This software has been 'sitting on my shelf' for quite a while now, and people that have seen it at work think that it should be opened up.
So, here it is, the core of a multi-axis stepper controller and DXF file importer. It's nothing fancy, the platform that it ran on was a 386 Geode board which gives you a pc compatible in a very small package, I was driving a bunch of industrial stepper controllers which in turn powered a bunch of 3/8" shaft steppers.
The OS it ran under was linux. If you're not into software and programming then this is probably not for you but if you are a programmer and you feel like playing around with CNC then this is an easy way to get started.
I've used it to do 3D control of a router to make the blades for the blue machine as well as the laminations for the alternator using a plasmacutter (same table, different head). The program has some tricks to try to maintain constant cutter speed, which is not very important in wood but very important when you cut metal with a plasma torch because if the metal heats up it will warp. There is also a 2 bit sensor input to maintain constant spacing between the cutter head and the material being cut by measuring the voltage across the arc.
I've placed the files here for anybody that wishes to download them:
http://files.ww.com/files/43037.html
I hope the code is useful to someone.
Feel free to hack it up, change it modify it, I hereby place this code in the public domain, with absolutely no restrictions on what you can do with it. Please note that this is not meant as an 'out of the box' solution but as a set of tools that you can customize to make it do exactly what you want, and it is small enough to get a complete overview of the code.
Enjoy and if you do anything nice with the code please show it !
