I am getting back into feedback control systems. This was one of the topics in engineering school that really fascinated me but that was covered at such a theoretical level it was always kinda voodoo to me - plus the teacher sucked. Well I am learning it control theory and control systems don;t have to be mystical. There is a great YouTube series I am working through - http://www.youtube.com/user/ControlLectures?feature=watch
Anyhoo, I am not getting into this randomly. My brother is getting into ROVs and AUVs, he is working in navel salvage Actually the biggest navel salvage ever attempted. He is like 2nd in command, you know, el hefe - heavy duty.
So I was looking into these under water robots when I remembered that this is where I got started with mirco controllers. It was like circa 2007 when I had the idea it would be fun to build a model submarine, use some radio controlled motors and such, build it from PVC pipe. Well, that led me to Google, and yeah lots of people had the same idea. Still nothing noew under the sun. Well one search led to another and soon I was turned on to the guys over at Nerd Kits. The rest is history, but it is funny that I am coming back around to using micro controllers to control a hobby AUV/ROV, and will probably need a feedback control system to bring it all together.
More to come, I hope.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
What do you use that for?
Nothing much new on any specific project, still working on getting the laser running "good". Talking to the guy in Istanbul who sold it. Getting tech support from someone in another country, in a different time zone, speaking a different language, is both frustrating and damn cool.
This post is just a couple quick thoughts.
- What do you use that for?
- Do you really need 4 routers?
- What do you need a lathe for?
- What is that thing?
I hear these kinda things from friends and family, a lot - use to hear it from Kelly but she gave up asking a long time ago. I have alluded to this kinda questioning in past posts. I am always just so confused when confronted with this line of questioning. It is not that I can't answer, it is more that I just don't typically find this way thinking useful.
There are two problems with this mind set. The first is more ideological (philosophical?) You don't need a reason to explore something that interests you, or something that you could learn from. Damn near everything I tinker with falls in this category. I don't have am immediate need for a 1800 pound metal lathe. Or a very low power inaccurate laser engraver, or a 1944 Farmall H. But they all get my juices flowing, and I learn something new every time I play with them. We, you know us humans, learn by experience best, not by rote. So every experience shapes and changes our view. John Dewy wrote about his idea, or at least that's what I have taken away from for what little I have read. And I am still reading him. Reading Dewy is I guess no different than playing with my pottery wheel. I do throw a little clay then go do something else. Then come back to the pottery wheel.
But the other problem here is more pragmatic, or concrete. Lets assume you understand I like to build stuff. So when you build things you have tools and materials. Typically we work with the tools we have and the materials we are comfortable with, or that fit with our tool set. If you have a table saw, jointer, and planer, you probably work in wood. And if you need a work bench you would probably fashion it from wood. Likewise if you have a welder, grinder, and cut off saw, you probably work in metal. You get the idea, and this is OK. But if you can expand your tool set, or your material choices then you might find yourself making something new. So while I might not have needed a lather for the last 10 years it doesn't mean I won't find a use for it, and I will probably start to finding ways of making stuff with the lathe, just cause now it will be another tool in the tool belt.
That's all I have to say about that.
Share on Reddit!!!
This post is just a couple quick thoughts.
- What do you use that for?
- Do you really need 4 routers?
- What do you need a lathe for?
- What is that thing?
I hear these kinda things from friends and family, a lot - use to hear it from Kelly but she gave up asking a long time ago. I have alluded to this kinda questioning in past posts. I am always just so confused when confronted with this line of questioning. It is not that I can't answer, it is more that I just don't typically find this way thinking useful.
There are two problems with this mind set. The first is more ideological (philosophical?) You don't need a reason to explore something that interests you, or something that you could learn from. Damn near everything I tinker with falls in this category. I don't have am immediate need for a 1800 pound metal lathe. Or a very low power inaccurate laser engraver, or a 1944 Farmall H. But they all get my juices flowing, and I learn something new every time I play with them. We, you know us humans, learn by experience best, not by rote. So every experience shapes and changes our view. John Dewy wrote about his idea, or at least that's what I have taken away from for what little I have read. And I am still reading him. Reading Dewy is I guess no different than playing with my pottery wheel. I do throw a little clay then go do something else. Then come back to the pottery wheel.
But the other problem here is more pragmatic, or concrete. Lets assume you understand I like to build stuff. So when you build things you have tools and materials. Typically we work with the tools we have and the materials we are comfortable with, or that fit with our tool set. If you have a table saw, jointer, and planer, you probably work in wood. And if you need a work bench you would probably fashion it from wood. Likewise if you have a welder, grinder, and cut off saw, you probably work in metal. You get the idea, and this is OK. But if you can expand your tool set, or your material choices then you might find yourself making something new. So while I might not have needed a lather for the last 10 years it doesn't mean I won't find a use for it, and I will probably start to finding ways of making stuff with the lathe, just cause now it will be another tool in the tool belt.
That's all I have to say about that.
Share on Reddit!!!
Monday, May 13, 2013
Burning Ring of Fire
Last post I mentioned maybe mounting a laser diode to the engraving table. Well that's what I did. I got a laser module from KaleCNC in Turkey - 2 watts 808nm (infer red spectrum). Here is a short video burning some paper. I have a lot to do to make this thing usable. Need to focus better and work out feeds and speeds. But this is a good start.
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Share on Reddit!!!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Going Round in Circles
It's not just a phrase. I actually have the two axis engraving table going round in circles. Check out the video and pic below.
Almost exactly one year ago I started tinkering with a little two axis engraving table. It is a nice table with ball screws and some really beefy stepper, but no controls. My goal then was to control the table with MACH3, a PC based CNC program. I could have gone straight for a 2 axis stepper driver and been off and running. But instead I went down a bunch of more complicated paths, mostly just cause I wanted to learn a little about motors and electronics. Some of the attempts are here, here, and here. Well there were a lot of other things that happened over the last year, but 3 "heres" seems like a good round number
Anyhoo, I finally I felt I had learned enough and it was time to get real. So I ordered a 3 axis driver card from Ebay - real nice little card, has optically isolated parallel port breakout, spindle control and inputs for an e-stop and limits switches. So after a year of jacking around I got a board for $40 from China and in one night had it connected to my steppers and mach 3.
Next step will be to tidy up all the connections, make them more permanent, then figure out what to mount to the carriage. I am thinking a laser diode to cut paper and engrave wood would be fun to try.
Share on Reddit!!!
Almost exactly one year ago I started tinkering with a little two axis engraving table. It is a nice table with ball screws and some really beefy stepper, but no controls. My goal then was to control the table with MACH3, a PC based CNC program. I could have gone straight for a 2 axis stepper driver and been off and running. But instead I went down a bunch of more complicated paths, mostly just cause I wanted to learn a little about motors and electronics. Some of the attempts are here, here, and here. Well there were a lot of other things that happened over the last year, but 3 "heres" seems like a good round number
Anyhoo, I finally I felt I had learned enough and it was time to get real. So I ordered a 3 axis driver card from Ebay - real nice little card, has optically isolated parallel port breakout, spindle control and inputs for an e-stop and limits switches. So after a year of jacking around I got a board for $40 from China and in one night had it connected to my steppers and mach 3.
Next step will be to tidy up all the connections, make them more permanent, then figure out what to mount to the carriage. I am thinking a laser diode to cut paper and engrave wood would be fun to try.
Share on Reddit!!!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Made a Little More Permanent
In a previous post I mentioned using an easy driver and the Nerdkit to control a stepper motor. The last couple of weeks I have been trying to tidy-up some old projects. So one of the things I did was move the stepper driver from the breadboard to a a more permanent prototype board. And I added the bigger bad-er 4 line LCD. So now I have a complete package to install in a machine with one stepper motor. This is not just a random thought, I actually have a plan for a micro controller stepper driven cross cut sled for my table saw. But that is a whole other story. Check out the pic, video, and good music!
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Share on Reddit!!!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
With Warm Weather Comes Outdoor Projects
It would be easy to assume lack of posts means I am not doing much. Turns out the opposite is true. I have been ramping up on several new projects and trying to complete several old. One the outdoor front the big thing is the new garage. Foundation is poured, the slab will poured by the end of the weekend, then framing can begin. I got the bright idea, again, to do some custom form work for the foundation walls. They cameout OK, but not great. And it took more time and material than I planned. This is my last DYI concrete project. They never go as well as I think, always cost more and take to long, and never come out as good as they should.
On the pottery front not much happening. I have not thrown in more than a month. Several projects are waiting on the garage completion including a place to setup the pottery kiln. Then we hope to start firing and glazing the 40+ items setting on our shelves!
What else is waiting on the garage? Well the lathe, it is cleaning up well but I kinda back-burner-ed it until I have a permanent home. And the tractor is waiting. What, you didn't know we have a tractor - Hell Yeah! It is a circa 1950 Farmall H, and it is bad ass. Our neighbor pretty much donated it, he got it hung up in a ditch and no longer needed it. No, it does NOT run. But it is really fun to sit on, just ask Isaiah. Thanks to friends Josh and Jugg for helping to pull it ( and my stuck truck ) out of a muddy field to bring it home.
And on the electronics side a lot is happening too. I have been doing some embedded C++ work on a ARM Cortex M3 microcontoller, pretty neat, but it's a steep learning curve. One the one hand this chip is way more powerful than the 8bit AVRs I have used. But on the other, a lot of the stuff is the same. It is kinda kicking my ass, but it's fun.
To keep me motivated and because I want to learn more about embedded controls, and well cause I like buying things, I have ordered a bunch of toys. I bought a digital oscilloscope, a bunch of nerdkits parts, and several stepper motor driver cards. I have three micro controller projects started that have been lingering - some for multiple years. I hoping to bring them to a close and hoping in at least one case use the new scope to trouble shoot a I2C communication problem I am having between the nerdkit and a little digital altimeter. It's not that I need an altimeter, but understanding and being able to troubleshoot I2C problems is fairly import to using many of the commonly available digital sensors.
So that's an update for March, hoping, as usual, to post a little more frequently. Share on Reddit!!!
On the pottery front not much happening. I have not thrown in more than a month. Several projects are waiting on the garage completion including a place to setup the pottery kiln. Then we hope to start firing and glazing the 40+ items setting on our shelves!
What else is waiting on the garage? Well the lathe, it is cleaning up well but I kinda back-burner-ed it until I have a permanent home. And the tractor is waiting. What, you didn't know we have a tractor - Hell Yeah! It is a circa 1950 Farmall H, and it is bad ass. Our neighbor pretty much donated it, he got it hung up in a ditch and no longer needed it. No, it does NOT run. But it is really fun to sit on, just ask Isaiah. Thanks to friends Josh and Jugg for helping to pull it ( and my stuck truck ) out of a muddy field to bring it home.
To keep me motivated and because I want to learn more about embedded controls, and well cause I like buying things, I have ordered a bunch of toys. I bought a digital oscilloscope, a bunch of nerdkits parts, and several stepper motor driver cards. I have three micro controller projects started that have been lingering - some for multiple years. I hoping to bring them to a close and hoping in at least one case use the new scope to trouble shoot a I2C communication problem I am having between the nerdkit and a little digital altimeter. It's not that I need an altimeter, but understanding and being able to troubleshoot I2C problems is fairly import to using many of the commonly available digital sensors.
So that's an update for March, hoping, as usual, to post a little more frequently. Share on Reddit!!!
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Too many toys!
The Sherline/LabVolt lathe conversion is finished mostly. I mounted and configured the spindle encoder and it works, sort of. It is reading half the RPMs I think it should. I suspect I either have a pulley ratio defined wrong, or the motor control is not setup correctly. But I have kinda tabled that problem for now. I still need to button-up the case, but I was able to run through the full CAD/CAM workflow, I drew a profile in CamBam, generated the toolpath, posted the g-code, and ran it through MACH3. It actually worked, crazy. Now what can I actually do with this little CNC lathe? Pretty sure no one reads this blog, but if anyone needs a small part cut, shout out, maybe I can help!
In the last post I mentioned the Hardinge CNC lathe project for Fazni. Not much new there, we have all the "parts", just need to find time to do the conversion. But, now I have a whole new Hardinge lathe project. OK, Actually it is a Feeler 618 project, it is a clone of the venerable Hardinge HLV. I bought it on Ebay, in unknown condition, it was in Orlando FL, and weighs in at 1800lbs - BAM!
Lets call the picture below the official before picture. And lets also hope that at some point in the near future it is all cleaned up and running, in our new garage, so I can post an after picture. Else, I will have to post a scrap yard picture, and that would break my heart.
The story of how I got the lathe up to Indy will have to wait for a separate post. At present, it is sitting at Mike's shop where I am slowly (slow progress seems to be a recurring theme) assessing it's condition and cleaning it from top to bottom, inside and out.
In case you didn't know, this lathe is a real bad boy. It is widely considered the best "tool room" lathe ever made. And it is really the only lathe I have ever used. Back when I was an intern at a medical device company I used this same model nearly everyday. And it is so nice to use.
Now you may be wondering what I could possibly do with a lathe like this? Well you're not alone, everyone I have told about it has asked the same question. But it's just not a useful question. I mean, by analogy, I have taken a lot of math classes, including the same calculus series every undergraduate engineering student takes. And I have never, out side of a classroom, had to integrate a circle to find the area, or take the derivative of a polynomial function to find the instantaneous rate of change. That doesn't mean the math classes were useless, or that I should skipped them. And that's all I have to say about that. Share on Reddit!!!
In the last post I mentioned the Hardinge CNC lathe project for Fazni. Not much new there, we have all the "parts", just need to find time to do the conversion. But, now I have a whole new Hardinge lathe project. OK, Actually it is a Feeler 618 project, it is a clone of the venerable Hardinge HLV. I bought it on Ebay, in unknown condition, it was in Orlando FL, and weighs in at 1800lbs - BAM!
Lets call the picture below the official before picture. And lets also hope that at some point in the near future it is all cleaned up and running, in our new garage, so I can post an after picture. Else, I will have to post a scrap yard picture, and that would break my heart.
The story of how I got the lathe up to Indy will have to wait for a separate post. At present, it is sitting at Mike's shop where I am slowly (slow progress seems to be a recurring theme) assessing it's condition and cleaning it from top to bottom, inside and out.
In case you didn't know, this lathe is a real bad boy. It is widely considered the best "tool room" lathe ever made. And it is really the only lathe I have ever used. Back when I was an intern at a medical device company I used this same model nearly everyday. And it is so nice to use.
Now you may be wondering what I could possibly do with a lathe like this? Well you're not alone, everyone I have told about it has asked the same question. But it's just not a useful question. I mean, by analogy, I have taken a lot of math classes, including the same calculus series every undergraduate engineering student takes. And I have never, out side of a classroom, had to integrate a circle to find the area, or take the derivative of a polynomial function to find the instantaneous rate of change. That doesn't mean the math classes were useless, or that I should skipped them. And that's all I have to say about that. Share on Reddit!!!
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