Ed, On my PnP, the fudical camera is also used to set the location of the components in the machine. I have 2 options to get parts from, 1 is a feeder - using reels, the other is a tray.
The feeders are all mounted such that the parts are presented to the pickup in the Y axis of the machine travel. So for each feeder, I move the camera over the part and adjust the Y (controlled by the machine movement) and the X of the feeder (controlled by the feeder itself) until the part is centered. This information is then saved for each feeder in use. So again, output to control would just need to be X,Y position data. BTW, that is all done manually - go figure.
The trays - which would lend itself better to the DIY commuity IMHO, just get stuck to a fixed bed in the PCB area. In my case I use double sidded tape to hold them down. Keep in mind, anything can be a tray to include short pieces of tape. To set up the tray position, I just jog the same fudical camera over to the center of the first part to find the reference for the "tray".This plus tray dims are saved for each tray.
Seems like the vision system really just needs to be able to spit out position datd for whatever it is looking at. I would guess there needs to be a signal from the control to say "take a picture", then the VS will send back data in some form such as X,Y,Theta. From there LinuxCNC will need to use this depending on what task is needed to be done.
I am not at all sure here, but this may be a job for a "somethingKIN"?
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