LinuxCNC with Thorlabs K-Cube

Hello Friends,

I am working on a photonic circuit testing setup, which I would like to control with LinuxCNC. I have several Thorlabs KDC101 DC Servo Motor controllers, and am wondering if they can be easily controlled with linuxCNC, as I cannot find any documentation indicating that they are compatible. I need to be able to position a test chip under an apparatus very precisely, and then run some tests, and then move to a new position and run more tests. The linear stages are completely capable of the accuracy I need, my only issue is the software side.

I am doing this for a university reseach project. I have built CNC machines in the past, and am not afraid to dig into code and modify things for my own personal use, or even rewrite entire sections of code to make things work. I have never really done any digging into how linuxCNC works at its core, so I am wondering where I need to start. Thank you in advance for all of your help.

Best,

ando

Yes they are USB. Here is some documentation.

www.thorlabs.com/drawings/9aac4c748c8c92...ManualforKinesis.pdf

I did not buy these, but I am stuck with them. Are there any other open source CNC control packages out there that work with USB drivers?

Thanks

There are certainly USB interfaced CNC systems but those have a single USB
interface to a buffered multi-axis motion device.

Those Individual USB interfaced drives are probably not capable of closely
synchronized multi axis motion.

Yes. I see what you are saying. These are not really designed to be used in the way a CNC would require.

Here are the USB hex codes used to send commands to the drivers.

www.thorlabs.com/Software/Motion%20Contr...cations_Protocol.pdf

I would be fine if only one axis moved at a time. This is really just a glorified microscope, and I don't need to run fancy helix cuts profiles, just move to a specified position. I may need to look elsewhere, but does anybody know if there are any software packages that do this kind of thing?