Opensource CNC

[vacpress]

In addition, i keep waiting to find "opensource cnc" or soething similar

a real, organized effor to make some great quality opensource hardware and software available.. not cad\cam packages, but things like digitizing systems, 4,th,5th,6th axis designs, PCBs for all the important electrical components. I know there is interest in this. I will post more about it. If someone would donate some webspace, we could start.. And also use surceforge resources... Im sure we allready have alot of designs, they jsut need to be put together in a good format and tested by multiple users..

Good, easy to create PCB designs would be usefull. I have lots of stuff to contribute. Links to examples forthcomming.

Just a thought..

Robert Guyser
www.vacuumstudios.com/rg.html

[pminmo]

Count me in, I've got a driver board for a 5408. http://webpages.charter.net/pminmo/CNC/5804channel.jpg

Working on one for a 3977 chopper driver. Pcb's are made, In debug.

Personally I'd like to see some effort into a standard established, that uses the parrallel port interface as designed, with a edge clocked strobe to latch the output data. That way software developers could have a common driver if they wanted. Would o aid in the Widows NT/2000/xp kernel world, so it would become less dependent on other cocnurrent running threads.

Phil

[vacpress]

I am fairly experienced with web design.. If someone would donate webspace, i would register a domain and setup a site.. Or maybe sourceforge would be good place.


Sourceforge is amazing

[ynneb]

A fantastic idea. Power to the people.
I can offer web storage but not a domain as such.
There is already a domain name for this site so it would have to be a sub domain at this stage.

But upon thinking, this whole forum is an open source domain. Why not post all your specs and articals here? I am sure the admin here would set up whatever was needed, they seem very willing to help out with all sorts of requests.

Surely it is better to keep every thing in one place?

[vacpress]

that would be jsut fine, and it would also give the projects exposure to the very experienced people on this board. I will have to go over to sourceforge and look at how they organize projects. And maybe someone could setup a pole to see what the best first project(s) would be.



This is an unfinished example of some of my work I could contribute. I have 6 or 7 projects like this. some are much more finished

http://www.vacuumstudios.com/vformer.htm


robert

[Mariss Freimanis]

Well, we are doing just that. It is the G2002 project.

It is an open source 6-axis, USB powered (remember, parallel ports and com ports are disappearing soon), 32-bit general purpose I/O all run by a Rabbit Semiconductor module. Right now it is running true 3-D vectors, constant contouring of anything you can draw in ACAD. Unlimited step pulse frequencies, (>4MHz) in 8 freq ranges of 65,536 evenly spaced velocities with 1,024 vectors per second on 6 simultaneous axies.

Open source means the schematics are open source, the firmware code (Z80 super-set) is open source as is the principle of operation.

It is open to everyone but CNC firmware developers are particularly welcome. The hardware is designed, it works perfectly but firmware is a work in progress.

Please visit the Yahoo Group "geckodrive" if you are interested. Go to www.***********.com to get there if you aren't already a member.

See the "files" and "photos" section of the group to get oriented. Open the "G2002 Manifesto.txt" from the files section for a quick overview.

Mariss

[vacpress]

When real electronics gurus are around, i am never the person to goto. I am most skilled at industrial design. I could put a pretty case around the thing?


I will check it out for sure. Sounds like 1 key component.

So this device is an interpreter? No more mach 2 or truboCNC?


Or is it a pulse generator that reads a processed G-code?
Ive heard some reference to it..

[Mariss Freimanis]

Presently it reads ASCI text files using a gerber format, which is a close but simple G-Code cousin. An example: *X1234567Y0Z98* means "move X to 123.456 inches, Y to 0 inches and Z to 0.0098 inches.

It would solve the trignometry to move from where ever it is in 3-D to that 3-D X,Y,Z location. The resulting motion would be a constant 3-D vector velocity of exquiste accuracy and smoothess.

The point is not to write another G-Code interpreter. There are plenty of very good ones around that very talented people have poured their efforts into. Rather, it is to develop a vector based motion engine that gives performance beyond anything a PC can do. You supply the co-ordinates, it supplies the best possible flawless motion.

Mariss

[owhite]

I'm all for the idea, let me just say that sourceforge is not that desireable.

I have had to use it in several capacities. I have a project related to my professional area, (I run a group of about 40 scientists and software engineers) and the software engineers really wanted to avoid using it. The server itself is falls down frequently.

But the sourceforge interface even when working is really over-engineered to the point of not being useful.

Bear in mind that you all are also talking about sharing hardware like resources and I dont think its really set up for those kinds of use-cases.

I have a second comment that I think I'll put into another post...

Owen

[owhite]

Why not just use this site? It has an administrator that is showing incredible talent. It has lots of capability for managing storing files, technical reports, and the running commentary that is really important for any type of open source project. I think we're basically talking about storing files describing hardware, documentation, pictures, and "bug" reports which amount to people posting on different threads.

So let me ask the question this way: what is it that this site lacks that we would need to have a full blown open source cnc hardware/software site?

[owhite]

Originally posted by Mariss Freimani
Well, we are doing just that. It is the G2002 project.

It is an open source 6-axis.... Mariss

Mariss,

this sounds really amazing and I'll definitely have a look at the project, but there is also room for similar electronic projects -- I have examples in mind of my own work where I'm building a simple "jam circuit" which is if any of several inputs reflect that a switch it reports which circuit went out and also sends a signal to e-stop. so that's just an example but eventually could turn into a useful accessory to the g2002 system.

You would probably agree that it would be valuable to develop a culture of multiple contributors to open source hardware. We'd want a site that collected information on lots of projects like the g2002, yes?

Owen

[vacpress]

Ohwhite- exatcly


the G2002 project is very ambitious and looks set to release a very interesting piece of hardware on the "scene". A very complex, piece of hardware.

I would love to hear about the g2002 development experience and how it could help dictate setting up a good collaboration system for getting some of these projects goin.

I have seen very high quality work allready on the net. chopper drivers, linear bearings, etc. have all been well designed and implemented by many DIYers - and their designs have been given away for free - fabulous.

What we need is perhaps a style sheet and norms to present these projects in a format that is useable. I always jsut use the best pieces of these ideas I find because you never know what changes havent been made to the documentation that are required for proper operation.


Also - im glad to see the interest - If there is server space offered, I will gladly donate 4 or 5 hours to either integrate it into this message board and make it a file drop, or to make it its own autonomous "OPENCNC.org" or whatever

Robert