Acorn for a FIRST robotics team CNC Router

[Garyhlucas]

I am a current user of Mach 3 on my home built CNC mill. I have been a CNC programmer for VMCs in the past too, and operated several different kinds of CNC mills. My machine has a USB motion card and it has worked very well for me for the past 4 years. Now I am building a CNC router for the local FIRST Robotics team and I like what I see with the Acorn. The biggest issue with letting students operate this is safety. The machine will be fully enclosed and I am control panel designer in my job so no problem implementing E-stop, Door Switch interlocks, keyswitch authorization etc.

Everyone that uses a CNC mill knows that you sometimes need to have your hands near where the action is. Picking up edges, tramming the spindle, aligning vises, are really tough to do with a closed enclosure. I've looked through the user manual for a bit but I am left with question.

Is there a way to use an input to limit the jog speed? I'd like to use the key switch to allow full speed operation with door open in one position, no operation in the middle position, and no spindle with slow jog in a third position. With the door closed a student can bring the tool, edge finder, dial indicator near the work. Then open the door and jog the machine to indicate a vise or pick up the origin of a part.

I would appreciate help with this as I have the entire frame of this machine all cut up and machined, and about 90% of all the parts but have not yet chosen the CNC.

[cnckeith]

Yes. A Wide variety of capabilities and functions are controlled by the PLC program in the Acorn CNC12 software. This allows extensive customization of the Acorn CNC control system, so what you are describing is no problem with some PLC program edits.