Implementing a cost-efficient, open-architecture CNC controller using a handheld device

The evolution of technology in the entire smart handheld market is beginning to enable devices to bend to the usages, needs and wishes of their users instead of the traditional paradigm of the user bending to the interface and device requirements. In this thesis, the robustness of current handheld devices will be explored to see if current handheld devices have a place in the industrial workshop. This means the handheld device must provide a cost-efficient control solution with an open-architecture to its current industrial counterpart.; To implement this thesis, a handheld device and a microcontroller were used to create the control system. The job of the handheld device was to send instructions to the microcontroller that controlled the CNC lathe. The control system software for the handheld device was written in Java for cross platform compatibility. A simple plain text protocol was used to communicate between the microcontroller and the handheld device thus creating a software based CNC control system following the open-architecture CNC design philosophy. Initial testing of this architecture was successfully completed on a MAXNC T2 lathe.