This guide is intended for use once you have your micRo assembled and running. I'm putting in an outline with some resources now, and plan to update it (with help!) as we go.
We are starting from a point where you have already
- Hooked your micRo to a computer
- Installed a machine controller (Ubuntu/EMC2)
- Configured the machine controller for use with micRo
For your first project you can try running the Lumenlab sample.ngc gcode file
1. Start EMC2 and load the micRo configuration file.
2. Load the Lumenlab start gcode file (to be attached).
3. Test run the file in EMC2. You can see the file running on the virtual workspace.
4. If everything seems ok hook up your tool to micRo and run the file for real!
That was fun! Now you'll probably want to design and create your own projects. The basic process is this:
1. Draw your object in a drawing program like Rhino3D, Auto-CAD etc. The programs I named are some of the more popular (and expensive) programs. There are also freeware programs you can use. Check out the EMC website for a list of software: EMC WIki: CAD and CAM Software
2. Once your object is drawn you need to convert it to g-code. Software that does this is called CAM software. (Wiki entry for CAM)
If you checked the EMC wiki you'll see there are a lot of CAM options out there. Also, with the various file-format converters available you can make your drawings in well-developed open-source drawing programs like Inkscape, Blender, BRL-CAD and more.
3. If you are doing simple operations you may want to consider writing the g-code by hand or using some of the simple python modules availabe from EMC.