Electronic ball-screw compensation idea

[S_CNC]

Hi all,

I have been a hobby DIY CNC guy for many years. One one the major problems I have been having with is not having a good ballscrew compensation (well some software offers it, but I couldnt find one working well for me). So after spending a good amount of time, I was able to make a working prototype based on STM32 microcontroller to solve the issue.

1. There is no current controller software involved. So can be used with any software/controller
2. Simply connect the controller signals (step and direction pulses) to this circuit box and output goes to the motor controller.
3. You can calibrate the system (you will need a reference like glass scale or caliper depending on how well you want to calibrate)
4. You can have different calibration profile to compensate the temperature differences also.
5. This thing interpolates signals very fast. Can go upto feed - 8000 mm/s at the moment. Can be improved further.
6. Testes on Chinese ballscrews and works great.

Do you guys think if I make few items of this there will be a market for this kind of item? Is anyone interested in this kind of thing? Would love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

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[A_Camera]

Personally I find the accuracy of Chinese ball screws more than good enough for my needs. Quality improves all the time, but to a large scale depends on your supplier, and maybe some luck. Personally I would not buy it. However...

Life is about taking some risks. Why not make a few and test the market? Surely, it can't be that expensive to make a few. Try to sell those and you will see how fast they go, if they are sold very fast and you get some some positive feedback then you can make your mind up about larger scale outsourced production, or if you want to continue making on your own and selling on some sort of low(ish) scale as an income to finance your hobby. The later is what I decided to do regarding my own thing, which is not CNC related, but it sells well enough to finance my hobbies.

[109jb]

I agree. For hobby use the cheap ballscrews are likely more than adequate. I like the idea of screw mapping, but since it requires having a glass scale or similarly accurate scale to perform the mapping, it becomes a situation where if I needed that kind of accuracy, I would just go with a dual loop position feedback with the glass scale closing the second loop. This is one reason I would not buy.

Another reason I wouldn't buy is because LinuxCNC already has screw mapping built in and costs no extra. Since it is handled in the control software, nothing extra is needed between the controller and the motor drivers.