Introduction

The leadscrew of a lathe synchronizes feed to the spindle and is necessary for consistent turning and threading. Most lathes use a mechanical method for synchronization with limited thread pitch options or inconvenient to change. An electronic leadscrew (ELS) solves these problems by driving the leadscrew with a motor at a speed controlled by software that is simultaneously monitoring the spindle speed. With software in control, any gear ratio is possible, providing convenience and additional feed and thread pitch options.

The Clough42 ELS is an open source electronic leadscrew. Basically, it's software and level shifting hardware to interface a seven-segment display to a TI evaluation board. Starting with this, I added a touchscreen interface with arbitrary feed and thread pitch options and a feed-limit switch. I made two videos detailing the results and one video tutorial for next person who wants to experiment.

For those who want to flash their Lanchpad devices without compiling, the binary can be loaded with Uniflash.

https://www.ti.com/tool/UNIFLASH

Videos

Latest touchscreen interface

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGQwLcGuwaw

First Nextion touchscreen interface

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzoYlNzwKkY

Programming tutorial: Adding a feed override to the latest touchscreen interface

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YWaVqi-4cs

Uploading the binary to the Launchpad board with CCS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PBeGCukXUA

Clough42's first video from his ELS series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTs9GygRQ-U

Availability

Touchscreen-only interface (recommended for new installations and development)