Logic Trace Digitizing Board

[adbuch]

I suppose I could mount a webcam with a crosshairs screen in front of it, and manually trace anything on the PlasmaCam table by moving the carriage and gantry around, and plotting points on the software based on the position of the crosshairs. Then a quick game of Connect The Dots would give me my shape.

Joe


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Been there, done that. Sort of a pita. The caveat for Scanything is that it only runs on Mach3 , Edingcnc, or Linuxcnc. So this excludes many of the better known cnc plasma tables, Plasmacam being one of them. But a low cost cnc table can be thrown together fairly easily running from Mach3. My guess is that for a scanning specific table, the total cost including camera/software could be held to well under $1k. Then just use as a dedicated auto tracer, or maybe some engraving or drawing, but no heavy wood routing.

David

[Joe Jones]

Damn. now you've got me thinking.... If I mounted a simple point laser (a $2.00 laser cat toy?) onto the PlasmaCam carriage, and moved the carriage and gantry around s-l-o-w-l-y and manually, while using CTRL-Q to plot points along the shape, I would then have the pattern needed to use the SPLINE tool to connect the dots. That should give me a decent trace.

Joe



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[adbuch]

But still a lot of work and very labor intensive. If this is a one-time task, then why not. But not something I would want to do on a regular basis.
David

[Joe Jones]

I sure wish PlasmaCam would let us use a simple USB lipstick webcam, and let the software move the carriage and gantry around a shape by (+/-) X and (+/-) Y based on interpretation of the analog image. It CAN'T be that difficult. but Hell will freeze over before PlasmaCam even lifts a finger to add THAT $998.00 feature.

What torques me is that the software already HAS this capability! The ALT-V command moves the carriage to a specific X/Y coordinate based on a mouse click. So why not start a camera with ALT-V, and let the software CHANGE the target with the black vs. white video image?

Joe


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[adbuch]

I have a pretty good idea how to do this. This would entail using the jog buttons under software control from external program combined with a USB camera and light source. Very similar to what Les is doing. This approach relies on establishing a light threshold differential (black vs. white) along the edge of the template or item being scanned. This would involve modifying the Plasmacam controller keypad for auto input to the controller (instead of physically pressing the jog buttons) and since replacement keypads are available from Plasmacam, shouldn't void the warranty on the controller. It's not something that I need, since I already have Scanything running on one of my tables. But certainly very doable.

David

[Joe Jones]

That falls outside of my knowledge base. I really should have stayed with my high school computer programming classes, etc. If I had any idea BACK THEN, about what digital electronics and robotics could do TODAY, I could take over the WORLD!

Joe



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[Joe Jones]

I stumbled onto this video ...

Joe

http://stankern.vids.io/videos/119ed8b6 ... f-a-violin

[adbuch]

Yes - that is my buddy Stan. He just loves to use his gtco Calcomp digitizing boards to do projects from wood, vinyl, metal, etc. Very talented fellow up in Canada.
David

[Toni hausfeld]

Just a couple weeks but, have had a bit of time using it. Basically I had full scale drawings and templates sitting around for a couple years. As soon as the board came in I put everything into CAD. Some of the parts I have cut and shipped to customers already. Some are a bit more complicated and I just cut out a test profile out of some thin metal just to check fitment and now have to work on finishing the product design.

Basically for some projects I have it was my only option to get the layouts into CAD accurately without drawing out a huge square grid pattern on poster board and measuring every little detail. Way too much time involved in doing that I would have never recouped the time in cad fees. So far it is working great for me but will take some time to recoup the expense.

What did you read about them?

Amazinf, from where can i get this board

[Pspider Support]

Amazinf, from where can i get this board

Logic Trace is a sponsor of this site, more information and pricing can be found on their website here https://www.logicgroup.com/English/Landing/CNC.html

[adbuch]

Just a couple weeks but, have had a bit of time using it. Basically I had full scale drawings and templates sitting around for a couple years. As soon as the board came in I put everything into CAD. Some of the parts I have cut and shipped to customers already. Some are a bit more complicated and I just cut out a test profile out of some thin metal just to check fitment and now have to work on finishing the product design.

Basically for some projects I have it was my only option to get the layouts into CAD accurately without drawing out a huge square grid pattern on poster board and measuring every little detail. Way too much time involved in doing that I would have never recouped the time in cad fees. So far it is working great for me but will take some time to recoup the expense.

What did you read about them?

Amazinf, from where can i get this board

Toni - I have several of these boards ranging in size from 12 x 18 inches to 44 x 60 inches in size, and have been using them now for about 5 years. Let me know if you have specific questions and I will try to answer them.
David