Hi!
I operate a UC300ETH together with UCCNC and a Huanyang VFD. I am aware of the macro for using a USB-RS485 converter for connecting PC (UCCNC) -> RS485-Converter -> VFD.
Although having some RS485-Converter around, I would prefer using the UC300ETH as the only interface to my PC. Main reason is to avoid having a ground-connection to my PC and second being able to hook it up everywhere where Ethernet is available inside my house. The ethernet-port provides a galvanic isolation which would be compromised by the RS485-USB connection.
I would prefer the UC300ETH to handle transmitting and receiving the data. Either by implementing RS485 in firmware (which of course can only be done by CNCdrive) or bit-banging the data (synchronously) to a small microcontroller attached to one of the LPT-ports.
Is there some provisioning to output serial data via UC300ETH? If not, is it feasible to implement a synchronous output/input ("SPI") via macros? It there a restriction on the complexity/processing power of the macros? Is each macro a separate thread which can maintain its own timing?
Best regards,
Robert