Basic Arduino-EMC HOWTO

If you’re interested in getting EMC’s HAL module to talk with an Arduino board, I’ve put together the following examples to show how I got it to work for a very simple test case of one switch and two LEDs. While simple, the approach shown here is the same used for my full 25-key + MPG + LCD pendant, and can probably be generalized to do just about anything short of real-time closed-loop control.

Original HOWTO Post (start here, includes YouTube video)

Arduino sketch code

HAL Configuration

Python Userspace Module

3 responses to “Basic Arduino-EMC HOWTO”

  1. dewy721 February 17, 2012 at 9:36 pm

    I just want to say thanks again for your howto on Arduino/HAL/EMC interfacing.
    I put it to good use and came up with an EmcArduino sketch to control a toy CNC machine as well as posted it back to the community at http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,92561.0.html

    Thanks for point me in the right direction, take care.

    Reply
  2. dewy721 April 3, 2012 at 11:01 pm

    Just an update: The fruits of your work has has spawned an open-source project called EMC2Arduino. So far, we have created a Arduino powered USB-based interface to EMC that includes the following features:
    0~9 axis motion control for stepper motor based systems. (Yes up to 9-axises on an Arduino!)
    Support for virtual and/or physical limit switches on all axises.
    Basic physical controls of E-Stop, power, start/stop, pause/run and program step.
    Software selectable micro-stepping control.
    Coming soon:
    LCD based DRO and joystick.
    Quadrature Encoder support for closed loop feedback.
    Servo motion control.

    This project is still in the BETA state (but usable). If anyone is interested at can be found at:
    https://github.com/dewy721/EMC-2-Arduino
    Comments/Questions & Contributors welcome.

    Reply

  3. Pingback: A tribute to those before me… « Emc2Arduino

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