Tom,

The saw/slotter will not be moving at the same time as the arm.

I would like to use KmotionCNC for everything.

I guess just one SnapAmp, and one Kstep together would do what I need, right?

I'm hoping the robot will be fine just operating by teaching points. It will essentially just pick up small cylindrical part from a grid, then put it into the collet of the indexer. I assumed that I would set up all of the robot axis(5)as rotary. The path of the arm between points is not critical.

I can do that, right? lol I saw in KmotionCNC where I could specify radial for A,B,C.....but not X,Y,Z. Maybe that doesn't even matter point to point.

If I had this line of Gcode, would all axis' arrive at their destinations at the same time?

G1 X20 Y20 Z20 A20 B20 F10

It seems like it would to me?

These small parts are .030 or so in diameter, and maybe .500 long. The have to go into the collet .375 or so, and the collet opening is only .004 bigger than the part. I see that .375 on insertion as the difficult part for point to point......but I hope it will work. They will be picked up with vacuum.

I made an inverse kinematics spreadsheet that tells me what angles each axis should be at to arrive at any particular place, and i can use that if I need to smooth out anything beyond point to point. I don't really understand what needs to go into using the kinematics within Kmotion, so i would rather avoid it if possible for now. :-)

Mike

--- In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, Tom Kerekes <tk@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Hi Mike,
>
> It probably isn't a good idea to run Mach3 and KMotionCNC at the same time, although I do it sometimes for tests and it seems to work as long as I don't do something that conflicts like try to run GCode from both at the same time.
>
> Why not use KMotionCNC to do everything?  It appears you need 7 Axes total.  3 Servos and 4 steppers?  It is possible to use the 2 SnapAmps with a KSTEP that should give you what you need.
>
> Do you need to run the saw/slotting operation concurrently with the Robot motions?  Does the Robot need to do coordinated motion, or can it be operated with simpler point-to-point type of motion?
>
> Regards,
> TK
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: michaelthomasn <michaelniksch@...>
> To: DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, July 8, 2013 7:15 AM
> Subject: [DynoMotion] Mach 3 and Kmotion CNC
>
>
>
>  
> Hi Tom,
>
> Is it feasible to have Mach3 and Kmotion CNC running on the same computer and performing functions in tandem?
>
> I have a horizontal saw that does slotting and indexing operations to small parts. It is controlled by Mach 3, and it consists of a step motor for the Z, and another for the indexing.
>
> I have nearly completed the robot arm (mechanical part) that will be used to load the above mentioned machine. The arm will have 2 Snap Amps. There are 3 servos with encoders, and 2 steppers.
>
> I would like to control everything with KmotionCNC, but I don't have enough stuff since a stepper takes up two channels on the Snap Amps.
>
> Can a Kstep work with a 1 SnapAmp?
>
> Originally the arm was going to be totally independent of the slotter. The slotter would just signal the arm to load, then the arm would signal the slotter that it was done....meaning that I thought I was adding the arm to the existing slotter, which is why I bought the 2 SnapAmps. The owner now wants another complete slotter with the arm, and I would like it to be on one control.
>
> Can you recommend the best way to accomplish this with your stuff?
>
> Mike
>

Tom,

I have been thinking that I would be able to set up my counts per inch as counts per degree. I have 1666.6666 counts per degree for the base, shoulder, and elbow of the arm. 444.4444 counts per degree on the forearm and wrist.

Am I thinking about that correctly?

I don't need to know where anything is in cartesian space(for the arm), so if the dros show degrees, that's fine.

The other question that I just thought of is how do i go about getting another DRO in Kmotion cnc......since I need 7?

Mike

--- In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, "michaelthomasn" <michaelniksch@...> wrote:
>
> Tom,
>
> The saw/slotter will not be moving at the same time as the arm.
>
> I would like to use KmotionCNC for everything.
>
> I guess just one SnapAmp, and one Kstep together would do what I need, right?
>
> I'm hoping the robot will be fine just operating by teaching points. It will essentially just pick up small cylindrical part from a grid, then put it into the collet of the indexer. I assumed that I would set up all of the robot axis(5)as rotary. The path of the arm between points is not critical.
>
> I can do that, right? lol I saw in KmotionCNC where I could specify radial for A,B,C.....but not X,Y,Z. Maybe that doesn't even matter point to point.
>
> If I had this line of Gcode, would all axis' arrive at their destinations at the same time?
>
> G1 X20 Y20 Z20 A20 B20 F10
>
> It seems like it would to me?
>
> These small parts are .030 or so in diameter, and maybe .500 long. The have to go into the collet .375 or so, and the collet opening is only .004 bigger than the part. I see that .375 on insertion as the difficult part for point to point......but I hope it will work. They will be picked up with vacuum.
>
> I made an inverse kinematics spreadsheet that tells me what angles each axis should be at to arrive at any particular place, and i can use that if I need to smooth out anything beyond point to point. I don't really understand what needs to go into using the kinematics within Kmotion, so i would rather avoid it if possible for now. :-)
>
> Mike
>
> --- In DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com, Tom Kerekes <tk@> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > It probably isn't a good idea to run Mach3 and KMotionCNC at the same time, although I do it sometimes for tests and it seems to work as long as I don't do something that conflicts like try to run GCode from both at the same time.
> >
> > Why not use KMotionCNC to do everything?  It appears you need 7 Axes total.  3 Servos and 4 steppers?  It is possible to use the 2 SnapAmps with a KSTEP that should give you what you need.
> >
> > Do you need to run the saw/slotting operation concurrently with the Robot motions?  Does the Robot need to do coordinated motion, or can it be operated with simpler point-to-point type of motion?
> >
> > Regards,
> > TK
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: michaelthomasn <michaelniksch@>
> > To: DynoMotion@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Monday, July 8, 2013 7:15 AM
> > Subject: [DynoMotion] Mach 3 and Kmotion CNC
> >
> >
> >
> >  
> > Hi Tom,
> >
> > Is it feasible to have Mach3 and Kmotion CNC running on the same computer and performing functions in tandem?
> >
> > I have a horizontal saw that does slotting and indexing operations to small parts. It is controlled by Mach 3, and it consists of a step motor for the Z, and another for the indexing.
> >
> > I have nearly completed the robot arm (mechanical part) that will be used to load the above mentioned machine. The arm will have 2 Snap Amps. There are 3 servos with encoders, and 2 steppers.
> >
> > I would like to control everything with KmotionCNC, but I don't have enough stuff since a stepper takes up two channels on the Snap Amps.
> >
> > Can a Kstep work with a 1 SnapAmp?
> >
> > Originally the arm was going to be totally independent of the slotter. The slotter would just signal the arm to load, then the arm would signal the slotter that it was done....meaning that I thought I was adding the arm to the existing slotter, which is why I bought the 2 SnapAmps. The owner now wants another complete slotter with the arm, and I would like it to be on one control.
> >
> > Can you recommend the best way to accomplish this with your stuff?
> >
> > Mike
> >
>