My adventures with Auggie.

[Mooselake]

Hi, Tweakie!

Is this with the same Tweakie CNC/laser I had the privilege of visiting some years back?  Pictures?

Kirk

[tweakie]

Hi Kirk,

Yes indeed sir, it's the same machine although there have been a few changes and additions. The machine is mainly used for rotary engraving and the laser was just added as an extra but it works as a multi-purpose machine. Check out the pictures etc. on my website for the deja-vu  ;)

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Sweet image.

  Glad your having fun with it and its running well for you. Auggies 6th order motion
should make almost any machine happy mechanically, the heavier it is, the happier
it will be. I havent found the planner to be quite perfect, it seems to labour under
some types of code, though I do find tuning the Jerk clears it up normally.

  Small segment code is probably the worst torture for this type of planner, unlike Mach3,
Auggie has to create a continuous start to stop segment before it starts to move, it
updates the complete line from current position to new positions as they are added
and figures out the jerk and motion waveform again from start to end to make sure
added moves that allow higher speeds due to distance can increase that speed.

  This means in short line code the entire future motion profile may be recalculated
hundreds of times per second as the lines are added and depending on speed
through that motion. The Jerk calculations are a huge part of this, and can tax a
system, so if you find it stuttering or anything, increase the Jerk, youll find that
usually smooths it out, its a balance that can be hard to find that works for all code.

  One other note, the Aug button can create both 2d and 3d laser engravings, the 3d is
made by using a grey scale depth image, (they can be created by saving a grey scale
image of an STL display). Nothing the Aug button does actually changes Auggies
operation, it does all the things it needs to do in the GCode file, so by looking
at the weird additions to your GCode you can get an idea of how the Aug button
works, and how you can do the same things in your own GCode. GCode commands
are available to load binary image data , vary power for it, adjust the power in
stages related to depth for multi-pass 3d work, and to reset the variables that
control such things. Its kinda like Mach3's P words for laser power on/off,
but on steroids. Take note that for engravings the Gcode is loading a data file
that is the same name as the Gcode file. The data file is just a binary format of
a normal grey scale image.

  If you need to shut down a long image run, pause it at the end or start of a line.
Auggie will reload and get you setup to the right spot when you restart with a continue
button press after restarting the program the next day.

Just a couple notes to consider as you learn the program.  :)

Art

[tweakie]

Thanks to YNN for posting the depth map image on his website - I had to give it a try.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

:), I have a few of those hanging about..

This is to Certify that ___TWEAKY___ has
achieved the required prerequisites and is hereby
granted a Baccalaureate degree in Auggie CNC
from the University of Gearotic. May God have
mercy  on his soul.


Congrats.. :)
Art

[tweakie]

Hi Art,

Thanks for all the additional information, there is an awful lot for me to take in ? Auggie is so much more than it first appears.

I think all this data now needs collating into one place so all those that follow know the way. Sounds like the manual ???

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Tweaky:

I doubt if a real manual will ever be forthcoming on Auggie,
Its such a specialty program that few will adopt it, in truth it
was written for myself and YNN, who contributed the greyscale
for you. It was fun to write though so it became more than I
envisioned.
    We'll see how it develops over time if indeed I get it doing
3d printing it may be useful to a larger group of users to
be feasible. Its all one reason I was very happy to see you
got it running with no real assistance. Proves its possible. :)


Art

[Ya-Nvr-No]

Thanks Guys

Tweakie: History has proven from your past detailed posts on your website and other forum's,  That you're great at passing on your journey to learn and share knowledge. You're the perfect candidate to pass on your recent learning curve.  We feel Auggie is a true functional tool for not only laser work but teaching and understanding how scripting is written & applied and is not difficult or black magic. There are lots of examples and I have so many more to glean from.

One issue is both Art and I go from one wild idea project to the next. I think we go by the squeaky wheel principle, we are here to help and share what we have learned. It was great & impressive to see from your experience there was a limited squeak. Wait till you learn how to create panels or edit your screen set and then learn the true power of Auggie.

Nice to hear my website was useful for more than my understanding of Robots, Crawlers and the inquisitive. (Awstats=interesting data collector)

[tweakie]

Unfortunately I don?t know enough about Auggie to contribute anything at all towards a manual but if you think it would help or be of any assistance to others (bearing in mind that my laser is set-up is entirely differently to the norm.) then I could do something like a .pdf write-up on what I did to get my system working.

I agree that the cost of the 57CNC may be a limiting factor here but, hopefully, there will be followers. I am sure you all know but my main interest is in the 8 bit photo etching aspects of Auggie (I really do need to move on from the LPT parallel port operation associated with the Mach3 plugin) but each user will, I am sure, have a different priority or interest.

I can see a great potential for Auggie, it is just a matter of getting it noticed.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Hi Tweaky:

  Thanks, very generous of you. Any experiences you have would be
greatly appreciated, you can post them here on the forum under Auggies
topics. Im going on the theory that anyone interested will have enough
information in the forums to get them running.

  Im not highly motivated to push Auggie as a controller, it was written with
an experimenters motive, so I opened it up enough to do almost anything
that ones wants it to do within reason. It isn't for the meek though, or
those new to such things unless they are dedicated. I know from running
Mach3 that I don't really want to support a CNC controller for the general
population, I'm past that workload requirement, :), but I'm more than willing
to support a hobby community of users that have the  interest and drive
to make it work for them and support each other.

  So please post any things you found confusing, Im willing to bet those that
follow you will have similar concerns and may be shy to ask. (Though
no-one should ever be shy to ask.. ). Also feel free to mention your experiences
to others that you think may have similar needs. 

  We're always happy to have new blood around here, fresh minds make for
fresh ideas. You may want to mention to anyone interested that Auggie is a free program, it doesn't require any license, and is now a separate download. I
made it that way as a payback to the CNC community for over a decade of
support.

Glad your having fun with it.
Art

[tweakie]

Now you have to use a bit of imagination here because this result is really not very good (still learning) but I thought it may be of interest.

This image was produced using Auggie and an Impact Electromagnet.

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Well, I have to say its pretty good. The patterns seem almost random, but from any distance the effect is very good. Was this done witht he laser PWM output? , or just
a binary ouput?

Art

[tweakie]

Hi Art,

That was just using the binary data from the PWM output (I am still working on the magnet driver which will convert the PWM to impact weight).

Tweakie.

[ArtF]

Thx

I was wondering if the pwm would work for an impact.. seems it does,. :)

Art

[tweakie]

Impact magnet operation is definitely possible with Auggie but axis velocity has to be a lot slower than with laser.
Although the cost of diode lasers is constantly falling an impact magnet set-up is relatively cheap and it makes a remarkably good job on binary materials (such as granite). Who knows, it may give Auggie an appeal to an entirely different group of users.

Tweakie.