Homebrew PCBs

> Dave mentioned TurboCNC and I hope he can also tell us more about his
> experience with this program. I sent an Excellon programming manual
> to Dave Kowalczyk who wrote TurboCNC and he said he is considering
> writing a version tailored for PCB machines. Maybe he will have this
> available in the future. I'm hoping both Mike and Dave can tell us
> more about their experience with setting up these machines. Thanks!!
>

Tom,
<< sorry for the length, but you asked  ;-)  >>
My program just uses a data file which is standard information in the
"xx","xx","xx" format. The program takes the quote information and loads it
into variables and text boxes. For example, the file would have a particular
name, like a:\plot.dat. You would be able to open this file with a text
editor if you want and it would look like the following:
"0001","0.001","0.015"
"0002","0.015","0.200"
"0003","0.115","0.200"
etc....

This simple example will tell the machine that hole #1 is at 0.001,0.015,
hole #2 is at XY coordinate 0.015,0.2, and hole #3 is at 0.115,0.200. It
does not matter if you have any leading or trailing zeros or if you do not
have any at all. The program recognizes them as numbers. I do not know what
the standard format is from a CAD program, so I cannot comment on the
compatibility. If it is XY coordinate, then it would not take much to make
it adaptable. I also made a template in Microsoft Excel that already added
the hole numbers and quotes and commas so that I could use a basic parser
program to convert it into the DAT file in the example. Once a DAT file is
loaded into the software program, there is a screen where you can edit the
hole locations and re-save the file in case you find that you need to change
a hole location.
Although it sounds somewhat complicated and time consuming in explanation,
it was a fairly quick procedure to write a data file. Keep in mind that all
this was done with lack of information on normal NC drill file outputs and
was a great example of re-inventing the wheel. I would go about this very
different today. In fact, as I mentioned in a previous post, I will make
some changes when time permits.
The information from the DAT file is converted to stepper pulses and
transmitted through the parallel port of the PC to the Drill machine.
-Mike