Dyn4 and Arduino rs232 communication

I've been told I can do a simple point to point motion control system (1 axis) using the rs232 command into the dyn4 drive from an arduino micro controller. Has anyone here done this? It looks like its doable, just some programming I'm not familiar with yet. So far I like the dyn4 drives and motors I have in my plasma table build and am looking at using them in my press brake retrofit.

What I am trying to do, or find a way to do, is control my electric crowning axis on my press brake. I have found a 6 axis controller that will run the rest of the press brake very nicely but it runs out of room to do the crowning as well, so the plan is to set that up as a standalone axis and control. Basically a servo motor turns a shaft that has several different pitch threaded rods that move several wedges in and out to bow or flatten the bottom die to account for deflection of the upper ram on long bends. Not changed on every bend and not used on every job.

What I want or need is this;
-servo with brake attached to axis
-a digital readout of current position on control console,
-number pad on console to be able to enter a dimension and then a push button to make it goto that entered dimension
-another pushbutton to make the axis home of a prox switch for dead flat position
-possibly a pair of buttons for jogging

It sounds like the Arduino can use the rs232 communication direct with the drive and ask for current position and command it to a new position. One thing I'm not positve about yet is how to handle the home routine and also am not 100% on the communication routine either yet.

If anyone has done something like this or can offer info on this would be greatly appreciated. I've looked at the cheap 1 axis cnc controllers from China and while they would probably work, #1 they are right from china, #2 they do alot of other stuff I don't need like G code programming that will just wind up confusing anyone but me that might run the machine.

JPMach

Have you looked at the DMM index card, this is stand alone, and will do up to 4 axes, with a simple program

Have not seen that, got a link? Only board I saw on their site was a mach3 breakout board, I don't want to have to have a PC to run it. The Dmm tech guy I've been talking to says the arduino route should be pretty easy just a matter of spending some time reading the manual for the DYN4 rs232 communication and learning how to do the arduino side of it. This would utilize the point to point movement that is built into the Dyn4 drive itself, the Arduino would pretty much just be the interface.

JPMach

Yes your arduino will work,with lots of time to integrate it, but something like this Index card, is ready to go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kRdqi_sCg4

Hmm, I'll ask the tech I've been talking with about it. Might work, says 8 bit external position trigger. I'm wondering how I can enter a dimension and have it goto. Could be it only steps through a pre programmed set of positions, will find out and see.

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What I want or need is this;
-servo with brake attached to axis
-a digital readout of current position on control console,
-number pad on console to be able to enter a dimension and then a push button to make it goto that entered dimension
-another pushbutton to make the axis home of a prox switch for dead flat position
-possibly a pair of buttons for jogging

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Having an arduino communicate over serial is fairly trivial on its own, but integrating all these features suddenly turns it into a substantial project.

Frankly I think linuxcnc would be the easiest way to accomplish your goal here. With linuxcnc you basically get every feature you want (jogging, position display, homing, keyboard input, etc...) for free. Your problem is quite simple so any computer you can pull out of the trash will be sufficient.

The DMM servos have absolute encoders so depending on how your system is mechanically arranged you might not need a home/limit. I believe the DMM drives have an option to automatically turn to an absolute position on power up. In this case you could use step/dir since the starting position is known.

The tech told me the Indexing card is for development use only and it wouldn't handle a lcd and all it does it run through a pre programmed set of moves one after the other.

I found this article and video, looks promising, maybe I can do something like that instead of a full on keypad atleast to start with. should be able to add some math to the program so that the position display is in a meaningful number like inches or mm, but maybe it would be easier to go this route and not the rs232 route. Though the rs232 route would remove alot of the processing burden from the arduino and simply be reading the postion from the drive and sending a position to move to rather than thousands of step pulses and having to monitor and record an encoder position.

Snailworks Electronic Index Build Log
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfamr2HbIPk

He has all the code for his available as well so I would at least have a good starting point.