[lithium]

I'm guessing that after all these years we still only have crappy amateur boards that use a parallel port and require a realtime computer?
slow, under featured..

as opposed to the obvious of closed loop USB fast cheap servo controller

in other words what's the best (fast cheap reliable practical wlel featured) 3 axis controller these days?

[jalessi]

Welcome to the Zone.

Hope this helps.

http://www.warp9td.com/

Jeff...

[the4thseal]

that is hard stuff!!! look at the smooth stepper and drivers from gecko, not primitive unless you are thinking star trek for free!!!! which seems to be a common thing. give them a look.

[lithium]

moving 3 motors around at tiny power via waypoints from usb is not exactly challenging for modern electronics.

it should be one small board handling all including power supply. just feed it mains.

it's one of those things that you just need to do right once and for all and you can sell it for a long time. it's a crime against humanity that we don't have such a product.

[keithorr]

lithium,
it's not exactly challenging for modern electronics, you just need to do right once and for all and you can sell it for a long time.

let us know when you get it done.

[Torchhead]

moving 3 motors around at tiny power via waypoints from usb is not exactly challenging for modern electronics.

It should be one small board handling all including power supply. just feed it mains.

It's one of those things that you just need to do right once and for all and you can sell it for a long time. it's a crime against humanity that we don't have such a product.

POW! (sound of hand slapping forehead..) how can we all be so STUPID. We should have though of this a long time ago. I mean how hard can it be? Throw some parts on a PCB and make it so it runs off any kind of power and will drive any type of motor and does closed loop via USB.

I would do it this week, but I am currently building my own space shuttle. It's just a wad of aluminum and some custom PCB's and it needs a long extension cord to make earth orbit.

If I do decide to do it, I am going to use NeuralNet interface and a sensing helmet, so all you need to do is just "visualize" what you want to cut and the machine does it in 3D. PC's are such outdated technology (given the 200 gigaflop XM31777 chip), that we can factor out the PC size and cost. The XM31777 is only .39 in quantity and you can get its faster Terabyte/TeraFlop brother (XM41778) for 1.44 (100 pcs). The instruction set is tiny consisting of only three 200 byte long commands: Do It; Do It Faster; and STOP Doing It. Since the chips run at .06 VDC (regulated) to keep heat down (because of global warming) it would be really cheap to run. You could run the whole processor section off a Nickle-Lemon wet cell. Better yet it could be wind powered and use the breeze from fins mounted on the ends of the motors!

Anyone still designing with the old 100 Ghz stuff is an engineering idiot. I think the final cost for the whole board (including the 60A motor drives) will come in about $4.00 USD. Considering it will take 2 days to design, 2 days to get PCB's and another 12 hours to do the firmware and troubleshoot, the per unit cost should not exceed maybe $16.00. If course if you want the full 6 axis 4D version (runs so fast it compresses time) it would cost at least $20.00.

TOM CAUDLE
"OBOE" [Old Burned Out Engineer]:rainfro:

[jemmyell]

POW! (sound of hand slapping forehead..) how can we all be so STUPID. We should have though of this a long time ago. I mean how hard can it be? Throw some parts on a PCB and make it so it runs off any kind of power and will drive any type of motor and does closed loop via USB.

I would do it this week, but I am currently building my own space shuttle. It's just a wad of aluminum and some custom PCB's and it needs a long extension cord to make earth orbit.

If I do decide to do it, I am going to use NeuralNet interface and a sensing helmet, so all you need to do is just "visualize" what you want to cut and the machine does it in 3D. PC's are such outdated technology (given the 200 gigaflop XM31777 chip), that we can factor out the PC size and cost. The XM31777 is only .39 in quantity and you can get its faster Terabyte/TeraFlop brother (XM41778) for 1.44 (100 pcs). The instruction set is tiny consisting of only three 200 byte long commands: Do It; Do It Faster; and STOP Doing It. Since the chips run at .06 VDC (regulated) to keep heat down (because of global warming) it would be really cheap to run. You could run the whole processor section off a Nickle-Lemon wet cell. Better yet it could be wind powered and use the breeze from fins mounted on the ends of the motors!

Anyone still designing with the old 100 Ghz stuff is an engineering idiot. I think the final cost for the whole board (including the 60A motor drives) will come in about $4.00 USD. Considering it will take 2 days to design, 2 days to get PCB's and another 12 hours to do the firmware and troubleshoot, the per unit cost should not exceed maybe $16.00. If course if you want the full 6 axis 4D version (runs so fast it compresses time) it would cost at least $20.00.

TOM CAUDLE
"OBOE" [Old Burned Out Engineer]:rainfro:

Ok, I'm on board to do the Mach3 plugins for this. As a matter of fact I tapped your NeuralNet database for details (remotely, I just hadda point roughly to Texas..) and it is already done!

Let me know what minute you want to ship...

-James

[Torchhead]

Ok, I'm on board to do the Mach3 plugins for this. As a matter of fact I tapped your NeuralNet database for details (remotely, I just hadda point roughly to Texas..) and it is already done!

Let me know what minute you want to ship...

-James

AHHHHHHHH!! I felt the energy drain from my NET! (The Force is stong in this one OBOE!).

[LaserImage]

Let me know what minute you want to ship...

-James

I found a vendor on Mars that will beam it to me last month, as long as I order it before end of business today. I'm sorry but I'll have to cancel my order to you...

[Mariss Freimanis]

POW! (sound of hand slapping forehead..) how can we all be so STUPID.

(snip)

Considering it will take 2 days to design, 2 days to get PCB's and another 12 hours to do the firmware and troubleshoot,

(snip)

TOM CAUDLE
"OBOE" [Old Burned Out Engineer]:rainfro:

Tom,

How come it takes you 12 hours to do firmware and troubleshoot? Skip that part, ship it as is and just visualize it working.:-)

Mariss

[Torchhead]

Tom,

How come it takes you 12 hours to do firmware and troubleshoot? Skip that part, ship it as is and just visualize it working.:-)

Mariss

Mariss:

Well, you caught my "padding". See I can really do it in 4 hours (using my Virtual Reality Assembly Programmer) of which most of it is a virtual trip to Denmark to visit with vastly superior virtual beings. The other 8 hours is the part where I stand in my lab and drool down my chin while humming old Beach Boy songs. Besides, I have to flip the brisket ( I use the heat from the V-RAP to cook the beef ---always GREEN!) and that takes a few extra cycles.

Perhaps if I ship each unit with a Peyote Button, the customer can visualize it working as well:idea:

[ssozonoff]

This works for me

http://www.boenigk-electronics.com/web/en/smc4d.html

Regards,
Serge

[Torchhead]

Mike: I got your payment yesterday (before you sent it) but we shipped last Thursday so the DOS version won't be available until 2006.

TOM C

[TOTALLYRC]

Mike: I got your payment yesterday (before you sent it) but we shipped last Thursday so the DOS version won't be available until 2006.

TOM C

Dear Tom,
Since this is all new technology, I am getting slightly confused, is it too early or too late to send in a change, as I need a negative 3rd axis for working with Unobtanium, and you know how difficult that can be.

Sincerly, Mike
a future past customer.

[jemmyell]

Dear Tom,
Since this is all new technology, I am getting slightly confused, is it too early or too late to send in a change, as I need a negative 3rd axis for working with Unobtanium, and you know how difficult that can be.

Sincerly, Mike
a future past customer.

Isn't unobtanium milled in the negative 3rd dimension, not the negative 3rd axis?

-James

[Dennis Bohlke]

Gez, you guys make me feel dumb, it took me longer that 20 hours to get this done.

But alas it does have a 2006 copyright on the board.


Now to get to work on the Servo version of it. Maybe I can have it done by last month. After all I started on it last week.

And for those that want to use a USB port on a Vista or Windows Xp to control one of those legacy parallel port motor drivers you might want to consider the USB CamPod that I make.



Cheers
Dennis
www.super-tech.com

[TOTALLYRC]

Gez, you guys make me feel dumb, it took me longer that 20 hours to get this done.

But alas it does have a 2006 copyright on the board.


Now to get to work on the Servo version of it. Maybe I can have it done by last month. After all I started on it last week.

And for those that want to use a USB port on a Vista or Windows Xp to control one of those legacy parallel port motor drivers you might want to consider the USB CamPod that I make.



Cheers
Dennis
www.super-tech.com

If you want something that runs a cnc thru the usb port, and is a real good deal, Just get the deskcnc controller, which runs on a serial port. Pickup a serial to usb adapter and away you go. This is the detup I currently use on my router.
It comes with a controller board and the included cam/cnc controller software runs on any windows based computer, win 95 on up. pII 233mhz on up.
It is only $350 if you get both the software and board at the same time. I personaly use it and it doeas a great job. the only real limitations are the fact that I can't use it on my analog servo driven milling machine. But for step and direction use, it is one of the best packages out there, if a little less known than Mach3 or emc. Perfect for those needing to use it from a laptop or older/slower computer. But it all depends on what you call "CHEAP"

For the cost of a smoothstepper for all of you using mach3, which I personally think is cheap considering what it can do, you get usb connectivity.

Mike

[rowbare]

Now to get to work on the Servo version of it. Maybe I can have it done by last month. After all I started on it last week.

Shouldn't that read "After all I started on it next week."?