SpudFiles

Something along these lines then should you succeed details of the hardware and software you used would be most appreciated on the forum.

And here it is

http://vimeo.com/11489365

• Motors are 12-24V steppers salvaged from photocopiers, laser printers, scanners. Whatever I can scavenge.
  Stepper controls are from Softmark in Sydney or PC-Controls in the UK. You can also try Ocean Controls in Seaford Victoria
  Code is hand made by me <g>
  Hardware is basically anything from hard rubbish.

Cheers

Morning all

I finished the code for the stepper control yesterday, it's not flash and is basicaly a hack of the sample that came with the card. It uses the USB.ocx from Softmark and one of their little cards.

You have a VB form that has two controls for left and right traverse and two controls for elevation and depression. The traverse speed and angle is selectable but the elevation control is fixed in 5 degree steps.

If anyone wants a copy of the source code I am happy to provide it.

Regards

Good stuff! Finally watched all the videos, the final project looks like it's going to be a lot bigger than I expected (living in my micro turret world ) and twin barrel too, something like the Oerlikon when you're done then

Just revising the stepper configuration. I am using these motors http://www.interinar.com/vexta-pv264-02ba.html as they 105 N/cm and will handle the turret mass quite nicely once I add some 5:1 gearing.

More to come............

Motor control assembly, v1.0

The first image shows the overall assembly. The shell is an old PC case and the PSU gives me 12/5/3 VDC with plenty of current to drive motors, sensors, laser pointers or whatever.

In front of the PSU is a KTA-205 parellel port stepper controller than can handle four motors at once as well as two NC/NO relays, 4 input circuits for limit switches or whatever and 3x I/O ports for further expansion.

In front of that is the KTA-263 bipolar stepper driver that runs the motors. Clamped to the bench itself are the two motors for traverse and altitude.

Next step is to fabricate the turntable base and motor mount.

And plenty of fans! We like fans. Lots of them. Except boyntonstu. but yay, fans!

This is growing beyond my basic grasp of electronics, I would never have considered the sentry gun project without the ready made software/controller package.

Fans, yeah. Those stepper controllers get HOT, especialy when you have motors pulling 2.5A and sitting still in the "locked" position holding something in place.

Don't be put off by the mickey mouse electronics. The cards are all off the shelf parts and the control of steppers or servo via a PC has almost as many hits on the Interweb as Jenna Jameson. VB coding is limited to "press button A for up, press button B for down."

My sentry won't be a true set & forget job, rather it will be operator controlled via a webcam for remote viewing. The twin barrel setup is giving me some grief right now in terms of getting the barrels aligned. First shot last night put a half metre spread between them, not quite what I had in mind.

Time to head to Bunnings for stock.

so far it looks great... can't wait to see it finished

Two barrels, no waiting

http://www.vimeo.com/11731892

Nods to JSR for the flexible hose/remote feed idea, though I am seeing a substantial reduction in muzzle velocity compared to the pure in-line breech option so may well revert to the original idea.

Sorry for the poor video quality, SWMBO has the video camera so all I have at the moment is my Palm phone.

http://www.vimeo.com/11732757

And a little more detail

Looking good, can't wait to see this finished. My own projects are languishing at home, it will be a couple of weeks before I can get back to them.

Hi all

Sorry for the long absence but somehow work reared its ugly head for a while.
I was getting more and more frustrated trying to get small parts made to suit my plans. Much of what I want to do require some basic CAD/CAM/CNC work but no shop will touch the job unless the price is exorbitant.

So................

I built my own CAD/CAM/CNC setup to do it myself. I used some of the electronics and software from the sentry gun project, added a bit of carpentry and came up with http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthrea ... 282&page=2.

It took me four weeks of evenings to build and probably a few more to come to tune it, but by the time summer is in full swing I should have a fully functional machine shop to fabricate all the parts I want from MDF, plastic or even aluminium.

Hope you find it useful or better still inspired to build your own.

Cheers

David

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You built a CNC machine!
That, my friend, is awsome.

I have seen people make these before, and always wanted to make one! How much did it cost you?