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SCARA CNC milling with Arduino?

Posted by Spitfire537 
SCARA CNC milling with Arduino?
April 03, 2019 04:54AM
Hello everyone,

I am new to robotics as well these forums so pardon me if my question sounds silly or too much of a newbie question.

A little background : I'm pursuing Mechanical engineering undergrad so I do not have any knowledge on robotics or whatsoever. I've been learning arduino for a while now, since this field or robotics, mechatronics and automation has piqued my interest, since I have Computer Aided Manufacturing as a subject this semester. That being said, I am looking forward to a project on making a SCARA CNC milling/router (small diy) apparatus using arduino. And this is exactly where I need help.

I've been doing my homework though. I know how to operate servos using arduino (not a big thing but it's a start), I've been studying robot arm kinematics, dynamics, DH tables etc.

The main issue is that I've found nothing so far that tells me where should I start and in what direction should I exactly proceed, like some YouTube tutorial or something showing that how can I use CNC gcodes with arduino in a SCARA.

I did find people making CNCs with arduino. I also found people making SCARAs with arduino. But I didn't found anyone who combined these both (or maybe I am not searching for the correct things, or maybe it isn't possible with arduino? Raspberry Pi maybe?). There was one site though, called Evezor. They have a SCARA which they've used for milling, welding and 3d printing.

I know that this is what I have to do : feed the Gcodes arduino performs inverse kinematics and takes my tool to that position, or moves it on that path. (By the way I know how to operate a CNC milling machine). I will be using a bosch router to do the milling part, as I do not plan to machine steel or some hard materials with the arm, only wood or aluminum at max.

I am not looking for some spoon feed tutorial of some kind, that tells me exactly how do I make that apparatus, no. There's no fun in doing that kind of a project. (saying in case I've been judged wrong haha)

I've been researching about it, and I found two firmwares : Teacup and GRBL, which offer G-code coupling functionality with arduino. I've read about them, they're stepper/servo controlling programs which instruct(?) arduino. There are also tutorials for cartesian control using these firmwares, But I can't seem to find anything that tells how I do control a SCARA with these firmwares, and operate it just like a CNC. Maybe I'm just too much of a noob to figure it out, and it's very simple.

Anyway, with all that being said, I need guidance as in where should I start : what should I look for, what can I read about, some books that I can read, what can I do further etc.

Thanks in advance.
Re: SCARA CNC milling with Arduino?
April 03, 2019 05:30AM
Both those firmware only support Cartesian type machines (individual X,Y,Z axis)

You would have to implement the SACRA kinematics (this is not a simple thing)

You should take a look at [evezor.com] there are people milling with this [www.youtube.com]

but don't expect great results... arms are flimsy, real cnc manchines are rigid

They are just using marlin firmware, which has SCARA kinematics inbuilt.
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