Development of interface and coordination module of FPGA-based controller for CNC PCB milling and drilling machine

This paper presents part of the work in developing the controller system of a CNC PCB milling and drilling machine. The controller system consists of three modules: the interface and coordination module, the speed control-module for spindle motor, and the position control-module for stepper motors. This paper focuses on the design, implementation, and testing of the interface and coordination module. The interface is implemented as a GUI on PC whereas the coordinator module is implemented as a digital controller using FPGA. The input of this module is G-code. Next, the G-code file is translated by a data interpreter into array of bytes, ready to be sent from PC to FPGA via serial communication UART. The data received by the FPGA will be used to coordinate the two other control modules in performing PCB milling and drilling processes. The interface part is created using Visual Studio 2015 whereas the coordination module is implemented using Verilog HDL. The testing results show that this module is able to generate the command signals required by the spindle motor as well as by the motion control modules of the CNC machine to produce PCB.