Automatic saw fence

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

Hi
Being honest here I am a woodworker and this would be my first robotics project.
I’m building a automatic saw stop. Like a tigerstop. Basically how they work is you input the intended length of the board on a keypad, the stop/fence slides along a rail to the proper position and when the board is slid into the stop and the saw comes down the board is cut to the proper length. I view it as a single axis cnc of sorts.
My intention is to use a 416 oz stepper motor from robotshop website. Combined with the microcontroller and driver that the website suggests using together. Then combined with rack and pinion from McMaster Carr.

So my first question is what plc or hmi should I use? I’m looking for a cheap one but need to be able to input length measurements so it would need a numerical keypad. What brands and resources are there?

My second question is does anyone suggest other things I should look up at this stage?

Thanks
Max

2

Hi Max,

For a user interface, you may want to check out a basic keypad, such as these. As for display, any simple LCD (or even digit-display) will probably be enough. You can see those here.
Most of these have documentation (under “Useful Links”) which typically includes sample code or links to an Arduino library or something similar to help you get started.

If you want a more “professional” look, you could go for a Nextion interface. The 2.8" one is particularly affordable for what it offers. There are also many products from 4D Systems that may be interesting to you for an HMI solution.

We hope this helps.

Sincerely,