[EFI-Unlimited]

Does the open source firmware have the capability/possibility to implement an electronic gearing function? I want to create an electronic leadscrew for my lathe and it would be nice if I could get the drive to do the heavy lifting, and just have to create some kind of simple interface to program it.

Brian

[EFI-Unlimited]

I have looked through some of the code, and it appears this would be possible. Is the latest open source code available on GitHub? GitHub has v1.006, and the Granite Devices talks about v2.0. Is 2.0 the motor control firmware, or the front end firmware?

Brian

[Al_The_Man]

The CNC servo controllers have to be under the control of a single controller not individual drives controlled separately as in Mach.
IOW the PID loop/encoders have to return to the single controller in order to gear one encoder off another in master/slave mode.
I believe Dynomotion/Kflop will do it.
Al..

[EFI-Unlimited]

Al,

I'm not sure your familer with my intended usage. This would be for a manual lathe, but instead of a mechanical gearbox linking the lead screw to the spindle, it would be done electronically via a spindle encoder and a servo driving the leadscrew. There is no need for a central motion controller, as there is only one servo.

The Argon drive Guidebook says it supports quadrature input as a means of set point input. This is half the battle, and the only thing left to create is a scaler between the quadrature input and the drive command.

Some servo drives already incorporate this functionality already, so, it's nothing new. What is so exciting about the Argon is the possibility of adding lathe leadscrew specific functionality.

Brian

[Al_The_Man]

I see, this appears to be a different application that the one I am accustomed to using Galil cards etc.
Al.