An approach to CNC and Laser Mode
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Hallo Christian,
My homebuild CNCrouter was controlled by CNC-Profi, a DOS software via parallel port for years. Main was and is woodwork but also cutting bras and aluminum works fine. It has ball screws, Berger Lahr 5 Phase stepper, end stops and a Kress spindle. Dimensions are: X 550mm, Y 1250mm and Z 260mm.
Because modern computers are too fast for CNC-Profi software due to a Pascal software bug, I was looking for a solution to replace the old PC.
First modifications direction 3D printing were done with cheap china Extruders and Megatronics board.
High performance and Ethernet connection were reasons to switch to Duet3D Ethernet and DuetWebControl. With the support of Wiki, 3D print setup was done fast.
For CNC application I was missing a work piece coordinate system, some controls to switch spindle on and off, a more precise method to change feedrate override and a method to move spindle to work piece zero position by "hardware" eg. keyboard, switches connected to I/O pins or jog wheel.
I did some modifications on DWC version 1.22.4:
- Buttons were added to switch between FFF, CNC and Laser mode. Did not work in Laser mode but a plasma cutter is waiting for integration.
- Temperature chart in FFF mode is replaced by a window to enter workpiece coordinates, spindle control buttons and feedrate override buttons for CNC- and Lasermode.
- extra configuration files are called by buttons to select or deselect heaters of Extruders and bed etc.
- As a workaround I reused machine name to spread work piece offset coordinates and machine mode between DWC-clients. May be there are other solutions.
- Jogging is still done with original jog buttons of DWC UI with one hand on emergency switch. Maybe there is a hardware solution in the future as already described above.
- These modifications were done fitting for my needs.
- For CNC and Laser G-Code I use Estlcam. An Estlcam "Post-Processor" configuration file handles tool change etc.
- Not yet working is an entry of tool length during tool change.
- It was my first approach to HTML and JS project modifications.
I know that you have a lot of work with development of DWC 2.0. If you are interested in integrating some ideas of this approach in future releases of DWC 2.0 please let me know where to share modified DWC-software and configuration files.
FFF-Mode
CNC-Mode selected
Laser Mode is similar to CNC-Mode
Tool change at the beginning
Next tool change later on. Messages are generated by post processor of Estlcam.Cheers Hermann
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Did they ever have a look at this? I want to use the duet to control my 4th axis/indexer but I would need a lot simpler interface for it.
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Chrishamm (who maintains Duet Web Control) is very busy right now with Duet 3 work, but I am sure he will review this DWC wish list when he has more time.
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I want to use it. Is file sharing possible? I want it politely.
