I thought rather than just display the co-ordinates I should use the scales to locate the tool on the fly, so I made a computer to read them and move the table and everything else I could think of
Rather than burden the processor reading the scales directly I decided to do it in hardware. When the scale report comes in I just read 3 bytes on an interrupt and I have it. Only one scale wired in so far but it's reading and I have the result coming out on a serial line and it agrees with the scale :wave:
The prototype is looking a bit moth eated with all the modifications, but it works. It all wires up with cheap 8 pin patch cords so no problem if they get crunched.
The scales have pcb's screwed to them so the flea squeak signal only has to make it half an inch before it becomes a good solid 5 volts. They also have optical end detectors so I know where to zero it should the battery go flat.
Just got it reading the scale and felt like a quick whoopy doo because it's taken me weeks, thank you for reading to