Design of Low Cost CNC Controller Using Raspberry PI

Srimathi .P, Shruthi Venkat, Yamuna .M, Sudha .V

Abstract: This project aims at the design of a Low cost hardware used for controlling CNC machine which overcomes the disadvantages such as cost and software complications. The movement of the three axes: x, y and z of the CNC machine are controlled through three stepper motors. The stepper motors are connected to the motor drivers which are connected to raspberry pi. Pi gives the direction and step input to the stepper motor driver. The image to be etched is given through CAD software which is converted into G-code and used in linux platform. As Raspberry pi works in Linux platform, linuxcnc software is used for dumping G-codes into pi. G-code is used to give instructions to the CNC regarding the movement of the machine. The parameters passed to the x, y and z axes are continuously monitored using a 7 inch touch LCD display connected to the Raspberry pi.

Keywords: Low cost hardware, CNC machine, stepper motors, Raspberry pi, CAD software, linuxcnc software, LCD display.