My adventures with Auggie.

[tweakie]

A previously used image converted from 8 bit greyscale to 1 bit dithered and then reproduced using an impact magnet.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

wow, certainly decorates an aluminum plate. Nice work!

Art

[tweakie]

Thanks Art.

Tweakie.

[tweakie]

This 1 bit image was laser produced (etching black paint off aluminium).

Something I would like to be able to do is a similar image (which has not been dithered) using an impact magnet but I am unable to reduce the Pulse Repetition Frequency of the PWM signal to below 1kHz.

Is there any way to get the PRF down to a minimum of say 10Hz or so ?

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweaky:

  Nice graphic..

  Ill check on next opening of Auggie's code. It seems to me that
the laser-spindle library has a setting of the base frequency,
set currently to 5khz base, but I think by editing the  laser-spindle
file you can change the 5khz to anything..

Art

[ArtF]

Tweaky:

  If you hit the LIB button and open the GCode folder, youll find the
laser-spindle library, its in C Script and starts with

global LaserAxis = p.GetInt("Axis",8);
global LaserMaxPower = 100;  //max power = 100%
global LaserPWMPeriod = p.GetFloat("Period",.0002); //for 5khz tickle 
global LaserPWMChannel = p.GetInt("Channel",4);
//get a pokeys link for the spindle
global SpindleControl = Motion();

  If you change .0002 to the period youd like to check, it should work
so that you go from 0-100% with a period of whatever you set. So if
youd like 1khz, just set to .001 for the period instead of .0002 as my laser
uses.
 
  If you look through the file youll find the macros that actually control
the laser output and you can vary them as you like.

Art

[tweakie]

Excellent !

Thanks Art, I will give that a try. I am looking for around 50Hz to 80Hz at the moment. Although I have kept the mass of my electromagnet solenoid as low as I possibly can I still cannot achieve the PRF of the Metaza. Still, having a diamond tip I think I can give granite (and glass) a good run for it?s money  ;D

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

Let me know if you hit a brick wall, Ill dig deeper for you. Ive been
working on the new CAD module for about a year, so my memory is cloudy
on some of Auggies specifics, I always have to go back and figure out how I
did things in questions like this, but in general, for almost every action Auggie takes in reference to hardware, a script is the end handler.

  You can open any with LIB, select "Local Edit" and the script library will
open in your scripts MDI window for editing, unless your in programmers mode when it will open in the code debugger. Usually you dont need the debugger module open to do simple changes, its more for developing a complex script or complete hardware libraries.
 
  So if you open for local edit, you can just change the .0002 to .001 and then select LIB again, and press "Check In". If the script has no errors, it will light
up green in its list, otherwise red. From that point forward the base freq will be 1KHZ.

  You could also copy the spindle laser library and create one called Spindle PIN library with the same text, but with changes for a pin punch, you can then select which spindle you intend to use on any session. Just ensure you have only 1 spindle type checked green at any time. My thought at the time is that one could have any number of special spindles, lasers, diodes and punches and simply select at run time which device you will use by checking its box. (again be sure only 1 is selected. :) ). That way the same GCode will run all spindles with no changes.

  The same is true of GCode. You can have several GCode libraries where you change the meaning of various GCodes to match the spindles or devices you wish to use. Your G33, for example, could do one thing, where another's G33 could trigger something else.

  All this is probably more advanced than you may want to go at this point,
but worth keeping in mind for your future experiments.  Auggie is nothing
is not configurable, much more so than Mach3 was. (And it was pretty configurable. )
 

  (This is slightly different from the video so I figured Id mention it. Most users now never have to open the script debugger, local editing on the
main screen is recommended for simpler editing of things like parameters.).

  All scripts are in a very simple language called MonkeyC and you'll find its
not very hard to figure out in editing.

Art

[tweakie]

Thanks again Art ? so much information for me to digest my friend.

My laser equipped (and 57CNC) machine is still being used for production work so I don?t get as much play time as I would like but I will get onto the PRF issue as soon as I can.

I purposely don?t ?Multi-Task? and I really admire just how you manage to switch between Auggie, Gearotic, Mach4 Parallel Port, etc., etc. with such ease.

Perhaps, one day, I will know and understand what I am doing but I don?t think it?s going to be any time soon.

Tweakie.

[tweakie]

Hi Art,

Unfortunately, it appears that changing the PWM Period to .02000 in the laser spindle library does not resolve the issue. I still cannot reduce the actual PRF below 1kHz.
I can change the period in the Engine/Planner Config. to 0.020000 and it stays and I can also change the period in the PoKey?s PWM set-up to 20mS and save the change but once Auggie has been restarted the PoKey?s PWM set-up gets changed back to 1mS.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweaky:

Thanks, Ill check out why and fix it. I have changed it here to higher frequencies as a test, but hadnt gone any lower. Ill let you know
when its fixed.

Art

[ArtF]

Tweaky:

  Can you check next time and see what the message says in the log. (Log is large button top right of screen.). Usually, on an M3 command youll get a message telling you what the new period was just set to be. If the Spindle library says .01 , it should give that in the message..

Thx
Art

[tweakie]

Hi Art,

Sorry to bother you with this, I am obviously doing something wrong but I have no idea what.
As far as I can tell the log is correct ? it reflects the Engine/Planner config.
I can set a period of 0.01 in the Engine/Planner and it stays set.
However, the measured PRF is 1kHz (as shown in the Pokeys config.).

The abnormality is that I can set and measure any PRF above 1kHz without issue I just can?t get below it.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

  lol, never assume its you. With over 100,000 people using Mach3,
one can assume their screwing up is m3 doesnt do as expected,
but in Auggie, your a member of a very exclusive group, probably less
than 20 at any rate. This means any variety of small weird things
can occur.  The Pokeys actually has firmware code in it specifically
for Auggie, they've been great to add it for me, and it undoubtedly
could have a few bugs, or it may be my code.

  Ill run some tests in there and figure out why it wont go
less than 1Khz. Ive probably only tested down to 1Khz. In fact
now that I type this I see a correspondence here, I control
the pokeys at a 1Khz frequency, 1000 waypoints of motion
and control per second. This may explain why, in the context
of Auggie the limitation exists.  I dont KNOW this, but the
1Khz being a magic number tells me there may be a connection.

  Ill check it out and ask my firmware contact why that may be so
if it is a limitation on the Pokeys end.It may very well be that in
the very special "Auggie" mode in which I operate the Pokeys, that 1Khz
is the slowest  it can go. The log numbers being correct also
lead me to that conclusion.. but Ill check it out to be sure.

Art

[ArtF]

Tweakie:

  Ive checked and Im pretty sure its a limitation based on hardware. While in config one can do less than 1khz, Auggie updates its registers at 1Khz, and usually that means a register reset in the PWM chip at 1Khz, if I dont miss my guess Mat will tell me it cant go lower unless Auggie goes slower..

But Ill let you know when I hear. :)

Art