Messages

I see this one:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194956080563

Alan

As I said...

A.

OK I'll contact him and I may well run the text by you guys beforehand. I'm well off-thread so I should bring us back:

A few more questions for Jason:

>>> I trap the priviliged instruction exception

This is using the windows DDK?

>>>
Write : Move axis ? steps at speed ?
Read : Has axis ? finished?
If not finished goto Read
<<<

Ah good, so it's 'exec command and wait'.

>>> I've written substitutes for the Imagenation .DLLs.

These are a straight C interface?

>>> My RV1S has UARTS on the ISA card

From memory mine uses the PC's com ports although it's been a while since I thought about it and my RV is in a different location so I can't check atm.

>>> MPSSE

You got on OK with that? I found it an unreliable PITA.


Anyway, great work Jason, I'm sure you have our support. Is there anything we can help with?

Alan

That's a definite 'no' vote from you then

Did you ever communicate with Paul Mills, if not I thought I might write him a polite letter from his RV fans?

Alan

> The result being that...it effectively decouples us from relying on Win95 and
> old ISA motherboard machines?

Yes, totally.


The other key pathway that your work enables is to allow a port to OpenPnP. We would need to write a Cartesian to Scara axes mapping routine. That, almost certainly, means some cal routines to allow the conversion from nominal Scara position to calibrated Scara position. Again not such a big deal

Alan

Re: Versatek - I think this is Versatek Systems Ltd which was dissolved in 2011. The main person seems to be Paul Mills based in Cumnor, Oxford.

Mike - is that the person you were in touch with once?

Alan

Maybe (as people have suggested) even using an off-the-shelf 4-axis controller as there's precious little trajectory planning there, because (unlike a laser cutter, for instance) it doesn't matter much how the arm gets from one position to another, just that it does. I wonder, do we know whether there's comms back from the DSP board indicating 'done, end of movement' or does the calling software just wait for bit and assume?

Alan

>>> No - using a composite video to USB capture device with the original cameras.

Ah, and a custom replacement for the Imagenation dlls.

>>> I'd be surprised if the COM ports didn't work

Win10 and Win98 are still sufficiently compatible that old com code still works?

Well Jason's work moves us quite some distance along. An optional next step would be to replace the DSP card with a home brew with the same hardware and software interface. I don't think it's doing much (well in 2021, maybe quite a bit in 1995) except playing out the move commands on 4 channels in parallel (often not in parallel) using the acceleration profiles in ramp.sys:

http://www.anagram.net/nuts/Versatronics/Contents%20of%20ramp%20dot%20sys.png

Without getting ahead of ourselves, we can probably eventually do a better job of the dsp board by taking care of the snap, crackle and pop derivatives - the machine movements are rather jerky after all. It would be easy enough to reverse engineer the dsp function with Jason's adapter and a real DSP board by plugging in known move commands and observing the timing of the step output with a logic analyser. I've written the kind of code that does the acceleration profiles before, it's not super-complicated, say <100 lines of C.

Alan

I must have missed a few ( years ) messages on this thread.

Jason - very impressive work.

>>> via my USB to ISA adapter.

Something you made? There's no sound on the video?

Let me catch-up

So to summarise, you're running the stock RVS software, but with your own hook dlls, allowing you to squirt the stepper move commands down to your USB adapter and the old stock ISA board. And you've hooked the video capture commands in the RVS software in order to capture video using a modern camera over USB. You've rigged up a mount for that in place of the stock one? What does that look like and does it use the existing lens? You made your hook dlls in Borland C++?

The result being that...it effectively decouples us from relying on Win95 and old ISA motherboard machines? Are you still using COM ports on your PC to drive the feeders etc or do you have one of the set-ups where the COM ports are on the ISA card?

Alan

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154450370214

(59) Yaskawa Robots with YRC1000 controllers and manipulators – unused and crated (2019)

https://www.gordonbrothers.co.uk/assets-for-sale/assets/h/honda-uk

Alan

Hey Trev, have a link for those?

Like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-Server-PSU-1200W-DPS-1200-GPU-Mining-Rig-Power-Supply/274443244324

Alan

Thanks for properly documenting that Steve. Every bit increases the value of the archive to us RV-people

Alan

Hi,

FYI there's some of these cheap on eBay if anyone wants spares. I've bought a couple but have not tested them and the supplier can't give me the provenance - so anyone's guess whether they're good or not. They do look new though. There's only one up there right now but I think the supplier has a bunch. e.g.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SANYO-DENKI-PMM-MD-53031-10-PM-5-PHASE-STEPPING-DRIVER/363206181301

Alan

That's weird I thought I already replied to this...

>>> the arm/table unit just lifts off.

Thanks Mike, I didn't realise that. That worked well and allowed enough weight reduction that the cabinet could be manhandled down some steps.

Alan