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Table of Contents
Frame & Motion Stage
Based on the C-Beam Machine kit from Openbuilds.com: https://openbuildspartstore.com/openbuilds-c-beam-machine/
Steve and Jeff assembled it following the video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVR8pABCHXI
Electronics
We're using a “Mach 3” interface board, which connects to a PC parallel port. It looks similar to this one: https://www.hobbytronics.co.za/p/473/mach3-opto-isolated-parallel-interface-break-out-board
The interface board provides enable, step, and direction signals to the three stepper driver modules, which are M542 units:
http://www.americanmotiontech.com/products/productdetail.aspx?model=m542-cnc-stepper-drive-50v-4.2a
The interface board also has inputs that can be connected to limit and emergency-stop switches.
Control Software
The control PC is running centos linux with the CCRMA real time kernel http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/
We're using LinuxCNC to drive the interface board. http://linuxcnc.org/
LinuxCNC's job is to take a file containing G-Code instructions, and feed them to the stepper motors to move the cutting tool along the paths specified by the G-code.
CAM Software
To be determined.
Simple G-code can be written by hand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-code
We can get a free/student version of MasterCAM with a voucher code from FIRST
We might try openbuilds CAM which I think is a web-based thing. https://cam.openbuilds.com/