Virtual Layout Feature Preview

In the last post I showed some of the updates coming to the next version of TouchDRO. The new version will include a lot of tweaks, UI changes and improvements aimed to make the DRO even more flexible and efficient to use. As is, TouchDRO can already do much more than and old-school DRO, but next version is getting a number features that will push the limits of what you can do with a non-CNC mill or lathe. One of those features is the ability to set a background image in layout view and use the mill or the lathe to trace the contour.

Sneak Peek of the New TouchDRO Version

It's been awhile since the last major TouchDRO version release and I'm getting an increasing number of emails asking if I'm still developing the app. The answer is "definitely yes", and the new version is getting very close to be ready for beta testing. It has a number of new features and countless quality-of-life changes. I've been testing it in my shop for some time now and most of the functionality is pretty stable so it's a good time to post a quick preview of some of those changes and new features.

SIEG X2 Mini Mill CNC Build - Component Selection

In the last post I outlined my plan for building a CNC mini mill from a set of SIEG X2 castings. As the first step I wanted to order the parts for the mill itself, ignoring the steppers, controllers, etc. and make sure that I can get it up to snuff. There is no set budget for this project, so the choice of the parts is mostly based on availability (and common sense). The two areas I wanted to concentrate on are spindle accuracy and overall repeatability. With that in mind, in this post I will explain what parts I chose to buy and why.

SIEG X2 Mini Mill CNC Build - Introduction

Some of you might remember that several years ago I used to own a Harbor Freight Mini Mill, AKA SIEG X2. At one point I upgraded the X-Y table to the LMS large table assembly and the old small table has been collecting dust under my workbench. I couldn't force myself to throw it away but couldn't find a use for it either. Until a few weeks ago, that is, until I stumbled across a series of three videos by Stefan Gotteswinter in which he rebuilds a Chinese angle plate. In the introduction to the first video he explains that he bought it as a "set of castings" and proceeds to completely re-machine the whole thing. This gave me an idea...

Connecting iGaging Scales to TouchDRO Controller

If you read some of the earlier posts on this blog you will quickly see that the times were much simpler four years ago when it comes to iGaging scales: there was only one kind and red wire was "Vcc", black wire was "Ground", and so on. Since then iGaging has gone through several revisions of the original DIgiMag scales and has introduced AbsoluteDRO and EZ View scales. My goal for this post is to explain what are the different iGaging (and generic scales made by Shahe) that TouchDRO supports and how to connect them to the BlueTooth DRO controller.

Choosing the Right TouchDRO Adapter for Your Scales

One of the main design goals for the TouchDRO project was to create a flexible modular do-it-yourself digital readout for hobbyists and makers alike. Since raw scale position decoding happens in the adapter, one of the first decisions when setting up a TouchDRO system is the selection of the adapter. At the time of this writing there are two versions of pre-made adapter board and four different do-it-yourself options. All those choices can be confusing if you're new to the TouchDRO ecosystem, so let's look at the benefits and tradeoffs of each of the six options.

TouchDRO 2.5 Release Notes

I'm really excited to finally say that after many months of "Beta" testing, version 2.5 of TouchDRO has been released to "Production". Even though it didn't earn a full digit reales number of 3.0, this version encompasses a lot of major changes under the hood. Many of the changes were made in response to your feedback and requests, while others lay groundwork for future functionality, so let's take a look at the most noteworthy changes in the new version.

How to Build the Mixed Scale Digital Readout Kit

Last Monday I shipped the first batch of orders for the Mixed Scale DIY DRO Kit, so those of you that have placed an order have likely already received it. I know that many of the people who ordered the kits have electronics experience and won't need a step-by-step assembly instructions. With that said, I designed the kit to be very beginner-friendly, so in this post I will go over the assembly process in some detail, so someone with limited electronics experience should be able to follow it and end up with a working DRO controller.

Do-it-yourself DRO Mixed Scale Controller Kit

Mixed Scale Controller DIY DRO Kit is designed to simplify the build process of the "Mixed Scale" DRO controller. As the name suggests, this version of the controller comes as a do-it-yourself kit that consists of a bare printed circuit board, MSP430 microcontroller pre-programmed with the "Mixed Scale" firmware, BlueTooth transceiver, and all of the necessary parts to build the voltage shifter circuit. The board is primarily designed to run the Mixed Scale firmware and interface with 1.5V and/or 3.3V scales and calipers, but can be easily tweaked to work with quadrature encoders instead.

TouchDRO Adapter for Glass and Magnetic DRO Scales

TouchDRO adapter for Glass and Magnetic DRO Scales is used to interface glass and magnetic scales that use standard quadrature encoders to the TouchDRO Android application. It supports up to four scale inputs, directional tachometer, and touch probe input. All inputs are buffered and 5V-tolerant. Scale inputs can be either single-ended, or differential (for better noise immunity).