dro and laptop

[MaximT]

Hi, I just bought my first lathe and looking for a dro for it. It would be nice to get one with a standalone screen but with possibility to connect to my Linux CNC laptop, if/when I decide to upgrade to a CNC. Does anyone know about any inexpensive and reliable kits?

 

[djberta]

Do a search and have a look at touchdro, can be run on a tablet. On our sister forums in the US the guy behind touchdro has his section there. Its a bit pricy in the end but is constantly getting better. Unless your really good at electronics and working with the esp32 I would steer away from the diy version and buy the prebuilt model. Where as any off the shelf dro is basically stuck at the time of purchase, the cheap ones are stuck a decade ago.

TouchDRO - The DIY DRO Project

www.yuriystoys.com This forum is the home of TouchDRO on Hobby Machinist. Yuriy's products are DIY DRO projects, plans and software that you can use to bring DRO to your hobby machine shop.

www.hobby-machinist.com

 

[MaximT]

Do a search and have a look at touchdro, can be run on a tablet. On our sister forums in the US the guy behind touchdro has his section there. Its a bit pricy in the end but is constantly getting better. Unless your really good at electronics and working with the esp32 I would steer away from the diy version and buy the prebuilt model. Where as any off the shelf dro is basically stuck at the time of purchase, the cheap ones are stuck a decade ago.

TouchDRO - The DIY DRO Project

www.yuriystoys.com This forum is the home of TouchDRO on Hobby Machinist. Yuriy's products are DIY DRO projects, plans and software that you can use to bring DRO to your hobby machine shop.

www.hobby-machinist.com

Ok GREAT! so this is basically a middleware which is compatible with some cheap dros like sino and vevor. So it allows to do gradual modular upgrades. The website also has some great recommendations in the doc section, thanks!

 

[DavidR8]

Ok GREAT! so this is basically a middleware which is compatible with some cheap dros like sino and vevor. So it allows to do gradual modular upgrades. The website also has some great recommendations in the doc section, thanks!

I have it on my mill and will have it on my lathe. A couple of Amazon Fire tablets from Marketplace and away you go. Fantastic feature set.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Do a search and have a look at touchdro, can be run on a tablet. On our sister forums in the US the guy behind touchdro has his section there. Its a bit pricy in the end but is constantly getting better. Unless your really good at electronics and working with the esp32 I would steer away from the diy version and buy the prebuilt model. Where as any off the shelf dro is basically stuck at the time of purchase, the cheap ones are stuck a decade ago.

TouchDRO - The DIY DRO Project

www.yuriystoys.com This forum is the home of TouchDRO on Hobby Machinist. Yuriy's products are DIY DRO projects, plans and software that you can use to bring DRO to your hobby machine shop.

www.hobby-machinist.com

+1 on the touch DRO especially if you have an old tablet kicking around. Just buy magnetic scales from the Ditron Store on aliexpress to go with the touch DRO system rather than buying anything from vevor or the like.

Also something to consider, buy magnetic tape from Ditron as well for the cross slide axis. Then embed it in the underside of the cross slide. See the thread below showing what I mean. You would need access to a milling machine but I'm sure a local member would help you out.

Post in thread 'Colchester Master 2500 DRO installation'

Apr 5, 2023

I know what I'll be doing on the weekend.

To my eye that doesn't look like 2 meters worth of tape, but I only need about 8 inches for the cross slide.

• TorontoBuilder

• 
• 

 

[Tecnico]

One more voice here, I have it on my lathe and mill and carry one tablet between basement & out building.

I like the continuing feature development, the fact that we can interact with the developer and that it runs on non-proprietary hardware.

D

 

[MaximT]

+1 on the touch DRO especially if you have an old tablet kicking around. Just buy magnetic scales from the Ditron Store on aliexpress to go with the touch DRO system rather than buying anything from vevor or the like.

Also something to consider, buy magnetic tape from Ditron as well for the cross slide axis. Then embed it in the underside of the cross slide. See the thread below showing what I mean. You would need access to a milling machine but I'm sure a local member would help you out.

Post in thread 'Colchester Master 2500 DRO installation'

Apr 5, 2023

I know what I'll be doing on the weekend.

To my eye that doesn't look like 2 meters worth of tape, but I only need about 8 inches for the cross slide.

• TorontoBuilder

• 
• 

Thanks, how is ditron quality compared with sino? better, worse?

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Thanks, how is ditron quality compared with sino? better, worse?

They're very good scales. As good as sino

 

[MaximT]

They're very good scales. As good as sino

Thanks, last question. What resolution do it need for my cx709 lathe?

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Thanks, last question. What resolution do it need for my cx709 lathe?

5 um is fine

 

[Tecnico]

5 um is fine

Yuriy (TouchDRO developer) has advice on his pages WRT precision and glass vs magnetic. In my case mine were a combination of regular and low profile glass with mag embedded in the cross slide on the lathe and a custom installation on the mill quill driven by space.

WRT precision, when I was negotiating with Ditron they upgraded all to 1u gratis. That seems a common incentive from them to close the deal so you might as well aim for it. They also seem to be sensitive to closing the deal if you don’t get back to them for a couple of days and things like the 1u upgrade offer come out.

They also seem sensitive to closing before month end so the incentive is there to deal.

I bought via Aliexpress and negotiated via their text window.

D

 

[TorontoBuilder]

Yuriy (TouchDRO developer) has advice on his pages WRT precision and glass vs magnetic. In my case mine were a combination of regular and low profile glass with mag embedded in the cross slide on the lathe and a custom installation on the mill quill driven by space.

WRT precision, when I was negotiating with Ditron they upgraded all to 1u gratis. That seems a common incentive from them to close the deal so you might as well aim for it. They also seem to be sensitive to closing the deal if you don’t get back to them for a couple of days and things like the 1u upgrade offer come out.

They also seem sensitive to closing before month end so the incentive is there to deal.

I bought via Aliexpress and negotiated via their text window.

D

Ditto on the Ditron store experience... dont buy squat from them without haggling over price and specifications.

That said, hobby metal workers do not need better than 5 micron resolution. So negotiate for a better price for a magnetic strip and reader rather than for a better resolution. IMO this is the way to go at any rate... since Ditron hates to give a deal on single magnetic strip