One of the things I find frustrating with Dialog 2 (and probably D3 and D4, but that is outside my experience) is that there are so many machining steps that cannot be automated. So I become the repetitive automaton, and doing a production run gets old fast (see this post for an example: using a Centricator). It occurred to me that one way to extend D2 to add some of the missing capabilities would be to find a way to emulate the control panel switches in software. Think keyboard macros.
I read Mud's posts about replacing control panel switches, and it got me thinking: the keyboard switch interface is very primitive, it would not take a lot of logic to emulate each switch input, and most likely there are products out there that could be adapted or that would just require some level of customization to do the task. I'm not a ME or EE, but probably a PLC would work, or perhaps something simpler.
Now, what could one do with such an emulator?
Assuming you had a Perl or Python interpreter running on a Mac or PC that could talk to the emulator and that could accept input from a Renishaw probe on the fly, you would have a whole new level of control over an FP NC.
Such a program could change Dialog modes programmatically and modify or write a program, reset machine zero, print useful messages on the computer screen, etc. Or thinking more simply, it could be used like a keyboard macro to input repetitive keystroke combinations. Think how useful it would be if you had a command to find the center of a hole and set machine zero to that location. You could also add new capabilities to D2, like machining a helix. It would also provide a trickle down interface for any version of Dialog; i.e. you would have a simple way to load a program in parts, so memory size would not be a limitation.
what think ye, Deckel cognoscenti?
I read Mud's posts about replacing control panel switches, and it got me thinking: the keyboard switch interface is very primitive, it would not take a lot of logic to emulate each switch input, and most likely there are products out there that could be adapted or that would just require some level of customization to do the task. I'm not a ME or EE, but probably a PLC would work, or perhaps something simpler.
Now, what could one do with such an emulator?
Assuming you had a Perl or Python interpreter running on a Mac or PC that could talk to the emulator and that could accept input from a Renishaw probe on the fly, you would have a whole new level of control over an FP NC.
Such a program could change Dialog modes programmatically and modify or write a program, reset machine zero, print useful messages on the computer screen, etc. Or thinking more simply, it could be used like a keyboard macro to input repetitive keystroke combinations. Think how useful it would be if you had a command to find the center of a hole and set machine zero to that location. You could also add new capabilities to D2, like machining a helix. It would also provide a trickle down interface for any version of Dialog; i.e. you would have a simple way to load a program in parts, so memory size would not be a limitation.
what think ye, Deckel cognoscenti?
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