[lmlamb]

Kevin,

You are right about the settings. I found that the happy median is at about 10K for the steps and 10 IPM for the accel. It appears that this is the speed that the machine likes the most. The patterns do affect the operation of the settings, I have to do the scaling thing on the patterns to get them down to an acceptable size. One thing, if the pattern is too big, it is difficult to scale down to a very small size. I have one that was originally 8 to 10 inches, that my wife wanted to fit into a 4 inch block. That really caused the machine to slow down badly. The remedy was to cull some of the nodes out of the pattern to increase the speed that way. It worked pretty well. I'm going to post some images today, since I have the day off. (boy is that a rare thing). So when you wake up there should be some new ones posted.

[Khalid]

Deviant... I will reply you shortly in details... My above software is a Gcode generator for EMBROIDERY DST files...This is not for Quilting purpose.. However soon i will add some source code for making Gcode for Quilters.. But again you have to design in some Embroidery software , export it into DST format import it into my software and Generate a Gcode..

You need Mach3/EMC or Kcam software to run your machine.. Just install the VB run time files and run my above program.. For run time files you can download it
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192461

I will be happy to help you.
Regads

[KOC62]

Hi, Khalid.
This is a fascinating thread (no pun intended) I bumped onto.
My wife saw a local quilting show recently and reported to have seen a quilting machine that looked a bit like yours. It triggered (in me) an interest in building a similar unit but leaning towards embroidery.

I have been promised a "retired" 1970's sewing machine from an aquaintance that I plan to experiment with some day. However, I first want to finish building my MDF CNC wood router that I started last year. ...slow go.

What I'm puzzled about is how a single sewing machine can do embroidery with one continous thread per colour. Won't the pattern contain miriads little threads that need to be cut? e.g. how do cross stitches look "clean" without all the little junction threads? (I'm assuming it makes one cross stitch before proceeding to the next.)

I'm trying to visualize the stitching mechanics of embroidery and imagined drawing the pattern (single colour) with a pencil but not lifting the pencil from the paper until the pattern is done. I think it would look messy, and require a lot of cleanup work. Is there a forum thread that explains how this rocedure might work?

I'm also interested in the embroidery software design of various stitch patterns and how it may be done in principle. I'm not looking for specific machine source code at this point, - only ideas of how it may be done.

Curious....

[Switcher]

Khalid,

I get the same error that Deviant is getting, when trying to run your program.

I've installed the http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192461 VB run time files, reboot, & still get the error.

Win XP.

[supertechster]

All,
Thanks for the invite.. and your commentary, advice and offers of assistance. I have 4 pictures of the Quilt Frame/Machine that I got her, and my thought was that 'Embroidery' is applicable because one could load or program in a simple repeating pattern, lock FWD/REV motion and repeat it the length of the quilt from LEFT/RIGHT, then advance the rollers - or Lock LEFT/RIGHT to 12-18" and simply embroider something in the 16" by 18" block.. then repeat either advancing the quilt on the rollers, or unlocking, moving and relocking another area.

Her frame has 'drag' adjustments and clockwork gears and pawls to lock the quilt in place, and each of the infeed rollers (Top/Bottom and Batting or Pad/foam) lock opposite in direction to the machine-side take-up roller which means I'd have to synchronize the roller steppers to maintain a degree of tension. If I manually flip all the infeed pawls to the unlocked position, I can easily turn the machine-side take-up roller by hand so I doubt it would take a very beefy motor... maybe one with a little gear or pulley driving a bigger one - or some other way it could be 'disengaged' to load and unload when the quilt is 1/2 way done.

The machine on the X-Y carriage is so easy to move, all it takes (with needle up) is a gentle push, and it will move the length of the quilt (like balls on a billiard table) The actual platform is made of 3/4" marine-grade plywood in 2 parts (14" x 24") and weighs 10-12lb, and the machine itself about 40-50lb more. I did not weigh it but can guess good. It is all adjusted and calibrated and I will only dismount if necessary. Anyway, I can easily fabricate mounts for or remake it to accomodate a step-motor and cable or feedscrew drive. I haven't actually opened her 'baby' up yet, but by just listening to it tells me the motor(s) are in the lower half, and probably uses belt drive to propel a bearing-mounted driverod and gearing in the top part. That might be good as I can measure the motor dimensions and find a suitable stepper to replace it with.

Handles on the front have a start-stop button, speed controller is a little box on top, and the rear handles are angled for the Pantograph/Laser work. I began searching the web for free or nearly free goodies, and found alot of stuff about sources, motors, drive-arrangements, electronics, interfacing and the like I can also share with you guys. The search term 'Robotics' will help anyone looking for light, dark, edge-sensing, trigger, sensor, audio, visual, drop-dead or similar circuitry for their projects. Interested?

[supertechster]

Can someone tell me how to add pictures?

[supertechster]

2nd Try - Pictures of Longarm Machine and Frame as promised







Still not working - perhaps Quick Reply can't do Images? Will try POST next. Sry.

[supertechster]

3d try - Prob too big will Zip and Attach using paperclip function on top menu
Nope.... Files are only 7Kb Jpeg and Zip won't work either. Now I'll try Manage Attachments button. No good either Upload of Zip Failed

<< Someone please delete these Pictures not loading posts. Thks.

[Switcher]

supertechster,

I don't think cnczone is the problem.

I think it's the craigslist URL/link you are trying to hot-link to,

Example, your first image (dead link):
http://images.craigslist.org/3ke3p93...4deced1464.jpg

[Khalid]

Currently uploading the File onto Rapidshare...
Procedure...

Step-1: Just Unpack "Gcode Generator.rar"
Step-II: Now run SETUP.

This will install this program with all the dependency files... Once your this installation complete, I will post the revisions with only EXE file that you will replace in the Main folder..

Regards

[Khalid]

Following is the link to download
http://rapidshare.com/files/35785873..._Generator.rar

Procedure...

Step-1: Download above file
Step-II: Just Unpack "Gcode Generator.rar"
Step-III: Now run SETUP.

Please feedback...

[Khalid]

Now just replace the executable in the main folder with this one and the save function is now working.

[Khalid]

OOps.. Okay, after installing the program..START--->All Program--->Embroidery Gcode Generator--->Embroidery Gcode Generator

Check if this above is working..If not just open Program Files folder and replace the executable file with the executable i posted in post No 215..The above executable file has save function also..

Sorry for inconvenience...

[supertechster]

OK. The pics on my machine were cached website photos. I found the orig and have attached. Hope it worked this time (nuts)

[Deviant]

What brand is that machine?

Looks like you have a good start for a cnc'able quilting machine.

Based on your machines layout, I would expect that you will either have do something like the qcquilter sidemount or the quilting solutions sidesaddle.

Or you will have to make a new carriage for tha machine to ride on. If you build a new carriage to house the motors/controls. You will probably have to raise the bars by the new carraige height.

What is the total length of the bars that the quilts roll onto?

**

Appears to be a hobby quilter, that is now sold by nolting as the funquilter...

http://www.funquilter.com/

As above, looks like you might have gotten your wife a pretty decent deal and a good start at the cnc project

[supertechster]

It is a 'Nolting Hobby Quilter' and the frame is currently 10' (120") long.

I plan to remake the platform to accomodate the mechanicals which will probably be a single Step motor mounted on the Main table that goes side to side with either feedscrew or piano wire connection to drive the table the machine is mounted on, and another stepper motor mounted on one end of the frame which would pull/push the entire carriage with mounted machine from end-to-end using vinyl-covered wire and a tensioning pully on the other frame end. I also want to add Single-cycle function to the needle, motors to the rollers for quilt advancement and stitch regulation and auto speed control. A PC mouse offers rotary encoders cheap - I just have to figure out how and where to mount them... and how to connect, sample and utilize their outputs ;-)

I'll take some closeup pics of the whole thing for u guys. As always, your help is appreciated - Its a dream she's had for ~5 yrs now.

[supertechster]

I took a chance this AM and took off some covers of her machine to see what, if any modifications, additions or changes I'd have to make to add the auto variable-speed, stitch regulation and single/multi stroke options. The front right side plate revealed the needle drive mechanism which is comprised of some levers and ball-socket connectors to rotary wheels to produce the up-down motion, It will be easy to hot glue a magnet inside the tube, with a bit sticking out, and a reed switch or Hall-effect transistor to sense its position and enable or disable further operation as required by the current function. Start would cycle only once to pick up the bobbin thread, color change would cycle 2x with a pause in between, and end of stitch would cycle 4-6x to anchor the end.

The main (and only) drive motor is surprisingly a 90v DC one. It may not be necessary to replace it with a stepper, but if I need to I can. 90v DC means we can use CNC Mach functions to vary the voltage to the motor from 0 to 90v based on the speed of lateral motion which as I said in an earlier post 'could' be gleaned by the outputs of the rotary encoders.

Instead of remaking the X-Y platform, I may just mount a motor underneath it, which will drive the FWD/REV motion of the carriage. I have ~12 stepping motors, from 1.2 to 24v various power, step and physical sizes to choose from.

Pictures here: http://img651.imageshack.us/g/entireneedleheadassy.png/
Thanks!

[Deviant]

http://img651.imageshack.us/i/entireneedleheadassy.png/

In this picture, what is the cross bar with the 3 bolts for? Is that the hopper foot lever?


****

auto variable-speed, stitch regulation and single/multi stroke options.
hot glue a magnet inside the tube, with a bit sticking out, and a reed switch

I wouldn't put anything extra in the needle assembly area. All of those parts move with a lot of speed and get covered in oil. If your part was to come off. It might get interesting. I'd look at making a different manual turn knob for the back of the machine. Then I would make an interrupt disk to be used with cnc4pc's index pulse card.

http://www.cnc4pc.com/Store/osc/prod...roducts_id=129

You'd just need to make sure that your interrupt disk was timed with the rotation of your machine as needed.

Start would cycle only once to pick up the bobbin thread, color change would cycle 2x with a pause in between, and end of stitch would cycle 4-6x to anchor the end.

This aspect will be left up to the program. The pickup and color change aspects, will probably need to remain manual. The tack stitching could be added to the end of your g-code. I.e. Repeat the last 4 steps in reverse.

I'm not 100% sure how your machine does it, but when my wife pulls up the bobbin thread, there is a decently long tail, that needs to be clipped off. If you start sewing over the tail without clipping. It's difficult to remove it later. Hence I think that it needs to be manual.

vary the voltage to the motor from 0 to 90v
gleaned by the outputs of the rotary encoders.


This part will be interesting. I suspect that you don't want to vary the voltage. At least that is what my previous research showed. Instead I modified the duty cycle of the 90v. So that it was only on 50% of the time. If you checked the output with a volt meter it would read 90v, but the motor would turn very slow. I did this via a PWM signal and a n-channel mosfet.

Unfortunately, it didn't work exactly how I wanted it to. At midrange speeds up to max voltage it was fine. At mid and lower, the machine would stall. So there was a minimal amount of speed that had to be maintained, or the stitches weren't regulated to exact lengths. This would not be a problem for a cnc controlled machine, but if she wanted to do free motion. It wouldn't really be ideal. I haven't devoted any more brain cycles to it. I'm sure it can and has been done. Just need to think about it.

My last ideal was to use a stepper/servo and a gecko or like controller. I would take the outputs from the encoders and generate step/dir pulses that would turn the motor. I had a few emails with Marcus from Geckodrive on this, but I think he lost interest or got busy. I was using an arduino to generate the PWM and planned to use it to generate the step pulses. My concern/reservations is that the arduino wasn't responsive enough. I'm sure that this came from my code and it could probably be improved. However there is a certain delay as it reads the encoders. You will miss some pulses while you are doing other things. You will need to think about how to over come this. Original thought was to take a time stamp, then change the speed based on the number of pulses received in that interval. Which caused most of the lag. However, if you change the speed on every encoder pulse, you get way to much movement. There needs to be debounce type logic. I.e. Are you really moving? How fast are you moving...

I believe most of the quilting companies are using analog products for this. I don't know enough about electronics to gather the parts needed. But I'm fairly confident that can be handled with a digital solution. My solution was "close" but not good enough.

Instead of remaking the X-Y platform, I may just mount a motor underneath it, which will drive the FWD/REV motion of the carriage. I have ~12 stepping motors, from 1.2 to 24v various power, step and physical sizes to choose from.


This part will involve some doodling on your part. You will need to figure out the best way to do it, while staying out of the way of other parts. Also, you need to keep the weight down, if your wife is going to do any free motion. I believe that this is the reason that people make the side mounts. However if you balance everything right, I don't think that the extra weight from the motors will make much difference. You will need to be able to disengage from the x-y axis though. I.e. quick release clamp on belt.

The Gammill sewing machines are ~30-50lbs, so I doubt that you will get that heavy with your setup. So she should still be okay.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

-Deviant

[supertechster]

Once again, thanks for the quick reply, intelligent response and insight needed to properly complete this project. I was going to design/build my own 2-3axis motor driver, but then found this 3-motor unit for a good price of $44.00 USD: http://www.chromationsystems.com/sto...roducts_id=207

Does anyone here have any experience with this model? I probably won't need the 3d axis, but thought it 'might' be useful for an automatic, motor-driven something or other addition later on.

You are right that the rear hand-knob would be a better place for the needle-position sensor, but I didn't relish 'decoding' rotary pulses into Up/Dn position, when a tiny NeDyn magnet siliconed in the right place and a nearby Hall-Effect transistor might do the trick. I also didn't feel comfortable drilling a hole for a magnet into any of the handwheels... but on closer inspection, a small one could be hot-glued into the setscrew holes already there... or a dab of light/dark paint (or 2 for very accurate timing) could be used on the outside edge, with a reflective-type Sensor. 1 full turns of that rear handwheel produces 1 and 3/4 needle cycles. Perhaps the 3rd axis could be used here?

A Reed switch, although too slow to react to a high-speed up-down operation might work too for the slow cycling requirement, as it would cease to respond if the up-down motion passed a certain stroke-frequency, which the operator could easily force by simply holding down the start button. It could also simply count the stitches in slow mode, and stop the machine when proper number was reached for bobbin or color-change or tieoff.

The long bar is the hopper foot rocker arm/lever.

My motor collection is huge, but so far I have Identified: 12x Unipolar, 3.9v, 1.5a... 4x BiPolar, 4v, 1.5a... 2x 32v, 3a BiPolar and 1x 40v, 1a oddball ;-) All are spares from my days repairing Daisy-Wheel, Impact, Dot-Matrix and Laser printers. All are around 3" long by 2.5' Dia and offer 180steps/rev.

Lastly, the 3rd axis 'could' also be the main motor, however a PIC or computer-controlled PWM driver for the 90VDC main motor would definitely be the way I'd want to proceed, and one offering constant-current would prevent stalling in slow mode operation. I have begun collecting info on PIC programming and PWM controllers and will have more to report tomorrow. For now, I am gonna grab 2 buards, some rollers and v-track and duplicate the carriage... then add a motor and experiment with several versions of drive (wire, flat cable, feedscrew) see how I'm going to 'drive' it all.

[supertechster]

Here's a few interesting sites for controller/driver boards I found:
[http://www.stepgenie.com/] Additional parts for 1 Axis/Motor needed

[http://www.chromationsystems.com/sto...oducts_id=207] No additional parts for 3 Axis/Motors needed - More here: [http://www.instructables.com/id/Para...pto-Isolated/]

[http://www.piclist.com/techref/io/st...tep/index.htm] Additional parts for 1 Axis/Motor needed

[http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/control2/] Information and circuit samples

Enjoy!