More indexing stuff...

Re: More indexing stuff... *LINK*

Dave Paine

Very interesting. In the past few days I have been looking at the latest "credit card" sized computers, sometimes referred to as single board computers. These are a lot more powerful than the ones in the links. More memory, more I/o options including Arduino on some boards. Cost at low as $9.

I think I will have to get one of the computers and see if I can made an indexing controller. Should be an interesting project.

The link below is a video of 5 of these small powerful and inexpensive computers. A lot more on the market.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiYoxtL6Fmw

Re: More indexing stuff...

john lucas

It seems that if I touch anything electronic I screw it up. everytime I try to download an App on my phone it doesn't work properly. Same thing with the computer. I think I'll stick to doing things manually. I have an index head for my metal lathe. I'll just learn to use that. If it can be sharpened or fixed with a wrench I can do it. If you have to plug it in, forget it. Not worth the headache for me.

Re: More indexing stuff...

John K Jordan

I want to read that! I have a pile of Arduinos and associated modules and components. This system makes micro controllers SO much easier than before, especially with all the timers and I/O built in. And cheap! Hats off to the Italians.

If you can program in C this coding for this thing is a piece of cake with chocolate icing! And even if a beginner, there are so many examples on the web and in books that you can almost always find something already written that will do the job or can be modified easily.

The hardware is so cheap and reliable I'm seeing it embedded in commercial products. My little electric spinning wheel I told you about uses the chip to do nothing but control the speed, direction, and accel/decel of a DC motor, kind of like a tiny VFD.

I used someone else's code with an Arduino and a Bluetooth module to read digital scales and send the measurements to an android tablet to make an inexpensive 3-axis DRO and digital tach for my mill. The guy who is developing and improving this has a big following on Google+ - TouchDRO. The software and circuit were the simple part - "real soon now" I'll get the scales attached to the mill so I can use it...

Good clean fun!

JKJ

Re: More indexing stuff...

Tony - Memphis

I love Arduino! I have used various forms of them for all sorts of fun projects. I made a control for my shop dehumidifier, a control for an inline booster fan for the HVAC (trigger is current flow in AC cord), a tach for the lathe and drill press, etc. Adafruit is a great source for tutorials as is Sparkfun. There is a real time clock module available that might assist with building a clock. There are all sorts of Arduino clocks out there. I have an idea for a "linear" clock that I haven't gotten around to yet....someday. So many ideas, so little time. I also use one to control a solenoid to push a button on a scanner at work for testing the scanner. I have a thermisor and a emp/humidity sensor on my desk as we speak. Displays and other components are cheap on ebay if you are willing to wait for them to arrive from over yonder. Servos might be a good alternative to steppers if they will do what you need - much cheaper and much less power. Some will spin 360° too.

Fun stuff!

Tony

Re: More indexing stuff...

John K Jordan

Amazon is a good source: boards, sensors, relays, actuators, starter kits, books, etc.

JKJ

Re: More indexing stuff...

Rum

Dave,

Yeah the raspberrypi's and some of the other products available are actually pretty ridiculously powerful and cheap. I remember doing embedded projects in the early 90's and then again in the early 2000's and it just keeps getting more amazing.

For this use case I can't really see the performance adding any real value. In practice a simple PID would do the job just dandy. However, its certainly getting to the point where the more powerful stuff is cheaper than the less powerful stuff and is MUCH easier to program (at least in small quantities).

JKJ - I believe your spinning wheel is doing PWM (pulse width modulation) to control the speed? I made a stir plate for propagating yeast using a computer fan, a couple of hard drive magnets, and a simple PWM controller although it makes the fan scream in pain a little at lower speeds (ok its just harmonics but that's what it sounds like..). I've been looking for a source of GOOD and CHEAP dc motors to make some of those, most of the ones I've found fall short in a few areas (I'm also working on redoing the power supply to be more flexible which imposed a bunch of additional constraints)... I might actually end up going all the way back to something like a PID for controlling those (arduino for prototype, pid for production ) just for the power usage and reliability.

Re: More indexing stuff...

Dave Paine

I think I may have a new vortex sucking me in.......

Re: More indexing stuff...

Rum

I've already disclaimed responsibility for any vortex that may result from this... hehe

For easy at home pluggable components also check out https://www.sparkfun.com/ their prices aren't always (well.. ok.. ever.. )the best but they have a lot of nice easy to use components and projects laid out for you.

Re: More indexing stuff...

Leo Cuellar

Thank you for sharing your research. So many people doing such great things with all the new tech goodies!