Random trig stuff

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PhenixRising
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Joined: 07/11/2023
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Posted: 12:49pm 20 May 2024      

Something the Cap'n mentioned in another thread reminded me to post this stuff. It might be of use, who knows.

It's the code from a 5-axis articulated-arm measuring machine. I'm no-longer in that business so might as well post the code.

I haven't bothered going through the zip-file so there's prolly a bunch of junk in there as well.


TMCBAS.ZIP
palcal

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Posted: 08:42pm 20 May 2024      

The file is password protected.
PhenixRising
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Posted: 09:30pm 20 May 2024      

  palcal said  The file is password protected.


Weird...it opens every time for me, both the original and the one that I just downloaded from here  
JohnS
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Posted: 10:04pm 20 May 2024      

I can list the files but each looks to be password protected.

John
phil99

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Posted: 10:07pm 20 May 2024      

In W10 File Explorer and 7Zip the file list can be viewed but all the individual files are locked.
PhenixRising
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Posted: 05:46am 21 May 2024      

2nd attempt


Measuring center source.zip
Volhout
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Posted: 06:35am 21 May 2024      

Hi Phenix,

Sounds like real professional stuff, when it includes a MIDI music player....

Volhout
JohnS
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Posted: 07:19am 21 May 2024      

Some (including .BAS files) have a lot of non-ASCII chars.

Not MMBasic I gather.

John
CaptainBoing

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Posted: 07:46am 21 May 2024      

  JohnS said  Some (including .BAS files) have a lot of non-ASCII chars.


Tokenised. QB (and lots of other Basics) had the facility to save either a straight ASCII or the tokenised source. Some defaulted to tokenized - the CPC had a ,A option in the save command to over-ride it.
PhenixRising
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Posted: 08:26am 21 May 2024      

  Volhout said  Hi Phenix,

Sounds like real professional stuff, when it includes a MIDI music player....

Volhout


That was for speech prompts; the probe was a non-contact-laser and having to keep looking up at a screen was inconvenient.

"Professional": Based on recent reports, I figured that now was not a good time to mention that they were used by Boeing for quality control      
PhenixRising
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Posted: 08:29am 21 May 2024      

@Volhout

Since the PicoMite now has the ability to read high-resolution incremental encoders, maybe someone might want to create something similar  
PhenixRising
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Posted: 08:31am 21 May 2024      

  JohnS said  Some (including .BAS files) have a lot of non-ASCII chars.

Not MMBasic I gather.

John


Hi John,

It was MS PDS 7 (fancy QuickBASIC). I open with Notepad++ and all looks good.
JohnS
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Posted: 12:13pm 21 May 2024      

No worries so long as not corrupted files.

John
DaveJacko
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Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 09:32pm 21 May 2024      

would be interesting to see the device in action..

here's a simple 3-axis thing that I did with the micromite,
just O-level trigonometry, a very short video,
I can post code if anyone wants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s34UqWbSSDA

regs, Dave
PhenixRising
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Posted: 11:11pm 21 May 2024      

  DaveJacko said  would be interesting to see the device in action..


The last one was delivered to Fiat Ferroviaria in 1993  

I wish that I had even still-pics because it was a gorgeous piece of engineering.

I don't know if you have been following but @Volhout has provided the capability for the Pico to read high-speed/resolution incremental encoders, huge potential, here.

Do you fancy working on something like this?

The thing used to sell for US$80K which is just not possible today.
PhenixRising
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Posted: 11:45pm 21 May 2024      

What would be really cool, would be to port Steve Annin's AR4 to the PicoMite.

He's done some amazing work but still uses steppers (albeit closed loop).
A real robot requires that its joints are compliant...impossible with steppers but not with true servos which are able to torque-limit.

Would do wonders for MMBasic exposure  
Peter63
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Posted: 03:59am 22 Jun 2025      

Hi Dave, you wrote

  Quote  here's a simple 3-axis thing that I did with the micromite,
just O-level trigonometry, a very short video,
I can post code if anyone wants.


I watched the video and became curious.

I'm curious about the code you've written. Do you have the opportunity to share it?

/Peter63
DaveJacko
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Joined: 25/07/2019
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 96
Posted: 09:27pm 22 Jun 2025      

Hi Peter

Here is a snippet of my micromite code. it's not good but I hope it helps.
I haven't included my Visual Basic 6 code, even I cannot understand it  
hope this gives you an idea of how it works.

As for Phenix's 5-axis stuff, truly impressive.

(My project was inspired by a TV program on the manufacture of the BMW Mini
featuring James May. The device used is known as a 'Faro Arm')


'a code snippet for Peter63
'project demo at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s34UqWbSSDA

'first, set up appropriate pins as analog
SetPin 2,ain 'wrist potentiometer
SetPin 3,ain 'elbow pot
SetPin 4,ain 'shoulder pot

Do

'read the 3 pots and adjust to get angles in degrees
wa=Int((2.57-Pin(2))*180/2.15) 'wrist angle
ea=Int((1.91-Pin(3))*90/1.14)  'elbow angle
sa=Int((Pin(4)-1.26)*90/1.2)   'shoulder angle

' print angles in degrees for debug
print wa,ea,sa

'convert angles to radians
rdn=57.3
wa=wa/rdn:ea=ea/rdn:sa=sa/rdn

'do the maths.. results in cm
'11 cm is the length of this Humerus bone
'12 cm is the Radius bone

'rd is the effective horizontal length of the arm
rd=11*Sin(ea)+12*Sin(ea+wa)+1 'radius in x-y plane

'so this is where the end of the arm is..
' zp,xp,yp are the Cartesian co-ordinates
zp=11*Cos(ea)+12*Cos(ea+wa)
xp=rd*Sin(sa)+8
yp=16-rd*Cos(a)

'for debug..
print xp,yp,zp

pause 1000
loop
Peter63
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Location: Sweden
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Posted: 02:23am 23 Jun 2025      

Hi Dave

Thank you for the code, I will take a look. I have used measuring arms a bit in my job. Nowadays I mostly work with troubleshooting on CNC machines.

/Peter63
PhenixRising
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Posted: 06:05am 23 Jun 2025      

  DaveJacko said  

The device used is known as a 'Faro Arm')



Faro was a competitor. They threatened to sue me over my laser-probe. Theirs was IR at the time but you couldn't see what the heck you were doing. I used visible laser. They really didn't have a case but I was all too familiar with the litigation nonsense in the US. It's all about who has the deepest pockets so I backed out.