Taking a concensus:

With so many dimensions of expansion available, which way should we go next. Have a request? Vote!

Emc2Arduino 0.07b has been released.

I’m slowly working on adding new features as often as I can.

So far it features: (as of 0.06b)

• 0~9 Axises of synchronous motion using non-blocking stepper motor control.
• Full support for both virtual and physical limit switches. (Use ’em if you got ’em.)
• Inputs for E-Stop, Power, Start, Stop, Pause, Resume and Program Step switches.
• Software controllable microStepping down to 1/16th step.
• Simple ASCII serial based control makes it usable for general robotics enthusiasts.

Features added just recently in 0.07b:

Outputs for:

• Spindle controls; on/off, direction, RPM control.
• Coolant control. Both flood and mist are supported.
• Power Supply control.
• Status indicators for E-Stop and Power. (More coming soon.)

In the pipeline:

• LCD Support.
• Encoder Support.
• Jog Wheel & Joystick Support.
• Arduino CNC swarm tactics. (Think LEGO-style CNC/Robotics!) Implemented in HAL2Arduino
• Micro-builds. (Swarm) Implemented in HAL2Arduino

That’s all for the moment.

Emc2Arduino, How it begins…

After looking at RepRap, MakerBot, grbl and others. I found that while they were very cool projects by really clever people, they didn’t seem to have the features I was looking for in my CNC build.

I wanted to be able to use a real, full featured, CNC control software interface like the one LinuxCNC provides.

Since its open-source its totally free, and since its been around for a while its a very mature piece of software. Its even openGL accelerated.

Why not use it. The heavy coding is already done.

Its free. There’s tons of user support as well as guides out there on how to setup pretty much any CNC combo one can think of.

Perfect, now where do I begin? I thought, well I have an Arduino (or two) laying around here. A couple of tutorials to learn from.  Lets put something together. Thus Emc2Arduino was born.

A tribute to those before me…

One thing I’ve always admired is the creative ingenuity of people. Doubly so for those that go through the effort to post it for others to learn about their exploits as well. So in respect to all those before me that were gracious enough to share their knowledge with others. I will share with you, mine as well.

Things that got me started:

Dan Royer from marginallyclever.com has a really good sketch for Controlling your Arduino through the Serial Monitor.

Jeff Epler’s Etch-a-Sketch CNC his work inspired Colin Kingsbury.

Colin took Mr.Epler’s work, posted a Basic Arduino-EMC HOWTO simplified enough for a mere mortal like me to sorta understand it and begin poking at it with the proverbial stick.

Once I got enough confidence to put the pieces together Emc2Arduino was born. A few weeks later EMC changed its name to LinuxCNC but by that point I was already getting a few hits on the blog and github as people were beginning to use it. So I guess the name stuck ever since.

Emc2Arduino project has a new homepage.

Now that the Emc2Arduino project has a homepage there is now a place to put all the useful thoughts, ideas, info and suggestions on ways to make it even better.