[Coco] moving files on bootup >> leading to that CNC Cocomachine

[Gene Heskett]

On Saturday 02 February 2008, Joel Ewy wrote:
>George,
>
>I think what you're doing is very cool, and I'd love to see the BASIC09
>code when you're done, if you're willing to share.  I built a CNC drill
>press from Dan Mauch's plans in 'Nuts &Volts' in the early '90s.  Didn't
>actually build it myself till '98.  I had been using DANCAD/DANCAM on an
>old Epson '286 laptop to run the thing until recently, and I've
>installed Ubuntu/EMC2 on an older Pentium 4 system which I intend to use
>next.

Its a great system Joel, I run kubuntu-6.06 with rtai kernels, emc, currently 
2.2.3, on an old AMD xp1400, using the xylotex drivers and 262 oz motors on a 
micromill you can see at <http://gene.homelinux.net:85/gene/emc>
Obviously that mill isn't exactly the way it came out of the crate.  I turned 
the power head and built the Z axis drive you can see.  Also the gun cabinet.
That xp-1400 is 4x overkill for this, but I can talk to the emc author guys on 
freenode #emc, browse the web, can carve parts all at the same time.

It would run nearly as well on a 400 mhz AMD K6-II box.  That's $20 goodwill 
stuff.

>But I love the idea of running a CNC machine with OS-9.  I'm 
>tempted to try building my own 68K machine for that purpose.  (I'd be a
>bit scared to try using the MM/1.)  It probably won't ever happen, but
>who knows?

An amiga 2000 or 4000 with a 68040 or 68060 accelerator might have enough 
power for that.  OS stability is not its strong point though.

>JCE
>
>George Ramsower wrote:
>> Before someone replies with:
>>
>> Live Linux CNC or some other thing similar to that. I should point out
>> that this whole coco system is fabricated with "STUFF" I've had laying
>> around in boxes. It cost nothing to build except my time. This is a
>> hobby and it's fun. Hard work, but fun nonetheless.
>> I've put a lot of thought to this project and I've decided that once
>> it's done, I've made a part or two, then I will probably do the Live
>> Linux CNC thing and buy the stepper motor controllers and all that and
>> get to some faster, more powerful work.
>> I have to prove it can be done on a coco first. Period.
>>
>> THIS IS FUN!
>>
>> After all, isn't that what attracts us to the Coco in the first place?
>>
>> George
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "George Ramsower"
>>
>>> Okay!
>>>
>>> Once I snapped that piping dsave to shell did the trick(thanks to
>>> Robert Gault for reminding me), this little snag was done. Although
>>> I'm not ready for it yet, I am planning for the future.
>>> This is part of a larger project that I brought up several months ago
>>> about using a Coco to control a Mirco Milling Machine. The extreme
>>> time since then is because I've tossed the whole idea of using ball
>>> bearing slides on the machine and have totally redesigned and
>>> fabricated a new machine. This has taken some time. The coco has just
>>> been waiting for this to happen and I haven't had much time to work
>>> on the software. Now that I've got the machine/mechanical parts
>>> almost ready, I'm actually using the coco and the machine to do some
>>> milling and drilling to finish the darned thing.
>>> I've impressed myself with the way it's working. (Pat myself on my
>>> own back). I did some checking on backlash and accuracy and I am
>>> proud to say that each of the three(X, Y and Z) axis are pretty cool.
>>> Backlash is is less than .0004 inches and accuracy over the entire
>>> length of travel is within .0015 inch.
>>> Most of the inaccuracy in the total length is because of the way I
>>> was doing the math when I move it in such a way that leaves fractions
>>> of steps and those steps were getting out of sync with the real
>>> position and the cheap lead screws which are nothing more than "all
>>> thread rods".  So, I'm working on converting actual, desired
>>> positions and then converting that number to the stepping of the
>>> motors to get to that point. This will help, but will not compensate
>>> for the threaded rods.
>>>
>>> This is not easy to explain.
>>>
>>>
>>> Anyway...... I also discovered that in Basic09, using While/Endwhile
>>> is faster than stomping through those steps using FOR / NEXT.
>>> While/Endwhile is actually easier to use also!!
>>>
>>> WOW! I gotta tell ya, this is a learning experience.
>>>
>>> The plan on using Dsave to a ram drive is that when I build a design
>>> to machine a part, the computer should get the control
>>> commands(hopefully G-Code) from the ram drive and then execute those
>>> commands. Of course, the ram disk needs to be quick. I can now use
>>> Dsave to save the ramdisk back to the floppy when I shutdown the
>>> operation. Otherwise, the software will rely on the ramdisk to
>>> operate. I can delete files manually, so this isn't an issue.
>>>
>>> I'm constantly amazed how powerful OS9 and Basic09 is. Not quite fast
>>> enough, but still very powerful.
>>>
>>> Gene Heskett said the other day."a coco doing actual work!"
>>>
>>> Well, here it is...... almost.
>>>
>>> George
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Coco mailing list
>>> Coco at maltedmedia.com
>>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>>
>> --
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>> http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
>
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-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
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