6 axis hotwire cnc
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So... I have a pretty intricate idea of a hotwire cnc and have glanced at linuxcnc, pondered over klipper and even grbl5x, but duet seems to solve my problems more easily, but i thought id check with the pros!?
Background: A hotwire cnc is basically four axis divided in two with a wire attached between. The axis move independantly. XY is left tower and UZ (or any abbreviation) is right side tower, google "hotwire cnc" for images describing the basic kinematics better. The wire is heated and thus will slowly cut xps foam or the like by radiation. Its could be compared to a wire edm machine perhaps but its not really it. Kerf comp is done in cam so the control wont have to worry about this.
Kinematics; what id like;
Id want to adapt the corexy kinematics found in voron printers for my purposes. This means 2x corexy kinematics moving independently. Also ud like to add two rotary axis, one rotary table and one rotary chuck/vise. Ofcourse i want endstops for homeing.Gui; id like to graphically preview what each tower is doing in gcode, like a wire frame (2d), for both towers, the rotaries i dont care about but would be handy to rotate them 90deg increments etc.from.the control.
Nema17 motors are sufficient for this project, but may use 23?
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@graesand, RepRapFirmware should already support that kinematics. You will need to create the UVAB axes using M584, and use M669 to specify Cartesian (or CoreXY) kinematics, but provide a custom matrix to specify how XYUV map to the corresponding motors.
You will need to do the preview GUI yourself. You may be able to adapt the existing GCode preview plugin in Duet Web Control.
For the hardware, you will need 7 motor drivers assuming a single Z motor. If you want to use Nema23 motors then I suggest you use a Duet 3 MB6HC as the base board. To drive the 7th motor you can use a Tool Board if it is a Nema 17 with modest current requirement; otherwise EXP3HC. If you decide that Nema 17 motors are sufficient, then a Duet 3 Mini with the Mini2+ expansion board should suffice.
