Dirk, > As far as I know hexapod code is in EMC2, but does it (still) > work? Back in march there where some mails about it. > Unfontunately there was no succes story follow up. > Is there any way to test the hexapod code without building > the real thing? > How is the machinecode handled? I couldn't find anything > about a hexapod postprocessor. Does EMC2 translate normal, 3, > 4 or 5 axis code to something the hexapod can work with?
I asked about that a short time ago. I know someone that got a hexapod out of a university lab and is looking for a control system, since they never managed to get that part working sufficiently well. I have not heard anything further as to whether he intended to proceed. Thus I don't have any further hands on experience. At any rate, John K. responded as follows when I asked about hexapod support: "I'm sure it would not be a turnkey install.... but clever enough people could certainly get it working. Things like homing will be the "fun" parts. Basic hexapod kinematics are in there, and were used back in the NIST days. They'd need some porting effort to interface with the newer motion controller, but the tough math parts should be fine." As for the machine code, a hexapod uses the same G-Code as any other system. What the G-Code coordinate system specifies is a point in space (Z, Y, Z) and a tool orientation to get to that point in space (A, B, C). In simple systems, the kinematics module trivkins (trivial kinematics) just does a one to one assignment between those coordinates and the associated axes. There is a special kinematics module for hexapods named "genhexkins" which does the translation between the spatial / orientation coordinates and the axis orientation for a hexapod. For a simpler example of the principle, look at rotatekins, which simply takes a traditional 90 degree X/Y system and rotates it 45 degrees. Thus in response to a command such as: G1 X10 F50 Both the X axis and Y axis will move in equal amounts, resulting in a tool path rotated 45 degrees from the direction of travel of the X and Y axes. A hexapod is just a more complicated version of this same principle. Regards, Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
