Indexer Axis Swapper Problems

[pfulghum]

I have a toolpath from Aspire (a simple text V-Carve).

I'm trying to use the Shopbot supplied Indexer tool and more specifically the "Indexer Axis Swapper".

I am having issues with this piece of "Axis Swapping" software.


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But I keep getting....



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Any help would be appreciated..

-- pat

[myxpykalix]

just as guess but possibly the diameter doesn't match the width/length of the file you are trying to wrap?

[pfulghum]

After an hour of trying different things, I gave up and wrote my own...

Mine will scale and offset...

I take a X/Y tool path and covert to X/-B Degrees. That is what works for me.



-- pat

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[myxpykalix]

pat please explain the -B degrees part, is it because you wanted it to carve in that direction as opposed to the + direction? What advantage is there to that, if any?

[pfulghum]

Jack,
I finally did get the program to work... It barfs on a "TR" command... I just removed that command from the original program and it produced a file OK. I don't understand how it was trying to scale the "Y" moves to degrees. I gave up.

It was easy to write my own conversion program. It did exactly what I needed. I also was able to scale it.

Regarding, Why the "-B" and not just "B".

Look at the last picture above the rope is at X=0 end of the column. The text "Patrick" is wraped around the "X" axis. That is all "Y" moves needed to get converted to "B" moves. If I used the Shopbot program as described, the lettering would have been backwards. The Loop on the letter "P" would be on the left of the vertical line of the letter "P". It would look fine so long as you looked in a mirror.

Remember this is not a "stock" indexer, this is homemade indexer. I "hacked" in a Gecko Stepper driver (and power supply) along side my Alpha drivers.


For example, I have a .SBP from aspire that is 10" High ("Y") x 8" wide ("X") out of Aspire. I wanted those 10" of "Y" movement to laydown on the piece between -30 and -330 degrees. I just scale it so 0" is at -30 degrees and 10" and 330 degrees and scale all the moves inbetween there. I Zero at the top dead center of the column and I'm ready to cut. Very simple program and transform. This way *I* know how the wrapping is performed.

By the way, I will probably just change my Indexer Unit Values to be negative so that "positive degrees" will be clockwise when looking from the headstock to the tailstock. I really don't know how a "real indexer" is wired.

-- Pat

[greolt]

It is often confusing when trying to describe the correct rotation direction of a rotary axis.

To say "positive degrees will be clockwise when looking from the headstock to the tailstock" depends which end is the headstock.

I always refer to "The Right Hand Rule" to avoid this confusion. See pic

Greg
.

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[myxpykalix]

I too get confused describing direction. I use Lower, left, 0,0 as my "anchor point" when describing.
My indexer is mounted in the X with the headstock pointing toward the opposite end of the X for the tailstock.

Pat re:scaling for degrees- The indexer operates in circles (doh!) so it uses the 360 degrees of a round circle for its "bearings".
So lets say you are cutting a 1" straight line in the Y on your design. It has to compute how many degrees to turn the rotation to equal 1" in degrees.
Is your B axis set up for degrees and not inches?
Whatever you are doing it seems to be working your stuff looks great!

[pfulghum]

B is always degrees.
My "special program" will allow me to scale any x,y based .sbp file to any amoun of rotation.

To get the exact 1" movement. YOu can setup your model to have the "height" (Ymax) be the same as 3.14 * Dia. Then I use 100% scaling.

But I have found it pretty easy to just draw/model it and then scale it to where you want it on he column afterwards.

-- Pat