Full Controller

[AtomSoft]

Im thinking about making this.. (attached image)... and selling them for $110 includes flat rate PRIORITY SHIPPING to most of the world.

What is it?

Its a Arduino, Stepper Shield, Stepper Controllers all in one with a COOLING FAN! (including the Atmega328p (preprogrammed with GRBL))
Includes Outputs for LIMIT SWITCHES and ROUTER ENABLE/DISABLE

For $110 you would get it fully made. Only assembly would be using thumbs to screw fan in place.

This is already Designed and just needs to get the boards made and parts ordered.

Programming will be done the same way you currently do with a Arduino.

PLEASE IGNORE ANY TEXT ON THE IMAGE PERTAINING TO SHAPEOKO and GRBL thats there just to remind me which shield it is.

[AtomSoft]

Ok here is one with a more detailed Silk Screen.

StepShR5.1.jpg (104.28 KiB) Viewed 3074 times

[Enraged]

I like it. A good all in one solution is always nice. I bought an Azteeg for my ordbot, and it makes things much simpler. I think you will have a good market for it too, with all of the kits sold on inventables

[AtomSoft]

Thanks. That board looks cool. The price is good too! I can sell that cheap. Since i dont buy by parts and boards in large quantities. I might just make 2 or 3 of mines and sell one. The boards alone cost more than any part on it
Heh but its fun to create things anyway. If i order the boards from china i could shave off about $10. (but would have a 1 month lead time)
http://www.panucatt.com/azteeg_X1_repra ... ax13dp.htm

...
Just noticed $73 is cheap but no controllers are included... mines include 3 controllers for X,Y,Z (Pololu)... i was wondering why that was so cheap If i sell mines with no controller you could -$40 ($70) ... about the same price

But i like theres too ... so thin and blue

[Enraged]

Who does your boards? I had some made by seeedstudio and they turned out nice for a reasonable price.

[ejs]

It's a nice mock up. Purple and yellow always look good together.
My one question is what your goals are for incorporating limit switches, since that feature isn't natively supported by GRBL currently?

[AtomSoft]

Enraged, SeeedStudio takes 25-30 days to get to me in the US. I use http://dorkbotpdx.org/wiki/pcb_order .... More expensive a but 10-14 day max.

ejs, I did not look into the exact code much but it looks like the Homing feature is built in to GRBL. Meaning you can at least use limit switches to HOME the device.

[ejs]

I believe that the Home feature is what is what is implemented at the start and end of a run and when the board reset button is pressed. My understanding of GRBL, and anyone feel free to correct me, is that you manually position the gantry and spindle at a start point. You then press the reset button. After that, GRBL keeps track of where it is in relation to that assigned point in space, and considers that point as "Home". If you connected limit switches to the Home button, the results would be pretty disastrous.

I always keep in mind that the cost savings with a ShapeOko does come with some caveats. G-Code and user must all coordinate their efforts and there place in space before something is run. Users need to be certain that what they are cutting or printing fits in the given breadbox. Soon the breadbox may understand it's own limitations, but for now it is incumbent on the user.

[AtomSoft]

ejs im not sure i understand half of that.

I believe that the Home feature is what is what is implemented at the start and end of a run and when the board reset button is pressed. My understanding of GRBL, and anyone feel free to correct me, is that you manually position the gantry and spindle at a start point. You then press the reset button. After that, GRBL keeps track of where it is in relation to that assigned point in space, and considers that point as "Home". If you connected limit switches to the Home button, the results would be pretty disastrous.

From what i have been reading and learning G28 and G30 GCODES are used to home the device. Lets use the SHAPEOKO HELLO WORLD as a example:
I assume comments are like : (COMMENT)

Code: Select all

( Made using CamBam - http://www.cambam.co.uk )
( Untitled 2/13/2012 2:54:50 PM )
( T0 : 0.0394 )
G20 G90 G64 G40    (INCHES, ABSOLUTE DISTANCE, NA, NA)
G0 Z0.125               (MOVE TOOL FAST (NO CUT) at Z0.125 )
( T0 : 0.0394 )
T0 M6                     (Tell program tool)
( Engrave1 )
G17                        (SELECT XY PLANE)
M3 S1000                (SPINDLE DIRECTION and SPEED)
G0 X-3.0 Y-0.0451    (MOVE TOOL FAST (NO CUT) to XY)
(BELOW START CUTTING)
G1 F10.0 Z-0.001     
G1 F60.0 X-2.8845 Y-0.035
G3 X-2.8723 Y-0.0943 I0.3244 J0.0363

Ok if you read the above you can see the comments i have added. I assume simply setting the G90 to and from G91 will be the difference with LIMIT switches.

[AtomSoft]

Some assumptions, 0 will be center both modes:

Code: Select all

Absolute Mode: (0 is center)
G28
G90
G92 X-100 Y-100 Z0

Code: Select all

Incremental Mode: (0 is center)
G28
G91
G92 X-100 Y-100 Z0

If this is wrong then tell me....