RiceCNC

RiceCNC is an integrated hardware/software system primarily for controlling Computer Numeric Control (CNC) milling machines but with additional capabilities for controlling LED lighting arrays. The app is now vector transform based supporting nine independent motor axes and 5-axis machining. Vector transformations support scaling, skewing and coordinate rotation. Polar transforms can convert polar coordinates and also generate circular motions with any rotational axis orientation even while the axis is being rotated by another polar transform, i.e., nutated axes. Cubic Bézier Surface Patches support contour machining of undulating surface areas. Arbitrarily surface area detail is supported using patch arrays with automatic inter-patch bridge building. Several motor controller interfaces are supported including industry standard step/direction, discrete, quadrature. Four serially connected motor driver boards are supported: the TI BOOST-DRV8711 is a high power stepper motor driver; the TI BOOST-DRV8305EVM is a high power three phase BLDC motor driver, the TI DRV10983 is a sensor-less 24V 3-phase motor driver and the TI DRV10975 is a sensor-less 12V 3-phase motor driver. The system uses an intermediate motion control µP board relieving the host computer of real-time pulse generation. Two 32 bit micro-controller boards are supported: the 120 mhz TI EX-TM4C1294XL "Tiva C Series Connected LaunchPad" and the 80 mhz TI EX-TM4C123GXL "Tiva C Series LaunchPad". Embedded firmware for both boards and flash programming logic is included in the application package. The EX-TM4C1294XL adds memory and ethernet connection capability. It is recommended for new users and is available from the manufacturer for $19.99 including shipping, USB and ethernet cables. The boards can generate output signals compatible with most currently available motor driver boards. The firmware performs position interpolations for any combination of linear and multi-dimensional cubic Bezier curves for up to nine axes. The host application automatically converts circular paths to cubic Bezier curves. The system also supports spindle speed control. Motors can also be set for constant velocity running. Interactive linear, circular, drill cycle and pocket milling coordinated movement perform simple machining operations. For more complex and repeatable operations, the app supports CNC programs using a modified subset of the RS-274 (G-Code) dialect with extensions for vector control, cubic Bezier curves, surface patches and readability.