The myCNC application has now been successfully ported to a Raspberry Pi build of Ubuntu MATE. Ubuntu MATE is an official light-weight derivative of Ubuntu which uses the MATE desktop environment - from our experience this allows for a minimal learning curve for those switching over from Windows systems. The myCNC team already carries Ubuntu MATE images for regular PCs, and we will soon be releasing an Ubuntu MATE image which will include the myCNC application along with the necessary drivers specifically for Raspberry Pi.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Below is a video of a finishing cut being performed by a gear cutter with a myCNC controller, provided to us by a client of ours. As can be seen, the spindle and the rotation axis sync up to make sure the cutting is resumed at the exact position it was stopped at, allowing for a highly precise finishing cut to be performed. In order to prevent slip on the rotation axis, the synchronization is done at lower speeds, and, once the two have been synchronized, the gear cutter is brought back to its original cutting speed:
Without this synchronization system in place, only one precise cut would have been possible, while the myCNC syncronization allows for an arbitrary number of cuts to be performed by allowing to position the spindle and the rotation axis at the exact position required.
Bringing myCNC software to Raspberry Pi has long been an ambition of ours - Raspberry Pi's are ubiquitous in makerspaces, machine shops and universities across the world thanks to their small form-factor and an attractive price tag. Now, the Puruvesi Automation team is finally testing the myCNC application on a Raspberry Pi 4.
As of today, the application is stable, and we are hopeful that we will soon be releasing an operating system image which will include all the necessary myCNC software and drivers to make the setup process easy and painless. Stay tuned for further updates!
As mentioned in our previous blog post, we are now beginning to carry line driver to 5V converters in our online shop (bundled in with our ET6, ET7 and ET10 controllers):
These drivers allow to convert the differential signal from the controller to a 5V signal, allows myCNC customers to use drivers such as ClearPath. The myCNC team has tested the converters and they are now ready to be utilized:
As mentioned, these converters are currently bundled in only with the standalone controllers (not controller kits). If you would like to add a line driver to 5V converter to your controller kit, please contact the myCNC team through the Contact Us page.
Converters for drivers such as ClearPath will soon be available upon request. Previously, the driver would only activate above a certain threshold due to the difference between the required and the provided signal from the control board due to the design of the driver/motor. In order to mitigate such edge cases, a custom converter has been designed by Puruvesi Automation. Our team will soon be providing this easy-to-setup solution to customers - stay tuned for further updates!