I thought I would share my own thoughts and a very rough sketch on how I'm thinking. Not sure if it helps.
Green is wheels controlled by a Stepper, blue is spring loaded wheels.
Lime green is the cutter blade and the black is the actual wire.
I want this mounted in a chassi to keep it neat and boxed in. Inside, I can mount my PSU, Arduino, fan for cooling, engines etc. The mechanical I'm not worried about, but it's the items needed (so I can shop) for me to start to explore and learn the Ardunio code needed to pull this off.
List of items needed (all a big question mark still)
- 3 Nema17 or 23
- 3 stepper drivers
- 24v power supply
- Ardunio Uno
- Led display with input buttons (or X number of analog buttons corresponding to separate programs)
- 2 wheels for wire feeder
- 2 wheels spring loaded
- 2 180° cutter blades
My thoughts is that the Green wheels are mounted on one Stepper engine each with an opposing spring loaded wheel to keep the wire in place. Reason for 2 engines, one to pull the wire, one to control the length. Then a third engine to control the cutter blade.
My though of operation / functionality is to pick a predefined wire from a menu (the LED display or computer). The machine will then feed the predefined length of that cable and cut it and strip 3mm of each end.
From a programing stand point I'm thinking
- Move forward 3mm, do a cut deep enough to strip the wire, not cut the copper, back up 3mm to strip the end, Release cutter blades.
- Move forward the full length and cut the cable
- Back up 3mm and cut deep enough to strip the wire, then move forward 3mm to strip, release the cutter blades
This should repeat for the predefined number of wires.