Camera edge finder.

Hi there, fellow open builders, Heres a video of my camera edge finder arrangement and offset macro.

This idea has been around a while but thought I'd share as I think it's wicked, makes setup much quicker. You don't have to use a screen, Mach 3 and uccnc have a webcam plugins that have crosshair overlays that are in fact better, only you need a usb video adapter and I find they are slightly resource heavy, and this old laptop wasn't really up to it so the screen in my case works better. The setup cost around £30-40.

 

Though if you do make one, it's a good idea to check the orientation of the camera before making the mount for it :s lol

The macro was probably the hardest part to do being that I use uccnc and seems I am the first to share an offset macro for, with a little help from forum users that is. though there is one floating around for Mach 3. So if you use either of these your sorted, both being available on Cnczone. Wouldn't know how to go about it with grbl.

You can use a laser instead of a camera to the same effect

 

The uccnc offset macro i wrote for it:

if(!exec.GetLED(56)||!exec.GetLED(57)||!exec.GetLED(58)) // If machine was not homed then it is unsafe to move in machine coordinates, stop here...
{
MessageBox.Show("The machine has not yet been homed, HOME before executing camera offset M33!");
exec.Stop();
return;
}

AS3.Setfieldtext("",900);
if ( (exec.GetXmachpos() == 0.000) & (exec.GetYmachpos() == 0.000) & (exec.GetZmachpos() == 0.000) ) // checks to see if machine is is still at home position
{
MessageBox.Show("The machine is still at HOME position! Position camera on edge(s) and restart macro");
exec.Stop();
return;
}
else
AS3.Setfieldtext("The Machine is ready to do Function",900);//sets uccnc status to say ready, not a requirement.


AS3.Setfield(12.34, 226); // x offset value (12.34)
AS3.Validatefield(226);// applies offset value to x


AS3.Setfield(12.34, 227); // y offset value (12.34)
AS3.Validatefield(227);// applies offset value to y


exec.Wait(1000);


while(exec.IsMoving()){}


exec.Code("G900 Y0");// moves to zero


exec.Wait(1000);


while(exec.IsMoving()){}


if(!exec.Ismacrostopped())


{
MessageBox.Show("Camera offset finished!");
}
else
{
exec.StopWithDeccel();
MessageBox.Show("Camera offset interrupted by user!");
} // reports if an estop before offset and goto zero was completed


If you save as m200 in uccnc it is called by p1 button or by calling the macro manually in command line