Now that the milling machine is under PC control, I need a road map of what further changes I am going to make to it.
– E-Switch
– Continuity switch for detecting edge of parts (and determining the height/location of the tool)
– Limit Switches
– Spindle Control (both speed and on/off)
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Found an interesting item. A 15″ touch screen monitor, for about $35. That’s awesome!
And could make an interesting interface to Mach3 for the CNC conversion.
Work has been progressing on a newer version of the AF Assistant. The next incremental version (v3.2) will be made using surface mount components, and extra safety precautions have been added to protect the camera from any unwanted electrical signals.
Both inputs from the camera are isolated using buffers, and the ground is protected against reverse voltage.
Testing on this new design should start soon, and once complete all new AF Assistants will be built using this process.
I’ve decided to use the version 3.x set of identifiers for my AF Assistant as the one battery, line laser based system. Plan is to also develop a near IR version of this tool, and that will be version 4.x.
So for now all current development of the one battery, line laser model will fall under the 3.x naming designation.
First try I did not get eagle to install in a 64bit linux OS.
Gave up and installed it on a Win7 VM instead so I could start using it.
Tried again today, and figured it out.
The error I was getting initially was
/tmp/eagle-setup.16234/eagle-6.1.0/bin/eagle: error while loading shared libraries: libjpeg.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The reason this message came up was because I needed to have the 32bit version of libjpeg-8 library installed. By default I guess opensuse only installs the 64bit version (since I’m running a 64bit OS).
Just had to go in the Yast -> Package Manager and search for libjpeg, and select the 32bit version of the libjpeg-8 libraries.
http://www.sonsivri.to/
Log of CNC conversion : http://jmillerid.com/wordpress/tag/g0704/
Prototyping boards were never at the top of my priority list when spending money. The cheapest thing I could find would suffice. The most I had previously spent on a prototyping board was seven or eight dollars from local electronics surplus stores. They did the job.
However in the fall of 2011 I picked up a $24 prototyping board (PB-10 by Global Specialities ) from Newark since my old board was giving me hassles. The problem I started having with the cheapo prototyping boards was that wires would get stuck in the hole, and would require a lot of force to yank out, and some paths just totally stopped working.
The PB-10 is a great. The insertion force is minimal, nothing gets snagged in the holes, and the battery posts are fantastic. No more battery contacts pulled out and accidentally whipped across expensive components.
Have built a couple of projects on this board, and I don’t think I will cheap out again on a prototyping board.
It’s the little things that make a development project work smoothly.
UPDATE: Work has indeed started on the (near) IR version of this tool. Details on the AF Assistant IR 1.0 (in early development stages) can be found here.
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Right from the get go, i wasn’t the happiest with the v3.0 design (see v3.0 link for details of why I built this, and previous version history) of the AF assistant. The main concern i had with it was the sloppiness of the case, and the extra cables that were required (which some of you commented about on the hack-a-day post).
So I did some searching around at local electronics shops and came across a small case that has a battery compartment for one AA battery. Digikey also sells a version of the case in black, which I will grab for the next upgrade. Much sleeker then cream colored on a black camera, though more expensive then the $0.25 I paid for the cream colored cases.
About the same time, i received an order from DealExtreme for some line lasers i had ordered some time ago. So I put together a circuit based on the v3.0 design (plugs in the side of the camera in the remote trigger port) and i have added a dc-dc boost voltage regulator that takes any voltage (0.7volts and higher) and turns it into a constant 3.3volts (based on suggestions from the hack-a-day post comments). This is perfect since that means that regardless of what battery i use, (1.5v alkaline or 1.2v NiMH rechargeable battery) i can get a constant voltage to drive the line laser. Continue reading