Before we dismantle the acoustic microscope head, I'd love to figure out if we can use it to image any biological samples. Do we have a manual for that thing?

Also, I can't help but wonder how well this thing will deal with the sideways forces that a CNC needs to handle. It sure seems overengineered out the wazoo, but I bet it's optimized more for resolution and maybe scanning speed.

It'd be fun if we could use the ultrasound head to 3D carve some sandstone or plaster though... :-D

Patrik

On Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 3:48 AM, Jake <jake@spaz.org> wrote:
sudoroom needs a CNC milling machine!  well guess what, we already have one (no i don't mean the robot)

i'm talking about the big heavy CSAM thing that is sitting on the border between sudoroom and CCL.  It was made to image ICs in their package with ultrasonic probing, but nobody cares about that and it's a really nice big 3-axis platform anyway, so we might as well throw a rotary cutter on there and have a nice CNC mill/router.

what's missing?  Turns out it's just software.  The software that came with the ancient computer is very specifically written for raster-scanning integrated circuits with the ultrasonic probe (which works).

but we need software to take G-code and drive a cutting tool around on pieces of wood, so we can carve words into wood planks or whatever.

the motor controller for this machine is controlled by an ISA card inside the computer.  It is controlled through "ports" accessed by the CPU.  If we are unable to find software to take G-code and drive this ISA card (and i'm sure it's possible to find such software) we could just write our own software, to run in linux or DOS or whatever.  The computer is a 386.

Please try to find software for operating a CNC machine with this setup:
Parker Compumotor PC-23

here is the manual for the hardware we have, which lists lots of software stuff:

http://spaz.org/~jake/bxi/pc23_ug-servodriver.pdf

I haven't imaged the hard drive on the computer there, so i don't have everything backed up, and i haven't looked to see if there is handy software for driving the machine from G-code, but i doubt it's there.  The software that's there can move the machine around, but only for scanning CSAM.  If you want to play with it, let me know.  We can meet up at sudo.

-jake

someone has been here before:
http://www.programd.com/62_0e8487061f6729ba_1.htm
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