Amateur CNC?



    Everything that I learn on my own, I try not only to bring it to life, but also to make it work for more than one day, to bring long-term benefits.

    Once we needed to organize management for a makeshift stamping line. The line is homemade, and therefore management, we will make it homemade. We did not use industry standards for data transfer. It was decided to do everything from improvised materials and an unnecessary old computer. Main conditions: simple, cheap, fast. Reliability - how it goes. I’ll tell you how we did it.

    Stamping line

    The stamping line consists of four blocks with hydraulic cylinders (main movement) and two blocks with pneumatic cylinders (workpiece feed). I will not describe the construct. I only note that the cylinders are controlled by 24 volt distributors.

    Stamping Line.GIF


    Management

    The task is to make the cylinders work according to a given algorithm. Work move, pause and so on. We need to get five control signals (4 hydro and 1 air). We decided to use the Atmega8 microcontroller as a connecting element between the computer and all the hardware.

    The scheme is as follows:


    All cylinders are marked from A to E. Therefore, it was decided, without further ado, to send letters to the controller. He listens to the software, and if the letter A arrives, he gives a signal for cylinder A and so on for all cylinders. Also added the ability to control the temperature of the oil in the tank of the hydroelectric station. In summer, the workshop is hot, the oil sometimes overheats, so we decided to add such functionality. They took a regular DS1820 and attached to the thermal paste to a metal tank. The temperature difference between the oil and the tank was caught at the program level. The measurement error is about 2 C. For us - that’s it.

    They spread simple software. The most difficult thing in it is the data transfer through the com port. The management program, if I may call it that, is stored in a regular txt.
    This is what the software interface looks like.



    The process of compiling a program until disgrace is simple. The operator directly in the program presses the buttons associated with specific cylinders. Between moves sets pauses in ms. Pauses are necessary for the cylinder to return to its original state after a stroke. Yes, there is no feedback. Need not.

    The control program itself looks like this:
    A 1000 E 1250 E 1250 ...
    Cylinder A | Pause 1000 ms | Cylinder stroke E | ...

    After the operator pressed the start, the cycle starts. The cycle is endless, either tied to any counter of cylinder strokes, or simply set the time after which it must end. The program parses a text file and sends the letters to the microcontroller.

    I am sure that most readers can / imagine how to jerk mega and the like. I will not describe the controller firmware.

    Software in action .GIF


    Conclusion

    Homemade works 2 years. There are no failures. Once, a board with a microcontroller from the USB-Com adapter fell off from vibration. Eliminated according to the old Russian tradition - with adhesive tape and electrical tape.

    Working for more than 10 years in private (small) production, as well as observing similar neighboring organizations, I come to the conclusion that we have a very poor connection between home-made workers, for example, there are a lot of them on Habré, with real production. We are terribly lacking in automation and innovation in small enterprises. Everyone is fond of silicone startups, trying to make complex robots and train machines to think. It seems to me that you will bring much more benefit to the native workshops and factories that are waiting for you and your inventions, and which are becoming more and more difficult to compete with fraternal China.

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