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Thread: Goal: a desktop cnc machine Level: Beginner

  1. #1
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Goal: a desktop cnc machine Level: Beginner

    I was wondering if there were any electronics experts on the forums that can be a mentor?

    The goal in the end: I would like to build a desktop sized cnc machine and I thought perhaps others on the forums would like to also. This is just to give an idea of what a low cost cnc machine is: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy...lling-Machine/

    The steps I had in mind are:
    1. pick an electronics learning kit that we could all buy and go through the lessons.
    2. move to a microcontroller, arduino, beagleboard, teensy, pic etc. We could discuss all of these and select the one that the majority agrees on.
    3. go through learning kits for the selected micrcontroller
    4. get into controlling various motor types. Almost all of the cnc I see use stepper motors, but it would be neat to learn about dc motors as well as they are cheaper usually.
    5. come up with a nice design, for a cnc machine on our own. They sell plans, but what is the fun in that?
    6. building a machine is only the start, then comes the software side. Again they sell programs and there are even open source ones, but it would be fun to write our own.

    Another major goal would be to keep the cost as low as possible.
    Here are some prices in dollars to give an idea, again I want to stick on the low side, but will leave it the group and mentor:

    electronics learning kit, ~130 in 1 about $40 to 500 in 1 for $250 http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/cgi...ion&key=PL130A

    microcontroller $16 to $200, http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/ to http://pandaboard.org/

    Stepper Motors: Too many variables for me to judge which we need to use, but they range from around $15 to $100.

    Rotary Tool $11 to $80 http://www.harborfreight.com/80-piec...kit-97626.html dremel http://www.google.com/products/catal...d=0CJABEPMCMAM

    They say the first cnc is the low cost ugly one and then you use it to build your bigger machine next.

    After we get a cnc working, then we could move on to making robots with parts we make from our cnc machine

    Let me know of any other ideas and hopefully we can have someone on the forums to guide and mentor us.
    Last edited by kryton9; 16-02-2012 at 01:35.

  2. #2
    i have made experiments with simple electronics only, so i can't be an adviser for this project, it seems complex for me.
    the electronics learning kit from ramseyelectronics.com you have referenced seems amazing.
    i know some valuable resources:
    the best free online lessons (descriptive with full illustrations, without math, or very little math) is:
    Lessons In Electric Circuits /by Tony R. Kuphaldt
    http://openbookproject.net/electricCircuits/
    electro.jpg
    can be downloaded as html (29 MB) from
    http://openbookproject.net/electricC...iechtml.tar.gz
    also as pdf files. not all lessons sections are complete. use google to search the lessons.
    the best section is the last section :
    Volume VI- Experiments
    don't forget the Socratic Electronics Project from the same author:
    http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/index.html


    the best author for simplified electronics is "Forrest Mims" such as his book "Getting Started in Electronics" and many others.

  3. #3
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Spikowski View Post
    Ken,

    Have a peek at what LEGO Power Functions has to offer.

    John
    Thanks John, I had not heard of those but only the mindstorm robot kits. These would be interesting for the robotics intro perhaps?
    Just saw your edited post, will look at that video now, thanks!

    Something sort of similar but only remotely that I have come across are:
    Microsoft Gadgeteer
    http://www.extremetech.com/computing...ive-to-arduino


    Sun/Oracles:
    http://www.sunspotworld.com/index.html
    Last edited by kryton9; 16-02-2012 at 08:15.

  4. #4
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zak View Post
    i have made experiments with simple electronics only, so i can't be an adviser for this project, it seems complex for me.
    the electronics learning kit from ramseyelectronics.com you have referenced seems amazing.
    i know some valuable resources:
    the best free online lessons (descriptive with full illustrations, without math, or very little math) is:
    Lessons In Electric Circuits /by Tony R. Kuphaldt
    http://openbookproject.net/electricCircuits/
    electro.jpg
    can be downloaded as html (29 MB) from
    http://openbookproject.net/electricC...iechtml.tar.gz
    also as pdf files. not all lessons sections are complete. use google to search the lessons.
    the best section is the last section :
    Volume VI- Experiments
    don't forget the Socratic Electronics Project from the same author:
    http://www.ibiblio.org/kuphaldt/socratic/index.html


    the best author for simplified electronics is "Forrest Mims" such as his book "Getting Started in Electronics" and many others.
    Thanks Zak for the links, I will check them out. I had some Forrest Mims books awhile ago. I read them, but it did not stick with me.

    I heard this great Chinese Proverb quoted by an Indian Professor teaching electronics on youtube. I really agree with it.
    I read, I forget
    I see, I remember
    I do, I learn

    So I need videos and to do and have a place to ask questions and get answers. I guess will have to give it a week or so and see how many people are interested first of all.
    Thanks again for the links.

  5. #5
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    John, just watched the video of the lego machine. That was neat how you think he, oh my he got junk marks after so much time has lapsed. Then the surprise, won't give it away.

    This is just a little too weak to work with hobby materials like thin plastics or woods and it is too slow. But still very impressive project and if you needed to make stuff from foam, worth looking in too. The results he had were pretty remarkable! Thanks I enjoyed watching that.

  6. #6
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    I agree John. Something a little stronger than the Lego in terms of stepper motors and perhaps that size or a little bigger, but not made out of iron or galvanized pipe as in the instructable video. We want something that will look OK on the desktop in a house or apartment and not meant for workshop as his iron one. We can all iron out the design later and perhaps come up with multiple designs that users can build then we can evaluate them.

  7. #7
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    I added a poll to keep count of those interested and to see if we get enough people to go forward.

  8. #8
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    John, I just wanted to see if there were enough of us interested in this to work together to learn. There are lots of cool challenges, especially when you want to do low budget. Besides the hardware and controllers, you have electronics and of course the programs. Then with a cnc machine you can make parts for anything you are interested in, from home repair items to robots( my final interest on this road ).

    I started watching some nice online video courses and will wait a week to see what happens in interest. If not will go it alone.

    To tell you the truth, I feel frustrated as a programmer right now. It is an exciting time hardware and device wise, but there are so many directions that one can go and to work on the type of things I want to, which is 3D engines, tools and games. I don't want to work years on a platform that will be dead by the time I finish. I finally started learning the windows api and now see that it will end as it should have after XP.

    Android is not what I thought it was going to be. It is neat, but not what I expected. I thought it would be like the old days, cool hardware with a small fast OS and I was hoping it would have a built in programming language with hardware compiler in the device. Since firmware is so easy to update anymore, as Android does all the time, this seemed like such a no brainer to me. But to have to use a desktop device, transfer your app to the device etc... it is crazy. And until voice techology is as it is in Star Trek, you need a physical keyboard and mouse along with a touchscreen.

    Anyways, I thought I would use this time while things sort themselves out to learn other things that have been a dream since I was a kid.

    Here is a toy designer that must grown up like me, having a toy and seeing all the missed opportunities that the toy should have had and doing something about it now that he can

  9. #9
    Super Moderator Petr Schreiber's Avatar
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    Kent,

    I wish I had more knowledge in electronics, I would join your project immediately

    The walking robot is very well done, I like the smooth walk movement.

    I completely agree that we are living in exciting times, when really almost everything is possible. Even the low power hardware is very strong, libraries for almost everything exist... I keep my fingers crossed you manage to find buddies for your CNC project, working on something in team of "compatible persons" is always great experience.

    I wouldn't worry too much about your tools becoming obsolete, as long as it is hobby project. It seems even big beasts do not care that much - for example Siemens still uses DDE technology for automation in their automated lines... (yes, it is pre COM, pre OLE stuff)


    Petr
    Learn 3D graphics with ThinBASIC, learn TBGL!
    Windows 10 64bit - Intel Core i5-3350P @ 3.1GHz - 16 GB RAM - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB

  10. #10
    thinBasic MVPs kryton9's Avatar
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    The wife is bitching you spend too much time in the shed so the compermise is bring it indoors and build miniture CNC machines in your office where your wife can keep an eye on you.
    Quote Originally Posted by John Spikowski View Post
    Based on the door handle/lock, shelving and other room attributes, this guy is filmining this from an activity room in a mental hospital.
    John I like your unique sense of humor.

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