb, easy to make and with components easy to locate.

Tell me what you want, & I'll see what I can do

Same for me, pls.

Fer

[berin]

We should get a show of hands on how to design the PCB electronics. A: what kind step or servo? Uni-polar or bipolar. My money is on step-unipolar just because its cheap and easy. You don’t have to worry about run away servos not to mention it doesn’t require a complex controller unlike the bipolar motors. The next thing is how to drive it? Straight phase control, or do we want to add a bit of logic? If we wanted to add a bit of logic. Adding 2 chip’s an xor and a flip-flop can make a nice 1-2-3-4 stepper controller. Even better it can add stepping control and direction from a source of just 2 pins. One for step one for direction. Plus it can be set for step or half step. The easiest would be by far 5408 or what every they are called series. But your limited by what you can do for power. So high power would require PnP power transistors.
Lastly do we want to brake up the step source and driver circuit. Or make one big all in one board? Broken up has an easy fix and repair design.

[Ferenczyg]

My first bet is for stepper+unipolar, because the cheaper electronics. But in a second look the only economic difference between a newbie unipolar board and a newbie bipolar board are twice power semiconductors for the bipolar, 4 for unipolar against 8 for bipolar, per axe. Below 10$ of difference per axe probably. Bipolar of course will be a little more complex due the H bridges etc. but can be useful for two types of motors, bipolars and bipolar wired unipolars.

For the electronics i thing that step/dir is better than phase control. Step/dir is the usual way of work for the proggies out there (turbocnc has phase control but this will limit the useful life of the board I think). For the logic I bet for take profit of the IC's already designed: allegro 5804 or ST297 for unipolar and ST297-298 pair for bipolar. All of them are cheap and easy to locate almost all over the world (sorry if not, but in my country is difficult to locate a lot of components, so my feel is that if any is here, is almost everywhere ).

Fer