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Author Topic: quilting or embroidery machine  (Read 23153 times)

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Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #30 on: August 22, 2012, 02:08:28 AM »
As long as position is not lost (the interrupt is a Feed-Hold) then the GCode can be scrolled back to any previous point then the 'Run From Here' feature used (setting a suitable Rapid Height clearance) making the necessary Preperational Move and then the program re-commenced using Cycle Start.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #31 on: August 22, 2012, 05:54:26 AM »
Hi Tweakie

The catch is the machine head has to be moved to one side in order to re-thread the and change bobbins.

Apart from the reel of thread that feeds the needle there is a small bobbin of thread underneath. Hence the need for the machine to access that area (Which is hard to access under the work, a large sheet of material wadding and lining material) at best it can be done from the side.

It sounds like Mach 3 cannot do this; you would not be just doing a feed hold. you have to move and return to the same spot then back up as described previously in this thread. I hope I am wrong

Cheers
John McNamara

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #32 on: August 22, 2012, 07:21:05 AM »
Hi John,

Once Feed-Hold has been evoked and the machine stops you can jog the axis anywhere you wish. The position is recorded by the DRO's.

When 'Run From Here' is evoked it will return to the position where it left off or the position shown in the current GCode line you have selected. (Jogging the axis will not loose position).

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #33 on: August 22, 2012, 08:16:41 AM »
Hi Tweakie

That is good news.

Lets see if we can create a more user friendly interface.

After loading a program from disk can Mack 3 be run from buttons alone.

These are the ones needed.

(1)  A Zero Button...... to zero the machine to a known start position (it is a hard stop)
       this also resets the program to the start

(2)  A Start Button......to Start running a program
   It will keep running unless a cotton breakage or other error trips an error and stops it.

(3)  4 buttons X and Y, up down To move the head for maintenance.
   If it stops it needs X,Y up down buttons to jog it into a position where the operator can change the thread.

(4)  A reposition...... button this will move the machine back to where it stopped running the program.

(5)  A run program manually Back (Without stitching) Button
(6)  A run program manually forward (Without stitching) Button
       Allows skipping a section or moving back in case of thread breakage   

(7) A temporary stop button (the program can be restarted from whare it stopped)

I don't think I have forgotten any...... these were the ones I used on a commercial quilter I used to own.

The machine I had used eproms to store programs. We used to draw the patterns in cad then burn them to a chip.  These days a USB stick would be better. Ideally for a commercial machine the keyboard is not needed. just a screen showing the needle position within the program.

A machine using buttons alone may be useful for other applications.

Cheers
John McNamara

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #34 on: August 22, 2012, 10:40:03 AM »
Hi John,

If connecting PC to machine via the Parallel Port there are only 5 available inputs per port so a second parallel card would be required or perhaps an external motion controller may be a better proposition.
Mach3 is intended to be fully customizable and I see no major problems with implementing most of the functions from buttons but I think you would also need a tracker ball (similar function to mouse) for some of the operations.
Ideally you would use a ‘touch screen’ display - creating positioning and labeling any new buttons as required using one of the various Screen Designer programs freely available. (Many of the button functions you mention are already on the screen, they would just need resizing with new captions etc.).
I am not certain about running the program backwards as I have never used the Reverse Run feature but it may be easier to scroll the program back then use Run From Here.

Tweakie.
 
PEACE
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #35 on: August 22, 2012, 11:18:59 AM »
Wow, I think I really started something here!  I have been doing some really deep thinking (I know, gets you into trouble every time), and I have come to the conclusion that a redesign of my quilter screen is in order, with larger buttons and a larger pattern screen, that's the easy part.  The hard part is the thread break indicator!  I have an idea for that as well.  I was watching some quilting videos made by commercial companies, and I found that most of the thread break detectors are using the thread tension spring to detect the slack in the thread when it breaks.  It will automatically move to the upper position when the thread breaks.  if that spring were magnetized, one could use a hall-effect sensor to detect the magnetized spring as it comes in front of the H-E sensor.  This way the only extra equipment needed would be the hall effect sensor and the wire to hook it up.  Possibly an arduino board could be used as an amplifier to bring the voltage output from the HE Sensor to 5 volts from the Arduino board into the input of the controller board, which would in turn trip the e-stop or stop hold/pause.  Think about this and let me know what you think.


Larry
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #36 on: August 22, 2012, 11:32:35 AM »
John,

I can manage the reprogramming of the screen.  As a matter of fact, I'll start on the screen re-design right away.  When I get a beta copy I'll send it out to the group to get some feedback.  Let me know what you think.


Larry

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #37 on: August 22, 2012, 12:36:49 PM »
Hi Larry,

I am pleased this has created inspiration - now I am looking forward to reading about your new developments.  ;)

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #38 on: August 22, 2012, 12:39:06 PM »
Tweakie


I'll keep you posted.  I'm in the middle of testing the hall effect sensor to see what the minimum G (gauss) required is.  Should have something later today.

Larry
Re: quilting or embroidery machine
« Reply #39 on: May 23, 2013, 01:18:01 AM »
Would be interesting to know what people are using to convert existing quillt designs to gcode.  Looking to CNC my sisters longarm quilter, however she is keen to run something like Art and Stitch to design/create/modify designs.  It looks like it only saves the files in typical quilting file formats as well as DXF.  Might be looking for a DXF to gcode post-processor.