One of a number of controllers that Vansco developed for Micro Tool and Machine, my thesis partner Danny Lew and I took on the development of the Fully Mitre Core Shear Controller as our undergraduate thesis. We built upon the existing software and main controller board, but had to modify the programming to accommodate left/right/angle stops on the head rotation, distance measurement on the material progression, and control of the material movement, shear rotation and closure, and punch activation.
I did a PCB layout (double sided tape on mylar – that was some time ago!) for the I/O board – incorporating multiple options, including some that we weren’t able to use – several of the boards were manufactured. I kept one as a momento.
We were just wrapping up the project when the blizzard of final exams hit, so the my manager Lorne Repas did a chunk of the finishing work. Overall, I was very proud of the result!
Like many Micro Tool and Machine controllers, we hoped that there would be repeat orders, but to my knowledge, we only built the one. I’m pretty sure Micro Tool would have liked repeat orders too, but it just seemed that we were always doing one-offs. That’s life.