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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Benchtop Machines > Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704
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  1. #141
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    644

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by ihavenofish View Post
    hahahah.. no. just, no. you set up the machine to work as a cnc control, not a web surfing box. you turn everything off. ive never seen any for of "windows" issue running mach3.



    timing might be better, hard to say. mach does not have the best timing (hence the misses slow pulses i mentioned), but i dont think thats parport related, or mach related. linuxcnc has much better pulse timing than mach3, and its also just software.



    you said grbl. that implies arduino level stuff. theres plenty of higher power systems out there for sure, but they dont cost $9.99 on ebay also theres a reason ethernet and usb are not used much and parport is. parport works. sure its slow and limited, but it works. ethernet and especially usb are inherently not realtime. so called realtime ethernet system like my beckhohf ethercat system are not really ethernet as you know it. they use the host tranciever and cable, but its all proprietary protocols. you cant stick your modem or printer on it
    Actually there are a number of real time Ethernet systems including Ethernet Powerlink This uses standard Ethernet hardware and supports multi KHz update rates

    Our LinuxCNC compatible Ethernet motion cards also use real time Ethernet (standard Ethernet hardware and protocol=UDP) and can support up to 4KHz update rates

    The advantage of FPGAs over UCs for pulse generation is cleaner pulse streams (lower subharmonics due to a higher base clock)
    scale-ability (we can have up to 64 step generator channels) and higher possible pulse rates (our hardware has a maximum pulse rate of 8 to 25 MHz depending on model)

  2. #142
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
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    4252

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    ethernet and especially usb are inherently not realtime. so called realtime ethernet system like my beckhohf ethercat system are not really ethernet as you know it. they use the host tranciever and cable, but its all proprietary protocols. you cant stick your modem or printer on it
    Ah, that's a really really old red herring about Ethernet - that it is not 'real time'. Often promulgated by vendors of would-be competing systems. That battle was fought a long time ago, and settled 100%. Ethernet won.

    Technically, on the original single 50 ohm cable with ye oldy vampire taps and collision sensing etc (CSMA-CD) the arrival times of packets was subject to some variation. In practice, as measured so often (and published), the delays were extremely small, and packets were NEVER lost because of the packet acknowledgment.

    However, with the twisted pair radial/star design used today there are no collisions to worry about. When the ethernet cable is dedicated to driving just the external CNC engine, AND it is ticking over at 100 MHz (or higher), AND you are not trying to surf the web at the same time or having updates in the background, the idea that the ethernet link is not sufficiently RealTime is just plain wrong. Sorry, but just plain wrong.

    I have no idea whether the beckhohf ethercat system uses TCP/IP or not. Doesn't matter: modern CNC ethernet connections to things like the Smooth Stepper do use it. Yes, the old parallel port did work - mostly, but it is now obsolete.

    Cheers
    Roger

  3. #143
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Posts
    3891

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by PCW_MESA View Post
    Actually there are a number of real time Ethernet systems including Ethernet Powerlink This uses standard Ethernet hardware and supports multi KHz update rates

    Our LinuxCNC compatible Ethernet motion cards also use real time Ethernet (standard Ethernet hardware and protocol=UDP) and can support up to 4KHz update rates

    The advantage of FPGAs over UCs for pulse generation is cleaner pulse streams (lower subharmonics due to a higher base clock)
    scale-ability (we can have up to 64 step generator channels) and higher possible pulse rates (our hardware has a maximum pulse rate of 8 to 25 MHz depending on model)
    are they "real" ethernet? as in, can i also hook up various computers, modems, printers, etc to the same network?

    i was under the impression they all had custom drivers to suit the purpose.

  4. #144
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Posts
    943

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    I'm a curious type of guy, so I earlier looked the datasheet up on Digikey and on the UC400ETH there is a 200MHz 32bit floating point uC beast.
    I really don't want to argue, but I don't really trust on "realtime computers" especially not with commercial OSes like Windows or Linux or anything else which has that level of complexity, but maybe it's just me.
    I like the idea of having a buffer better. Probably that involves more development work from the software guys, but it is their problem.

  5. #145
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    Jun 2015
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    943

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by ihavenofish View Post
    are they "real" ethernet? as in, can i also hook up various computers, modems, printers, etc to the same network?

    i was under the impression they all had custom drivers to suit the purpose.
    UDP protocol is one layer below TCP/IP.
    Ethernet needs no drivers, but protocols.

  6. #146
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    Jun 2010
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    4252

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    I can't answer for the others, but I can answer for the Ethernet Smooth Stepper (as I use one). It uses the stock standard Microsoft Ethernet driver.

    However, there is a Smooth Stepper plug-in which takes high-level commands from Mach3 and converts them into ethernet packets. There is also a separate plug-in to convert those same high-level commands from Mach3 into a USB data stream.

    Cheers
    Roger

  7. #147
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    Jun 2010
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    4252

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Buffers - oh yes, buffers for sure. Won't argue there! You get to specify the size of the buffer you want to use with Mach3 and ESS.
    Cheers
    Roger

  8. #148
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    644

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by OlfCNC View Post
    UDP protocol is one layer below TCP/IP.
    Ethernet needs no drivers, but protocols.
    Ethernet Powerlink uses standard Ethernet hardware (unlike Ethercat that uses standard hardware on the master but proprietary hardware on the slaves)
    but it does use a special driver

    Our Ethernet hardware uses standard drivers, protocols, and hardware but like Ethernet Powerlink, requires a RTOS

    In either case, standard Ethernet traffic is not allowed on the real time link as it will normally increase jitter to an unacceptable level by
    blocking real time traffic

  9. #149
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
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    3891

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by PCW_MESA View Post
    Ethernet Powerlink uses standard Ethernet hardware (unlike Ethercat that uses standard hardware on the master but proprietary hardware on the slaves)
    but it does use a special driver

    Our Ethernet hardware uses standard drivers, protocols, and hardware but like Ethernet Powerlink, requires a RTOS

    In either case, standard Ethernet traffic is not allowed on the real time link as it will normally increase jitter to an unacceptable level by
    blocking real time traffic
    ahh, ok. makes sense.

  10. #150
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    591

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by OlfCNC View Post
    UDP protocol is one layer below TCP/IP.
    Ethernet needs no drivers, but protocols.
    Last I looked, TCP and UDP were both Layer 4 protocols.

    Mark

  11. #151
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    Jun 2015
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    943

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    TCP/IP is basicly UDP protocol + error handling and handshake.

  12. #152
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
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    591

    Re: Mach3, Mach 4 or Linux CNC for G0704

    Quote Originally Posted by OlfCNC View Post
    TCP/IP is basicly UDP protocol + error handling and handshake.
    Yup, but they aren't on different layers of the OSI model. They're both Layer 4.

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