Hey Splat!
Those igaging scales were on sale! I just got a few!
Nice!!
I can't wait to hook'em up!
Bernie
Those igaging scales were on sale! I just got a few!
Nice!!
I can't wait to hook'em up!
Bernie
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Hobby DRO
- Thread starter ddmckee54
- Start date
Arvidj
I have the igaging scales on my mill G0704 mill. Thay are much beter than dials, but fall short of a real dro witch I cannot justify the coast of right now. I have a tablet and Yuriy's program and interface will be a great improvment. And being based on android alot more versital than the Shumatech. And if you have ever used a hole circle function on a DRO system it is way easer and faster than eny outher way. Just my 2 cents. And I am not knocking your statment. Just that for some of us this is going to be a great cheap choice.
I have the igaging scales on my mill G0704 mill. Thay are much beter than dials, but fall short of a real dro witch I cannot justify the coast of right now. I have a tablet and Yuriy's program and interface will be a great improvment. And being based on android alot more versital than the Shumatech. And if you have ever used a hole circle function on a DRO system it is way easer and faster than eny outher way. Just my 2 cents. And I am not knocking your statment. Just that for some of us this is going to be a great cheap choice.
Agree on the added functionality of a real DRO. I have or had the Schumatech 350, the 550 with the LCD and a SINO. All are much easier than having to noodle thru the math. And as I indicated, an Arduino, probably more than one, along with Yuriy's stuff to work with incremental encoders sounds like a future project.
Arvid,
Oh no, I really appreciate your comments. The reason I'm posting this stuff is to get some feedback and/or sanity checks.
AS far as the quadrature encodes go, though ...
That's my next "project". I want to add a glass scale to the cross slide of my lathe, and a tachometer to the spindle (right now I only have one iGaging scale), and that means hardware that can support mixed scales. A "default" Arduino is out of question for that, though. So far the cheapest option I could come up with is either NetDuino (uses STM32F4 MCU @ $60/piece) or LPCxpresso at half the price, but no FPU and/or DSP). Since working with quadrature encoders is VERY similar to what's required for calipers/non iGaging scales, I will add that at the same time as well. The only problem is the cost of the glass scales. Right now buying a set will get me killed, so I'll have to wait a bit
Thank you
Yuriy
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Yuiry,
Here is what I was thinking about for the glass scale incremental interface.
http://www.avagotech.com/docs/AV02-0096EN
For those in a hurry there is already a shield available ... http://www.robogaia.com/two-axis-encoder-counter-mega-shield-version-2.html ... but I would prefer to make a shield with two IC's on it to accommodate 4 axis. The IC's are about $11 each and they can share the same TTL crystal oscillator so a home-made shield might come in under $30, and certainly under $50 if it were made it on a ready-made shield breadboard.
I think they could be made to work in one of two ways ...
In both solutions the Arduino polls the HCTL-2032's [I am assuming there would be two IC and therefore four counters for a three or four axis system] to retrieve the four bytes of 32bit counter information from each of the axis.
One solution would then have the Arduino convert the 32bit information into the format that is currently being used to transmit data to the Android tablet, giving the impression that the iGauging scales were being used, albeit with some pretty outrageous value.
The other solution, and IMHO the better one, would be to allow a second format where the coordinate information would be a hex representation of the 32bit counters. The conversion from the hex values to what ever the Android is using internally ... Big Decimal, Floating Point, what every ... is then done by the is then all done inside the Android tablet. The values would still be outrageous but I do not think the Android cares as, if I am not mistaken, you said it is simply thinking in incremental terms anyway.
Obviously I have spent all of 30 seconds on the analysis, but at least that is where I would start.
Arvid
Here is what I was thinking about for the glass scale incremental interface.
http://www.avagotech.com/docs/AV02-0096EN
For those in a hurry there is already a shield available ... http://www.robogaia.com/two-axis-encoder-counter-mega-shield-version-2.html ... but I would prefer to make a shield with two IC's on it to accommodate 4 axis. The IC's are about $11 each and they can share the same TTL crystal oscillator so a home-made shield might come in under $30, and certainly under $50 if it were made it on a ready-made shield breadboard.
I think they could be made to work in one of two ways ...
In both solutions the Arduino polls the HCTL-2032's [I am assuming there would be two IC and therefore four counters for a three or four axis system] to retrieve the four bytes of 32bit counter information from each of the axis.
One solution would then have the Arduino convert the 32bit information into the format that is currently being used to transmit data to the Android tablet, giving the impression that the iGauging scales were being used, albeit with some pretty outrageous value.
The other solution, and IMHO the better one, would be to allow a second format where the coordinate information would be a hex representation of the 32bit counters. The conversion from the hex values to what ever the Android is using internally ... Big Decimal, Floating Point, what every ... is then done by the is then all done inside the Android tablet. The values would still be outrageous but I do not think the Android cares as, if I am not mistaken, you said it is simply thinking in incremental terms anyway.
Obviously I have spent all of 30 seconds on the analysis, but at least that is where I would start.
Arvid
Arvid,
This is an interesting solution. I never thought about using a dedicated IC. One major plus I can see from the get go is that the Arduino can still work in the "stupid" mode (don't need 8 separate pin interrupts. timers etc.) On the other hand there is more assembly required. which appears to be a problem with many users (I get a good number of emails complaining how complicated the current hardware is).
I'll try to get a few of those chips and experiment a bit (I have some rotary encoders that can be used for testing, I think).
I started playing with LPC's Mbed board ($60 and can be programmed using an online IDE), but that's not going to be done soon...
The current data format will work fine for this application. It can handle numbers up to 32 bit wide, and the application has a way to set CPI settings for each axis. I will need to add one more axis, though.
Thank you
Yuriy
According to the website for Schumatech, they are currently out of stock for the 550 board. I joined the Shumatech Yahoo group to find out more. The way they handle the manufacturing is to have people sign up on a list, then when the list gets long enough to justify a production run, they put in an order at the factory that actually makes them. The most current post I could find on the board was several weeks old and stated they were about 30 signatures short of a production run. There was no indication how long that might be. I went ahead and put my name on the list because this sounds like the right solution for me. I don't have to have this product badly enough to pay lots more. But I still hope the wait isn't too long!
Walt
Hi Walt, you have discovered one of the issues with Shumatec that some people find objectionable, it is not a "store" with inventory. Scott Shumate who is the guiding hand behind the Shumatec product has done a marvelous job at designing and producing these units all at no benefit to himself. I originally purchased one of their earlier units (350 type) and I liked it so much that I bought two of the 550's when they were available, I believe I waited almost a year. Much of the delay was because it was a new product and there were some issues with parts sourcing and vendor schedules, etc.
I think if you just put your name on the list and go off and do something else someday you will get an email of the schedule and your off and running. The product (550) is very solid and full of functionality. My units take a beating and have performed flawlessly for over two years. I am sure you will be very pleased with the unit and if not there is a waiting group of people who will be happy to take it off your hands.
Jim
I think if you just put your name on the list and go off and do something else someday you will get an email of the schedule and your off and running. The product (550) is very solid and full of functionality. My units take a beating and have performed flawlessly for over two years. I am sure you will be very pleased with the unit and if not there is a waiting group of people who will be happy to take it off your hands.
Jim
I was just out looking at his yahoo grouip. He hasn't had any new 550 parts made since at least Nov 2011 when he said that he didn't have the time to work on this side business nor the money to float the inventory required to order a minimum production run of boards. Since that time, he's been compiling a list of people wanting boards and needs 60 to justify placing an order. He has 30 people on the list after almost a year and a half. I'm not even going to bother considering this option in the future.
