Category Archives: Motion Control

On the Cheap: Supported Linear Rail…

Supported linear rail can be quite expensive, at over $100 per rail per meter, not including shipping.  An alternative support was theorized using 3/8″ threaded rod, drilled, tapped and screwed into the rail.  Today it was assembled and tested, and … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, DIY, Mechanical, Motion Control | 4 Comments

Face Detection and RC Servos

Yesterday I gave a guest lecture at the Korea National University of the Arts  in an Arduino class taught by my friend Uram Choe, an amazing mechanized sculpture artist.  As seen above, if you like metal working, gears and motors, you … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, Computer Vision, How to, Motion Control, Processing | 12 Comments

LocoMotion: MMA8453 with Interrupts…

In the previous post about the MMA8453_N0m1 library we talked about how to get the stream of raw XYZ data back from the accelerometer.  In this post we will be getting into some of the more advanced features of the … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, Embedded, How to, Motion Control, Sensors | 4 Comments

CNC Half Nuts: The Smell of Melting Plastic…

After cutting down the Y axis screw for the CNC gantry router project we had a short piece of 3/4 inch Acme leadscrew remaining that was just long enough to drive the Z-axis.  Buying an ACME tap to make a … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, DIY, How to, Mechanical, Motion Control | 5 Comments

CNC Gantry Router: Collecting Bits & Pieces…

Bit by bit, piece by piece we have been slowing collecting the parts for the build.  We just picked up a 400lb steel table measuring in at 5×8 feet that will be the basis of the build.  An acme thread … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, Mechanical, Motion Control | 5 Comments

6DOF Arduino: Compass & Accelerometer

This Arduino library is a mixed bag containing a number of functions to facilitate rapid sensor integration between a three axis compass and a three axis accelerometer.  Where speed is required, function math is 8.8 fixed point, while non-performance functions … Continue reading

Posted in Arduino, Electronics, Embedded, How to, Motion Control, Sensors | 38 Comments

Side Project: CNC Gantry Router

A friend brought over some plastic to CNC mill about a week ago and we got talking about  CNC gantry routers and the currently in development DC Servo Drive.  Eventually as all things go, we talked ourselves into the idea … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, DIY, How to, Mechanical, Motion Control | 2 Comments

DC Servo: In a State of Motion…

Amongst tryptophan’s slumbering depression and returning unwanted gifts of another dreary chrism past, with step and direction the DC Servo Project marches valiantly into the new year… Software and hardware development have converged into a practical test platform. The encoder … Continue reading

Posted in AVR, CNC, Electronics, Embedded, Encoder, Mechanical, Motion Control | 6 Comments

Inline Assembly: A Fast Quadrature Decoder…

Inline assembly is a great tool to have in your programming arsenal. It gets things done as fast as a kitten chasing a hummingbird, yet retains the usability and portability of C code. This bit will decode a quadrature input … Continue reading

Posted in ASM, AVR, Embedded, Encoder, Motion Control, Sensors | 4 Comments

NoMi Locus: DC Servo kit…

NoMi Design has been hard at work creating a CNC capable DC Servo Motion Controller. Based on an earlier design for the “Topology of Dubai” project, the new drive combines an easy to assemble through-hole kit paired with smarter software … Continue reading

Posted in CNC, Electronics, Mechanical, Motion Control | 18 Comments