lpdc

Hello Riley,
I am aware that using SL4A can appear cumbersome but as I said, Python is by far the language I am most proficient with, so for me it is more a matter of being able to doing it at all, rather than doing it elegantly.
I will probably first write a controller to be used on a PC. This controller will be written in Python so installing SL4A on the tablet would enable me to port the controller very effortlessly, provided I can get the serial communication working.

Thank you for the tip regarding the bluetooth serial port adapter, this is also something that may prove interesting to look at.

From what I understood, going through tgFX means having TinyG connected to a computer and driving it wirelessly from the tablet. I am looking forward to seeing how this solution evolves but my original idea of driving TinyG from the tablet was to make the system very portable and do away with the computer altogether.

Cheers,

Fabrice

Hello,
I am very interested in this project of yours as I am also considering controlling TinyG from my android ICS tablet.

I had only started to think of the way to do this before I saw your post.
I am intending to use SL4A and python/pyserial on the tablet as python is the language I am most proficient with.

The major difficulty will be to find drivers for the FTDI chip on Android.
On the FTDI website there is a document explaining how to build a kernel with FTDI support or how to build a kernel module but this is quite above my skill level.
I am running Cyanogen Mod 9 on a HP touchpad so I will check if the drivers are possibly already included (I read that some Cyanogen Mod distros ship with the drivers) I will only be able to make sure of this when :
-> I have received the TinyG I ordered yesterday
-> I have found a way to plug TinyG into the tablet (requires a cable with micro USB on one side and mini USB on the other)

looking forward to reading from your progress,

Fabrice

Hello Alden.
If you intend to add this info on the wiki, here is one additional difference that I personally found of interest:
With grbl, the microstepping setting is global for all 3 motors and is done by hardware jumping/soldering.
Tinyg enables to set different microstepping values for each motor and to do so through software.

As far as I am concerned, I have still not decided yet between the 2…

Thank you very much Alden for this most detailed answer.
This is food for thought indeed and I will consider now which system to go with.

My final goal would be to make a CNC embroidery machine (XY table slapped on a regular sewing machine) as some other people have already built.
In this regard, the acceleration curve during travel is not so important as the end position of the travel is the only thing that really matters (as opposed to say a CNC router for which the whole path of the tool is important). Having a rotational axis would help for the 3rd axis (needle control) but it would still be very easy to treat it as a linear axis since it basically moves a full turn at a time.

I will need to think if I want to go for a good enough system or something that has maybe more evolution potential.

Just a suggestion, since your team work on both projects, the above comparison could be added to the projects’ webpage/wiki

Thanks again,

Fabrice