[sudo-discuss] cnc pcb drilling

[Jake]

On Tue, 9 May 2017, Morgan Allen wrote:

> So we'll still be stuck using an ancient version of Linux? Meaning no
> Camtronics or any relatively new CNC software?

i don't care, we can use anything, just be aware that the MaxNC has its own
motor driver circuitry and doesn't do microstepping, although i suppose we
could bypass all that if someone bought a smoothieboard.

i don't know anything about how to use Camtronics or whatever.  It's not FOSS
so i'm not very interested in it.  I certainly don't think it would be a
problem if you wanted to use it.

If you want to connect the MaxNC to something other than a parallel port I am
down to help make that happen.

-jake

> On Tue, May 9, 2017 at 1:35 PM, Jake <jake at spaz.org> wrote:
>
>> i asked noisebridge if we can take the MaxNC and they seem to be OK with it,
>> i just need to go pick it up.
>>
>> https://noisebridge.net/wiki/MaxNCMill
>>
>> it works the same way as the cheap shitty MyDIYCNC that we have now, except
>> that this is a Real Machine and much more accurate.  As for untethering it
>> from the shitty old desktop, i have a mini computer with a parallel port
>> that can be attached to the back of the CNC, and then it can be used from
>> one's laptop via ssh with x-forwarding, or one can plug in a monitor and
>> keyboard, or use x11vnc or whatever
>>
>> but a smoothie board would be inappropriate since the MaxNC has its own
>> motor driver electronics, and only needs to be sent TTL signals (from a
>> parallel port or whatever) to step along in whatever direction.
>>
>> if you wanted to convert the MaxNC to something simpler, a regular arduino
>> with a g-code interpreter and a DB25M plug would work just fine to step it
>> around.
>>
>> -jake
>>
>>
>> On Tue, 9 May 2017, Morgan Allen wrote:
>>
>>> Took another crack at trying to drill through holes with the mini CNC.
>>> Short story, still doesn't work but I figured out why the origin/home is so
>>> far away, at least when using KiCAD.
>>>
>>> Notes: https://gitlab.com/snippets/1661557
>>>
>>> I would be nice to upgrade the CNC to use a Smoothie Board, doing away with
>>> the need to use Real-Time Linux, not sure if the owner would be keen, but
>>> at $45 I feel it would be a worthy investment.