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MACH3 lets you completely HACK up your own CNC controller!
00:16 11/11/2006 |
| What sets apart Mach3 from many other CNC controller programs is how extensively it allows you to configure it. While most other CNC programs may let you set a few preferences, Mach allows you to totally rescript everything (with embedded scripting, you can literally expand it with your own subprograms) - set up your own triggers, build your own screen layouts, and interface with your own devices. The fact that it runs on Windows rather than, say DOS or LINUX, means there is support for modern technologies like USB interface devices.
All of this is very important to me, because I want to build more than just a simple console with an embedded keyboard and display - I want my own custom panels, with real switches, buttons, meters, jog-wheels, and LED indicators! I want an interface which is perfectly designed to let me use my mill effectively whether I'm running a CNC program, or using the jog-wheels to "cyber-mill" it by hand.
And I'm going to show you how I do it, too. |
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Step 1: The basic console
00:28 11/11/2006 |
Some things have tolerances built into them - a MM here or there is taken up in the slack and no-one is any the wiser. But not control panels - by nature they're tactile, you feel, touch, scrutinize them. Basically, I want one large wooden work-surface with several metal panels on it.
Control Panels
.Industrial PC screen(a protected VGA flat-panel monitor)
.Industrial Keybd/Mouse (protected)
.Main run panel (start/stop/pause/emergency-stop/spindle etc)
.X panel (manual jog-wheels, DC power-usage meter, status LED, on/off)
.Y panel
.Z panel
.A/B axis panel(future, for controlling rotary tables or tangental knife controls)
The first thing I realized was that while the keyboard and display panels were easy to do (basically square) I would not be able to make the specialized control panels by hand (with all the buttons/knows/meters/dials) very well with my mill in it's current state. In fact, they would look horrible. Therefore, I decided to do the display/keyboard/mouse first, get the mill running and then use CNC to make these specialized panels, clean, reliably, and most importantly repeatably - especially since the X/Y/Z panels are exactly the same!
I won't go into the details of the wood-working as the pictures are pretty self-expanatory if you have read my prior section (the CNCloset) on my woodworking tricks. Basically I built up a nice surface from pine, stained, and varnished it. |
| My friend made a nice bezel for the screen, so I could cut a larger (and horribly inaccurate) hole in the wood and it wouldn't matter as the bezel, being larger, would obscure it. In the picture above you can see it with silicon-rubber drying to seal the gaps around the inside. (still a bit messy, but I'll clean it up when the silicon dries) With a bit of work, and a few cutouts, the screen and industrial keybd/mouse are installed. |
| The main "console" is hinged into the CNCloset, so that it can be folded in or out. I still have to devise a locking mechanism so that it stays locked in the out position. The idea is that the closet doors can close around it when it's folded in, thus reducing the size of the footprint. It's at exactly the right height that you can slide a chair in under it and sit comfortably at it like a desk.
In the last pic you can see it folded in. It's slightly narrower than the doors so it can only be deployed when they are in the fully-open position. The doors are off at the moment as I install it. The next step is the most frustrating though - doing nothing more on the console, while I get the rest of the mill running! |
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