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  1. #16
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    Jun 2005
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    OK, this is all beyond my understanding at the moment but we have to start somewhere. My initial thoughts were to try and run it from a tablet, is that even possible using Beaglebone? I see where the hompage says that

    BeagleBone Black ships with the Debian GNU/Linux™ in onboard FLASH to start evaluation and development. Many other Linux distributions and operating systems are also supported on BeagleBone Black including:

    • Ubuntu
    • Android
    • Fedora

    Does that mean I can load software onto the tablet to control the movement and not have an external keyboard or do I have to have a laptop hooked up? OR do I have to have a computer hooked up? My thinking (hoping??) was to mount a small tablet on the machine to achieve this as I think any other way is not realistic. Something like this

    TouchDRO Project | Yuriy's Toys

    Apologies for appearing thick about all this stuff but it is a steep learning curve for me.
    CHRIS

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  3. #17
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Far North Queensland
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    No need for apologies, it is a lot to take in and I was a bit general on a few things.

    The Beaglebone is basically a small PC in itself and some clever people decided to run a version of linuxcnc on it.

    The guys from Xylotex made a nice add on card that has the same parallel port (DB25) connector as a standard PC running controller software and made the connections pin compatible with a standard setup.

    When I got mine they offered a complete setup, including the Beaglebone, the add on card and a pre loaded flash card, all for about $120.00 Au so you basically plug it all in and turn it on, no need to flash anything. All I had to do was setup the software to suit the machine. It is pretty neat.

    I had a quick look on their website and they don't seem to offer that kit any more, I will email them today and see if it will be available any time soon.

    As for the screen, you plug a PC monitor directly into the Beaglebone, as well as a keyboard (using a USB hub) I don't know about using a tablet, I think that would complicate things a bit more, but if you are going to mount it onto the machine an old fasioned small PC monitor would be pretty much the same as a tablet, bit bigger I guess.

    I will do some research and get back to you about getting a machine ready kit like I bought, or something similar, it really simplifies things.

    Cheers.

    Russell.

  4. #18
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    Nov 2008
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    Far North Queensland
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    You got me thinking and I have looked around for something more suited than the Beaglebone, but without much success, the best option would most likely be to use an Arduino based board and program it to suit, but that is a bit out of my league.

    I'll keep looking.

    Russell.

  5. #19
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    Thanks for all your help Russel, I will PM you shortly.
    CHRIS

  6. #20
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Far North Queensland
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    So while going through my stuff I discovered that my servo drives can actually be made to do exactly what is required with a firmware change, although there is a catch. To do so, they need a serial command, and I don't know how to do that without a PC connected, but if there was a simple serial command sender then that would work.

    The "downside" is using a servo instead of stepper, long story short it adds slight complexity and slight cost, a servo from Peter Homman is about $89 bucks, then it needs an encoder, another $50 bucks. On the upside no extra controller is needed, so no Beaglebone or similar.

    It is also much simpler, the drive will need parameters to be set (via serial terminal conveniently), then it will move as requested, also has the added function of a fault signal in case of a mechanical jam or incorrect position due to an unexpected issue.

    I don't know how it handles homing at startup, let me look into it tomorrow, I'm using an open source servo controller, the Elm Chan, very handy little drive.

    Cheers.

    Russell.

  7. #21
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    Nov 2008
    Location
    Far North Queensland
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    Looked further and I don't think my drive would suit for a couple of reasons, no traditional homing as such and the positioning is relative from what I can tell and based on encoder counts, so it would not be as simple as entering a value in mm.

    I got a reply from Jeff at Xylotex and he said that the Beaglebone now holds the program onboard and doesn't require an SD card, so he doesn't sell the complete kit anymore, just his card that plugs into the Beaglebone.

    Still looking for a better solution than the Beaglebone.

    Russell.

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