hi everybody,
a few month ago i decided to build my own cnc machine. actually i started as a complete newby but i got some programming experience.
i found a conection for matlab, so for now im planning on using this live connection to matlab which simplifies the hardware conections.
i want to draw autocad files( since i got experience in that aswell) save theese files to *.dxf ; get them interpretated in matlab and calculate the coordinates for the 3 steppers to go.
in my mind it does seem realizable but i would like to heart your opinions. am i reinventing the wheel? the first goal is to make it as cheap as possible and to learn as much as i can by doing it.
for more info just ask
Seriously though, there are a lot of information and options available for you to look at. An Arduino would be a good choice for interefacing between the mechanical and digital worlds required by this project, but there are a lot of ways to effectively do this. If you want to develop your own variation that's fine, but I would still take a look at what others are doing for inspiration and instruction.