开云体育

Stepster is DOS - the problem is, I thing is, you really tie up the printer
port with Stepster
At 10:21 PM 5/27/99 -0400, you wrote:

From: Robert Allen & Marsha Camp <mcamp@...>

First, is stepster a Dos program? and if so can two Dos programs be run in

separate windows side by side in Win 3.1 or 3.11 or

Dos 6.22? I have a old pratt & whitney mill w/steppers and encoders and

want to run Stepster and dro4 together

Bob


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First, is stepster a Dos program? and if so can two Dos programs be run in separate windows side by side in Win 3.1 or 3.11 or
Dos 6.22? I have a old pratt & whitney mill w/steppers and encoders and want to run stepster and dro4 together
Bob

Bill,
Download .981. Its DOS...BUT you can run it in a window!
Read the Readme....
Dave

Dave,
Yep, maybe this weekend for an Alpha version (Meaning, "Did I break
anything, and does it still work") watch your mail <g>

Charlie

At 05:42 PM 5/27/99 EDT, you wrote:

From: DRigotti@...

Here is the link....
Be aware...the limit switches don't work with these version. A fix is on

the

way...
Dave
<A href=">METALWORKING.COM -
Shareware
</A>

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Kurt,
As a full time VB guy, I will agree EXCEPT for one thing, I used to write
"real time" software. VB (or ANY lang running under windows) can't do what
is called "Hard Real Time", where if you miss a signal, your hosed. "Soft
real time" isn't so bad, as if your output is delayed a few milli to
microseconds, nothing breaks. In the WINDOWS stuff, you won't actually
LOOSE steps, what will happen (or CAN <g>) is that steps will be delayed
(aka you can get dwells)

The only way to avoid this in windows FOR sure, is to run windows NT, and
then run the process in question with it's priority as "real Time". There
are problems with this mode - you lose video - NOTHING else runs (Not even
ring zero stuff), so you have to take care of everything.

There are OSes that are RT capable, and Windows/WinNT will do an OK job (NT
even better than DOS, If you have nothing else running), but there are risks.

BTW structured BASICS (with at least as much structure as VB6, but no
classes) has been around since the early late 70s, and I started writing in
them in 1982 - I can even get you a copy of VB1 and VB dos if you want <g>

Charlie

At 08:09 PM 5/27/99 -0000, you wrote:

From: pyroware@...

<snip>>

Anyway, just a heads up to anyone using VB, get the version which properly

compiles. Structured, compiled VB is easily on par with C/Cpp as a
high-level language.

<snip>
PGP Key Avalible upon request

More on the Arrick MD2 and the custom programming I am doing for it...

The Arrick MD2 uses software which writes to the parallel port, setting the bits to energise the phases of a unipolar motor in the proper sequence. An array of 8, 4-bit binary sequences is written to the port, motor zero being least significant, and motor 1 the most significant 4 bits, to create half-step motion. The MD2 software is impressive but was written when the DOS 386 machine ruled. I ported a bit of the code but mostly wrote it from scratch using VB4, an interpreted p-code. Performance was better than the MD-2 DOS code, but I was still not thriled with top speeds.

I recently installed VB6 pro, which compiles to native machine code. The same VB4 code, properly compiled by VB6, at least quintupled the top speed... in fact, I have to go in and massage some delay loops to slow it down. Everyone says the cooperative multitasking will cause lost steps and poor performance. I haven't seen it yet.

Anyway, just a heads up to anyone using VB, get the version which properly compiles. Structured, compiled VB is easily on par with C/Cpp as a high-level language.

Kurt

In a message dated 5/27/99 2:53:57 PM Pacific Daylight Time, DRigotti@...
writes:

Here is the link....
Be aware...the limit switches don't work with these version. A fix is on
the
way...
Dave
<A href=">METALWORKING.COM -
Shareware
</A>

I just want to down load Stepster and start to learn it. I went to the URL
above, is the Stepster, the same as the CNC 979.Zip, or the 981.Zip?
Or is it one of the other programs?
Do I need to run this under DOS? Any hints/directions to get it started
would be greatly appreciated. Not as computer literate as I would like to be.
bill

I await....It'll be worth it!
Dave

Here is the link....
Be aware...the limit switches don't work with these version. A fix is on the
way...
Dave
<A href=">METALWORKING.COM -
Shareware
</A>

Would some on the list please point me towards the latest available version
of STEPSTER.
We have currently 163 members in the list, please feel free to invite anyone
that you know that might be interested to join us.
I got lucky yesterday got 2 Compumotor, 400 in/oz. steppers for $25 each,
with couplers.
No howling feedback on the selling, so guess we did not step on too many toes.
bill

Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 19:14:08 -0700
From: Mike Romine <mromine@...>
Subject: Re: Digest Number 24

I am going to try something semi-related to this topic. My CNC is
fairly stiff for what I am doing, but I have a huge problem with
vibration. I am using aluminum and steel extrusions and box channel for
the frame. These hollow members are very underdamped in nature. 2 ways
to decrease the amplitude of vibrations is to either increase the
damping coefficient of the material, or increase the mass of the
system. I was lucky to spend a day with Dan Huggins, programmer of
Dancad, and he gave me the idea of making a precast concrete frame
components. Then I saw a company at a trade show (Philadelphia resins)
who make a slurry of granite particles in epoxy, and form it into a
composite that has much of the vibration damping properties of solid
granite. Davenport actually makes an entire lathe bed using this
process. They also fill structural members with this goo to help damp
vibrations in machines. Unfortunately, their stuff is too expensive for
a hobbyist like myself. But, I think I am going to try to fill my
hollow structural parts with a reinforced polymerized concrete. This
will make my machine heavy as hell, but should also decrease the
amplitude of the vibrations radically. I will let you all know how it
works.

Taig uses this method in their Microlathe, seems to work fine.

Hi Mike,

Your idea will almost certainly work. When I installed my wood turning
lathe I initially had the same type of problem and so I made a stand out
of two lengths of 6" steel heating pipe with flanges welded onto each
end which I rag bolted to the floor and filled with a weak cement/gravel
slurry
mixture and capped off with a 1 1/2" thick wooden top. The vibrations
disappeared immediately.

Ian

Mike Romine wrote:

I am using aluminum and steel extrusions and box channel for
the frame. These hollow members are very underdamped in nature. 2 ways
to decrease the amplitude of vibrations is to either increase the
damping coefficient of the material, or increase the mass of the
system. But, I think I am going to try to fill my
hollow structural parts with a reinforced polymerized concrete. This
will make my machine heavy as hell, but should also decrease the
amplitude of the vibrations radically. I will let you all know how it
works.

Best wishes

Ian

--

Ian W. Wright LBHI
Sheffield Branch Chairman of the British Horological Institute.
Bandmaster and Euphonium player of the Hathersage Brass Band. UK.
See our homepage at:- or


'Music is the filling of regular time intervals with harmonious
oscillations.'

Mike Romine
wrote:

My CNC is fairly stiff for what I am doing, but I have a huge problem with
vibration. I am using aluminum and steel extrusions and box channel for
the frame. These hollow members are very underdamped in nature. 2 ways
to decrease the amplitude of vibrations is to either increase the
damping coefficient of the material, or increase the mass of the
system.

<snip>

I was lucky to spend a day with Dan Huggins, programmer of
Dancad, and he gave me the idea of making a precast concrete frame
components.

<snip>

I think I am going to try to fill my hollow structural parts with a
reinforced polymerized concrete.

Not being an engineer, I ask your indulgence if this suggestion is
stupid, but how about foam-cored structural members, molded from a
Corian-type material? Advantages would be lightness and easy machining
with common tools, but would they be strong enough? Would the foam
cores help to "increase the damping coefficient" of the
material/structure?

On a related question, how would reinforced concrete work for the bed
of a largish (5' x 6') CNC wood router?

Geoff
Tennessee

Ian W. Wright
wrote:

I don't have a lot of experience with lead bearings except the one in my
fly-press but I have seen them used a number of times. I agree that, as
with all techniques, this one has its own place and I suppose there
would be design considerations which may preclude its use in certain
situations.

Thanks for the input on babbit bearings. It looks as if the question
is academic for me, since I've just ordered some hefty linears.

However, I do think babbit might be a good choice for those on a very
limited budget, or with no access to precision machining equipment.
---------------------------------------------
POURING BABBET for a Little Giant Trip Hammer
By Ralph J. Sproul
Bear Hill Blacksmith


Metal Babbit Bearing Book (PDF format)

---------------------------------------------
Geoff
Tennessee

Don Hughes wrote:

From: Don Hughes <pencad@...>

I do have a photoplotter with 1/2" round rails, and it has some vibration
problems that require damping. It has an optical carriage that weighs
ounces, and no cutting forces at all!

John, you're plotter, is it a flatbed plotter? If so, I am desperately
looking for one that is a "D" drafting paper size(34" x 22") or larger.
If you happen to know of such about, or if anyone in the group here
knows of one that some company or themselves have sitting around, I
would be very interested in talking with them.

I would only be running this with optics as well and driven with HPGL
drivers from the LPT1 directly.

For my applications, a vector-drawing machine was no good. I did
build a light-beam writing pen for my large Calcomp pen plotter, but
it really was a horror, and somewhat of a waste of time. I did use
it while some conceptual and laser light source problems were being
worked out, but the performance was pretty poor.

My original plan, which is now fully operational and performing very
well, was a raster drawing plotter. I wrap the film around a drum,
which is conveniently machined to such a diameter that a multiple
of the shaft encoder's pulses comes to a nice unit measured on the
circumference of the drum. I used a drum such that the film's
sensitive layer is at a diameter of 6.519". 6.519" x Pi = 20.480"
If you had a shaft encoder with 20480 pulses per revolution, that
would give 1000 pulses per inch. So, I got a 1024 pulse encoder,
and attached a digital phase locked loop chip to multiply the encoder
pulses by 20. It works very well, although several 'experts' told
me it would be a cold day in hell before I ever got a PLL multiplier
to work on a mechanical system.

I have an optical carriage that slides on 2 1/2" hardened and ground
shafts, on 3 Thompson linear bearings. The carriage is moved by
a 5 TPI Kerk leadscrew with plastic anti-backlash nut. It works
quite well, too. I had a cheap ballscrew without antibacklash on
it before, and the positioning was erratic, due to the backlash.
I use a 200 steps/rev stepper motor to move the carriage in
.001" increments.

Pictures of this monstrosity are at :


Jon

rtr@...

A few years ago Cincinnati Milicron published some stuff about the way they
were achieving rigidity without using castings. They were making large
hollow weldments for their machine bases, They then filled the hollows
with rebar and concrete. Damped out resonances, didn't require temperature
cycling and aging. Sure, its heavy, but for builder-users, it should be
possible to fill it only at or near its final position. Seems like it
would be worth designing your weldments so the concrete slurry can flow
into an integrated whole. Position the weldment before filling just as you
would a mold, so the air is displaced upward by the concrete to avoid
voids. It may not be worth doing for a low tool force application.

----------

From: Mike Romine <mromine@...>
To: CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@...
Subject: Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Digest Number 24
Date: Wednesday, May 26, 1999 7:14 PM

From: Mike Romine <mromine@...>

Poured lead or type-metal bearings are still used extensively on some
older-type industrial machinery and they are very successful - hence
there are machines around here still running with them which are over >

a hundred years old.

I am going to try something semi-related to this topic. My CNC is
fairly stiff for what I am doing, but I have a huge problem with
vibration. I am using aluminum and steel extrusions and box channel for
the frame. These hollow members are very underdamped in nature. 2 ways
to decrease the amplitude of vibrations is to either increase the
damping coefficient of the material, or increase the mass of the
system. I was lucky to spend a day with Dan Huggins, programmer of
Dancad, and he gave me the idea of making a precast concrete frame
components. Then I saw a company at a trade show (Philadelphia resins)
who make a slurry of granite particles in epoxy, and form it into a
composite that has much of the vibration damping properties of solid
granite. Davenport actually makes an entire lathe bed using this
process. They also fill structural members with this goo to help damp
vibrations in machines. Unfortunately, their stuff is too expensive for
a hobbyist like myself. But, I think I am going to try to fill my
hollow structural parts with a reinforced polymerized concrete. This
will make my machine heavy as hell, but should also decrease the
amplitude of the vibrations radically. I will let you all know how it
works.

-Mike Romine

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welcome to CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@..., an unmodulated list for the

discussion of shop built systems in the above catagories.

I will be ordereding the boards tomorro. I'll have enough for you. They take
21 days to make.

Dan

I use the US Digital linear encoder strips mounted in a 1X2 rectangular tube
the length of the strip. I use a tube as a pushrod and as the conduit for
the encoder cables. Works slick.
I will be ordering board tomorro. Better let me know if you want a board.
Dan

On Wed, 26 May 1999 21:48:57 -0600, Al Schoepp <aschoepp@...> wrote:

Mike Romine wrote:

Hey maties. Could I make a modest and humble suggestion? PULLEEZE don't just hit
the reply button if you're on digest mode, and leave the subject "Digest Number
XX". That laziness makes it totally impossible to track WHAT you're responding
to, via the subject heading, not to mention what it does to tracking something
via the archives later on.

Now I understand, that for those on digest, this imposes an extra burden of
fixing up your Subject: text, but otherwise, you might as well leave the subject
completely blank, and would THAT be good?

Gar

Mike Romine wrote:

a hobbyist like myself. But, I think I am going to try to fill my
hollow structural parts with a reinforced polymerized concrete. This
will make my machine heavy as hell, but should also decrease the
amplitude of the vibrations radically. I will let you all know how it
works.

I will be very interested in your results as it sounds like the CNC
machine I'm currently building is similar to yours.