UCamCopy is a new plugin written for UCCNC. It provides the 2D perimeter tracing ability of ProbeIt, but with a camera instead of a touch probe :). Thanks for your interest in checking it out.
UCamCopy is a vision based probing and ‘line following’ plugin for UCCNC. The plugin requires a webcam, preferably a ‘microscope’ based camera with fairly high magnification. Preferred image resolution from the camera is 640×480 with a rate of 30 fps, making cheap cameras ideal. The image captured from the webcam is processed using EMGU/OpenCV to perform edge/line detection. Once an edge is found, the image data is used to drive the CNC machine around along the edge, and record the data to a DXF file for use in reconstructing or copying geometry.
Here’s a short video showing initial Setup and PID Calibration:
This short video demonstrates adjusting video parameters and starting edge tracing:
Other preliminary video demonstrations of the plugin can be found here.
UCamCopy has been tested using UCCNC 1.2112 on Windows 7 x86, and Windows 10 x64 using both a UC100 and UC300. It is expected to therefore work with all versions of CNC Drive hardware controllers. UCamCopy is a fully functional demo that is free to use for 30 days to verify it’s functionality and to see if it works for your needs.
While I’ve made every attempt to catch all bugs and errors, as this is the first version release it is anticipated that users will find some issues that I did not catch. Please contact me and let me know what you find, so that I may continue to improve the plugin and provide updates and improvements.
Interested? Head to the UCamCopy download page.
Some Recommendations on cameras: I’ve only tested a few cameras, so I don’t feel I can give any specific recommendation for a ‘brand’, or a ‘make’ or ‘model’ that is superior. However, I’ve tried a few types of cameras, and have formed a few opinions on what I like and did not like.
First, I DO NOT like cameras which put the focus mechanism near the lens. My experience with this type was that the lens focus adjustment mechanism had ‘slop’, and that resulted in an image that bounced around alot because the lens was physically moving/vibrating in the camera. Maybe it was just this particular make/model, but I don’t recommend this type or model:
The camera I’m personally using is this kind, with the focus mechanism located at the back near the cable exit. This camera works well for a decent price. By linking to this, I’m not suggesting this is the best or greatest camera, it’s merely one I’ve tried and use myself.
