First off, i love this software. Ever since i was a little kid i loved to tinker and i loved fiddling with 3D. Now that i decided to become an electrical engineering student, this project is just perfect. Great work guys
Anyways.
So i ordered and received the Logictech Quickcam 9000 (er whatever everyone's using) Scored a 10mw line laser with adjustable focus. Grabbed a battery holder for testing, but already am working on the 5v-3v circuit on a breadboard and in Multisim. Got everything here and installed, just gotta print the test patterns.
So in the next day or two here, i'll have a minute to do a test scan. But having both worked with 3D and electronics extensively, i'm already looking ahead to automate the process.
Now i'm somewhere between my second and 3rd year of my engineering degree, and sadly, i havent had the opportunity to take our robotics classes with the arduino/picaxe boards yet. But, after seeing tons of arduino code, and already knowing C/C++/Objective-C, Im not scared off at all. What i'd like to do, is have the laser automated, thats step one. Step 2 would be the turntabe, and step 3 would be automatic on/off of lights/laser.
But my question is this, which is more accurate and cheaper? Going with an arduino board or running off a COM Port so the entire thing is PC controlled? Im not afraid of either method, i'm completely confident i can handle each route, but a few things have confused me as i havent had the experience and need some direction and advice on parts. For one, if i have a driver board, can i drive both motors using one arduino? Can i do the same running off of the COM Port of a computer? Also, with an arduino, could i run off of one arduino board a: LCD, 2 stepper motors, lights (for texture capture) and laser on/off? How many of these could i control with the COMPort?
Also is there a reason you guys use a Serial to USB adaptor? I do have serial ports on my rig, dualcore 3.2ghz p4 and 3gigs of ram.
I figure since we have the developers here with the juicy foresight of whats coming in the future version, they might have some input on which they'd recommend.
I appreciate the advice guys! Keep up the good work.
