CNC control

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
1

I am making a cnc mill at the moment, and I would like to use Arduino to control it in addition to mach3. That way I can easily manually move the mill without having to uce gcode.

The controller board which I have is here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-3-Axis-TB6560-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Board-Controller_W0QQitemZ170437605124QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item27aedf7704

The limit switches are these ones:
http://dev.www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/OptoEndstop_2_1
, 1 for each axis

The manual interface has these inputs on DA15 connector
X Step
X Enable
Spindle Motor
X Dir
Y Enable
Z Dir
Z Step
Z Enable
Y Limit
Z Limit
Y Dir
Y Step
STOP
GND
5v/VDD

Then I was thinking about using a wiimote of some sort to control it:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.24583

or maybe the classic one
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.28931

So I need to controll x,y,z axis start/stop spindle and set home. Which buttons/joystick would be logical to do this?

Would u recomand getting an extension cable or the pcb that sparkfun sell to hook up the Wii controller? http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.19116

And I need a display to show the position, which one?
Finally i need to hook it all up to the arduino, should I buy a shield at sparkfun to this? I have arduino duemille nove and mega laying around.

Any tips how to get the machine up running.

2

Go to the exhibition section and start looking at all the CNC projects there. Also do a google search on CNC projects.

3

Have you thought about an old NES controller, you got X & Y and the A and B buttons for Z, the START button for start/stop and SELECT for set home.
People have connected them up before http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1254964306 so some work is (kind of) done for you.

4

nes controllers are dead easy, playstation controllers have been done a zillion times too, tho much more complex due to its serial communications

not anything against the wimote, its been done a ton too, but just tossing out options

5

So i guess I will go ahead and by the wii classic
I am using the reprap software, need to slightly modify it to allow input from the wii mote. Sorry, can't seem to find anything with arduino cnc wii on google.. So I guess I have to try it out myself..