Working on a fluid/paste dispenser that acts as a 5th and 6th axis inside ChiliPeppr. Uses a super creative approach of turning the A axis on TinyG into a broadcast axis, but then sending enable/disable commands to an ESP8266 which controls each add-on axis so they act like they are a B and C axis.
https://gallery.autodesk.com/fusion360/projects/fluidpaste-dispenser-for-chilipeppr
Managing to do multiaxis moves when you have multiple axes mapped onto one, is going to be an interesting project. if it works, that would be a ton of fun.
Yeah, it is a risky attempt, but I can’t see why it won’t work. I just disable the stepper driver I don’t want moving, and enable the one I want. It hears the step/dir pins from TinyG and as long as the configuration is correct for each axis, I should be good to go. My Gcode will likely include motor configuration lines in it to constantly be resetting TinyG stepper motor settings so the A axis steps are accurate.
The coolant on/off pin is being used as a counter. Each high/low from TinyG increments the counter on the ESP8266 and thus based on a pre-uploaded list of commands to the ESP8266 with a counter ID assigned to each command it knows which stepper driver to enable/disable at the exact time.
Makes sense, timing is critical so hardwired step+dir is the way to go.
Nice render work, as always.
I would buy a dispenser instead, but anything out there seems to be in the $2k to $4k range so they’re crazy expensive. I think the parts on this will be less than $100 and includes all micro-controllers and linear slide. Of course the milling time on the acrylic holder is 3hrs, so that’s expensive.
I like ur Idea more and more … what is happend when you want that the dispenser works at the same time when you move your main axis?
Yes, I need the auger to rotate so it is dispensing as I’m moving along the X or Y axis to squeeze out fluid or paste. For example, I would need silver conductive paste to stretch the length of a conductive trace.