[Coco] [coco] Coco CNC

[George Ramsower]

From: <RJRTTY

> Gene, and anybody else interested go to:
>
>
> _http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/9263_
> (http://www.circuitspecialists.com/level.itml/icOid/9263)
>
> They also have all kinds of accessories for building CNC
> machines.   Maybe they can help you out George.....
>
> Roy


 There are plenty of resources available for DIY machinists such as I'm 
working on. However, they are doing something different than my design goal 
which is to totally operate this machine with a coco. No external logic 
controllers or help in any way. This is in line with the way the ORC90cc 
worked or the bit banger RS-232 port.
 My objective is to do each and every step of the operation, without the 
assistance of outside electronics other than power transistors that do the 
work that the logic level outputs of the coco can handle.
 I've considered many of the resources that are available. None are free and 
very few can be easily interfaced to the coco or even speed it up... much.
 I'm sure I could use these things, such as motor drivers. However, they 
offer little benefits in my application. They would require extra circuit 
design and effort to make them work. My concept was to make it as simple as 
possible. Speed is not an issue.
 As such, this project is going pretty much as planned and I'm really 
pleased with the results. I've actually had to slow things down a bit for 
the dremmel.

 Now that's difficult to imagine..... slowing the coco down so something 
could keep up.. but, there it is.

 I knew the coco could step the motors as fast as the dremmel could keep up. 
It turns out I was wrong. I have one of the finest dremmels available and it 
will choke if I let the coco running with B09 go as fast as it can.
 Rapid moves, such as simply moving from point A to point B and then begin 
grinding is painfully slow, as the dremmel doesn't have to do anything at 
that point. So if I were in a hurry, this would be an issue.
 Since I'm not trying to manufacture hundreds of parts a day with this 
setup, it's not an issue. Therefore, I can go smoke a cigarette, fix a 
sandwich, watch the news and drink a beer while this thing is doing the 
project. I might even take a nap. ( once I have it working so that I COULD 
do that)

 You get the idea? I'm not in a hurry and if it takes a long time, I'll live 
with it.

 Once I get in a hurry, then it's time for a more modern computer and 
peripherals to make it faster. Meanwhile, what I have is fine and I'm really 
happy with the way it's turning out.

 This is so much fun, I just can't live with myself. If I were married to 
me, I would want a divorce. HAH!

 Really, I'm so damned happy with this setup, that it's difficult to get it 
out of my head long enough to take care of my other duties

 The power of Basic09 and the coco makes all this possible for me. The 
software grows(as does all software) and gets better and more accurate. As I 
learn this thing, it becomes more exciting and challenging.
 Even though I'm already machining parts(for the mill), I am anxious to make 
a part for something else, such as my next steam engine.These plans are 
already in place, but I NEED this CNC machine to make them happen. I don't 
think I can do this on my manual mill, even with the digital readouts I've 
installed on it. Not with the precision I can do with this Coco powered 
mill. Believe it or not, I can do it faster on this coco powered machine 
than I can on the manual mill because on the manual mill, I have to watch 
the readouts, all three of them, and carefully position each axis to where 
they should be. A CNC machine just goes there and does it's thing, 
mindlessly and without error, even if it isn't what you wanted.... if you 
programmed it wrong.

  So far, I have only crashed three times while milling the X slide slot and 
lead nut pocket. They didn't hurt anything and all is well. But I've learned 
on this and, with luck, I won't do those mistakes again.  .... Such as ..... 
there's a difference between .005 and .05  QUITE A DIFFERENCE!!. Miss a zero 
and OOOPS!!