Shapeoko

[Ryan .]

Hi all, 

Happy to report that I've seen great progress on the shapeoko recently. 

The fusion 360 toolchain for the shapeoko is looking VERY promising for both 2.5D and 3D machining of mechanical parts. 

Thanks to anyone who has worked on this project, and thanks to Nick for showing me the toolchain ...last night? Can't even remember, but anyways, it's great. 

Really simple toolchain is really simple. Pronterface moves the machine manually, to load a toolpath you simply copy the NC file onto the mass storage that's presented by the shapeoko, to run the program you type play and the filename at a serial terminal. 

The post-processor is the only bit that I'm still not sure of, but I did manage to generate most of a very simple pocketing operation with a fusion cam post-processor I found online. I've contacted a team writing what will hopefully be a better one, and offered to help them test it with our machine!

Let's keep it going, I've left some gas struts next to the machine, it needs limit switches, an E-stop, and some solution for workholding, and if people want to mill PCBs that's on them, but beyond that it's nearly ready!

Excite!

R

[James Whiting]

Cool!

I thought that 360 already had a post for smoothie or is this the one you tried?

I would be happy to document the process for the wiki if someone could walk me through it? I could come down tonight if someone is around?

We should prioritise getting the limits and estop done. Obviously to make it safe for the user but also the machine. It would be a shame if the shapeoko was put out of action due to a crash.

Anyone familiar with the smoothieboard and want to get this done? Happy to help.

James

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From: Ryan .
Sent: ‎21/‎06/‎2016 01:47
To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko

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[Ryan .]

360 does have some posts for smoothie, I tried both, neither worked out of the box so there's some work to be done there. 

I think that rather than fixing the g-code by hand the posts should be updated, especially because they seem to be fairly human-readable and adding new ones to 360 is trivial. 

The current posts seem laser cutter oriented, rather than milling oriented, I know the folks working on the one I found online don't have a mill to test it on (or didn't last year) so I've offered ours as a testbed. 

[James Whiting]

I have been looking into fusion360 posts (I have been wanting to try moving my router to fusion360) so I am happy to investigate further.

What was wrong with the outputted gcode? What manual changes currently need to be made?

I will be down tonight if anyone is interested in helping?

James

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From: ry.w...@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 09:53:24 +0100
Subject: Re: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko
To: reading-...@googlegroups.com

[James Whiting]

I think I found your post to the smoothie support group (https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/smoothieware-support/aPGR6CvcSU4)

If the only issue in the gcode is the g28 (Homing) command, then as one of the posters says, disabling end stops in the smoothie config should fix it without post changes being needed.

BUT, I don't think we should do this. IMO we should get the end stops fixed in the correct positions and also enable them as limits (if not already done). Safer and easier to use.

I think I remember seeing end stop switches already wired but just loose in the enclosure?

---

From: pira...@hotmail.co.uk
To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 10:59:59 +0100

[Ryan .]

Yep, that's me! OK let's try it for prototyping but get the endstops, e-stops (and door interlock?) enabled sharpish. 

Also, as for the shapeoko itself, the other day when I was working with Nick I had to increase the current limit on the Z axis driver in order to get it over a sticky bit at the top of the travel. This was an increase from 4.2 A to 5 A as far as I remember. 

R

[Ryan .]

If someone does the physical mounting of the end stops, I'm happy to hook them up to the smoothieboard and configure it. 

[Ryan .]

Should the e-stop be implemented this way: http://smoothieware.org/pausebutton or should it be a more 'kill power to everything' sort of thing? What's safer? Do we actually want two buttons, one big mushroom top one and one nice recessed one?

[Ryan .]

Caution: scope creep - http://hackaday.com/2016/06/20/hackaday-prize-entry-diy-automatic-tool-changer/

[Matthew Daubney]

Do that on one of James machines, not the Shapeoko....

[Ryan .]

Yep, don't actually want to do it, just thought it was coo

[James Whiting]

E-stop should be a kill everything type of deal. machine would need to be re homed as steppers may have lost position.

Buttons that i would like to see would be:-

Cycle start - Start program/resume after pause/ resume after tool change etc
Pause - normally finishes the current command (empty's buffer) and then stops (does necessarily stop the spindle). Keeps stepper position. Cycle start to resume program.
Stop - Stops the current program while keeping stepper position.

Don't know what the smoothie supports but those hardware buttons would get my vote.

Do we have the hardware at the space for endstops/interlock/estop/wire? or would we need to buy?

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From: ry.w...@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:18:20 +0100

[James Whiting]

http://smoothieware.org/emergencystop

---

From: pira...@hotmail.co.uk
To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko

Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:52:20 +0100

[Ryan .]

Let's have a look, if anything needs buying let's identify part numbers.

R

[Ryan .]

So, thanks to Richard and James, there are homing switches fitted on both axes and wired in. 

Also, the accelerations and speeds (I think) are set up. 

R

[Matthew Daubney]

We need to make sure we keep a backup of the settings on the microsd somewhere.

[Ryan .]

Yep, for sure.

Next priorities:
e-stop/halt switches
Dust shoe and connecting to (Ian's awesome?) extract (of some kind?)

[al...@alexgibson.net]

We have a big red/green e-stop button for mains - this could be used for
the spindle perhaps?

You've all beaten me to the endstops which is great - so I will do the
air duct, then a dust shoe.

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko
> From: "Ryan ." <ry.w...@gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, June 22, 2016 8:12 am
> To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
>
>
> Yep, for sure.
>
> Next priorities:
> e-stop/halt switches
> Dust shoe and connecting to (Ian's awesome?) extract (of some kind?)
> On 22 Jun 2016 8:01 a.m., "Matthew Daubney" <ma...@daubers.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > We need to make sure we keep a backup of the settings on the microsd
> > somewhere.
> >
> > On Wednesday, 22 June 2016 01:22:53 UTC+1, Ryan wrote:
> >>
> >> So, thanks to Richard and James, there are homing switches fitted on both
> >> axes and wired in.
> >>
> >> Also, the accelerations and speeds (I think) are set up.
> >>
> >> R
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Ryan . <ry.w...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Let's have a look, if anything needs buying let's identify part numbers.
> >>>
> >>> R
> >>> On 21 Jun 2016 12:58 p.m., "James Whiting" <pira...@hotmail.co.uk>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> http://smoothieware.org/emergencystop
> >>>>

> >>>> ------------------------------

> >>>> From: pira...@hotmail.co.uk
> >>>> To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
> >>>> Subject: RE: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko
> >>>> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 12:52:20 +0100
> >>>>
> >>>> E-stop should be a kill everything type of deal. machine would need to
> >>>> be re homed as steppers may have lost position.
> >>>>
> >>>> Buttons that i would like to see would be:-
> >>>>
> >>>> Cycle start - Start program/resume after pause/ resume after tool
> >>>> change etc
> >>>> Pause - normally finishes the current command (empty's buffer) and then
> >>>> stops (does necessarily stop the spindle). Keeps stepper position. Cycle
> >>>> start to resume program.
> >>>> Stop - Stops the current program while keeping stepper position.
> >>>>
> >>>> Don't know what the smoothie supports but those hardware buttons would
> >>>> get my vote.
> >>>>
> >>>> Do we have the hardware at the space for endstops/interlock/estop/wire?
> >>>> or would we need to buy?
> >>>>

> >>>> ------------------------------

> >>>> ------------------------------

> >>>> From: pira...@hotmail.co.uk
> >>>> To: reading-...@googlegroups.com
> >>>> Subject: RE: [RDG-Hack] Shapeoko
> >>>> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2016 10:59:59 +0100
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> I have been looking into fusion360 posts (I have been wanting to try
> >>>> moving my router to fusion360) so I am happy to investigate further.
> >>>>
> >>>> What was wrong with the outputted gcode? What manual changes currently
> >>>> need to be made?
> >>>>
> >>>> I will be down tonight if anyone is interested in helping?
> >>>>
> >>>> James
> >>>>

> >>>> ------------------------------

> >>>> ------------------------------

[James]

Good call Matt - Whoever uses it next - could you please copy the config file to the wiki?

Estop - Richard supplied a nice estop button/switch that is sitting on top of the shapeoko. If we decide not to use it make sure it gets back to him.

[Ryan .]

There's a rlab github, it should go there. So should the post after we get it working properly.

R

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 3:34 PM, James <pira...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

Good call Matt - Whoever uses it next - could you please copy the config file to the wiki?

Estop - Richard supplied a nice estop button/switch that is sitting on top of the shapeoko. If we decide not to use it make sure it gets back to him.

[James]

ok cool - I have no clue how to use Github, I really must learn.

Fusion 360 standard smoothie post looks good on my machine (simple pocket). Haven't tested with smoothie but the "F100"'s have been replaced with my selected feeds so looks like it will work fine.

Ryan - Did your laptop ever get round to syncing the latest standard post?

[Ryan .]

We were using the latest standard smoothie post, it wasn't syncing the one we modified tho.

I haven't checked if it has synced.

--

[Jeremy Poulter]

I will be down tonight with any luck grab me and we can get the settings etc on GitHub.

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[James Whiting]

Thanks Jeremy. I cant make it tonight, anyone else about?

I have an account and I can see the reading hackspace github so I will see if I can figure out haw to use it later :)

[Alex Gibson]

Awesome stuff, thanks Ryan!!

Tapped on my mobile phone.

--

[James]

"We were using the latest standard smoothie post, it wasn't syncing the one we modified tho."

You sure? I thought, we first used the standard one you had in your post list (modified), this one had the F100 hard coded in it which slowed everything down.
We then downloaded the latest standard post from the autodesk website and this was the one we could not use and it wouldn't show in your list?

[Ryan .]

Na, we got the posts to sync once to get the standard one in, and then couldn't get it to go the second time (I think?)

Either way it needs confirming or work done on it.

R

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