[PoolQ]

Not complaining or not participating at all ? I scanned this thread pretty quickly but only spotted one member actually mention taking delivery. That member has not returned with any feedback, good or bad afaict. Maybe I missed something ?

edit/ Forgot to mention
Firefox Rocks!

Five posts up "People are still getting it installed and we are still finding bugs ... some obvious, some hidden. We're working through them as fast as possible"

Perhaps they are in direct contact during the beta phase?

States pretty clear what their beta people are doing. Unless you think he is lying.

[cyclestart]

Not saying he's lying at all. Just saying that "no complaining or grousing" is something we aren't privy to at this point.

[PoolQ]

Not saying he's lying at all. Just saying that "no complaining or grousing" is something we aren't privy to at this point.

Not being privy to something assumes that it exists. There is a forum on their site that is clean of complaints as is this forum so I would tend to think that they are indeed taking care of their beta customers and that there is no private complaining and grousing going on.

IMHO there is zero evidence of complaining and grousing going on in public or privately. Is it possible, well I guess so but that would not be my first assumption.

If it's not there I would assume that it indeed is not there instead of that the lack of it for some reason means that it is going on in private and for some reason both sides have decided to keep it private. Gets kinda complicated that way and not typically what happens on a public forum.

This forum tends to be pretty flame proof, but when things do go wrong no one seems to have a problem politely posting about it. We have one poster that has stated that an email seems to have fallen through the crack (24 days), it happens, but personally I don't see that as a trend--far from it.

[cyclestart]

My previous post has an edit in bold to be more in line with the original intent. The no complaints comment did not come from the vendor btw. A beta product to have no carping would be a rare thing..

The product looks very interesting. Best of luck to the developers.

[PoolQ]

Perhaps the reason for no grousing is because

"We're preparing to ship the first ones to the early users" 7/25/08

as posted just 4 days ago. Perhaps they just don't have them installed and tested yet. By the length of this thread it would seem like they have been out in the field for weeks if not months and we would have some type of feedback by now.

The interest in this product has perhaps clouded where the product is in the process of development. The beta users may not have even opened the box yet.

[turmite]

I'm a little curious and need someone to answer a question for me. Are the ones that seem to be upset, upset because there is no feedback, or there is no posted issues being dealth with on the forum?

I have many, many hrs on the ph with Bruce since April when he first posted news of the CNCBrain. I can tell you I was privy to all the web site content before it was made public, I got to see all the videos before they were posted. I have helped Bruce with as many suggestions as I could considering the fact that when talking to him I am so overwhelmed with genius that I am in awe.

Bruce forgive me if I take this too far, but it has to be said. This is just the beginning of something so much larger and if you could see what was planned, you too would be in awe. If you will go to Bruce's site and go on his forum, at least I think it is there, you will see him mention a phrase " factory of one". He took some of the stuff off his site so as not to be distracted by too many requests for info till he could get the Brain into production.

Bruce invented the Brain as a stepping stone to what he ultimately want to achieve, which is a factory of one!

I may not be as diplomatic as Bruce, but guys, go back and read the thread.........beta....beta.....beta. If you don't want to participate in the beta phase, and have the learning curve done when the production unit is ready, then wait. Just remember something else he has said, that I am afraid slipped right by most. The production unit is exactly the same as the beta, and the bugs that are found are not in the hardware, but in the interface, or the sdk or maybe just in new features being added.

Take a breath and relax. Good things comes to those who wait!

BTW, I don't have mine yet either and it is about to kill me. I hope to have mine next week and will probably not post anything about it for a while. I have other issues that are far more important.

Mike

ps Here is something for everyone to chew on. How about a robot that doesn't have to have motors, belts, ballscrews, linear motion or rotary motion compontents!

[Switcher]

Alex, I'll take

"A robot that doesn't have to have motors, belts, ballscrews, linear motion or rotary motion compontents!"

for $500.



Answer:
What is me, at my day job?


.

[turmite]

Alex, I'll take for $500.



Answer:
What is me, at my day job?


.

Switcher......I wish we could meet in person. You have a sense of humor that I can truly appreciate! But you are closer to the truth than you might think!

Mike

[ger21]

I'm a little curious and need someone to answer a question for me. Are the ones that seem to be upset, upset because there is no feedback, or there is no posted issues being dealth with on the forum?

Mike, I don't think anyone's upset, it's just the way the internet makes it look.

What's going on is that everyone is very curious, because no one seems to actually be using one yet, judging by this thread. If the Brain does what it's supposed to, it'll be wildly successful. But everyone just wants to see someone using it, other than the developer.

[Milo]

Mike:
Personally I'm not upset, actually far from. I can't speak for others. I was confused by the fact that you can buy the cnc-brain on their website. So I assumed the products ready for market and someone must be using it. And where are they? I now understand whats going on and look forward to new developments and post. Please keep them coming.

Milo

[turmite]

Mike:
Personally I'm not upset, actually far from. I can't speak for others. I was confused by the fact that you can buy the cnc-brain on their website. So I assumed the products ready for market and someone must be using it. And where are they? I now understand whats going on and look forward to new developments and post. Please keep them coming.

Milo

Ger and Milo,

My apologies if I used words that maybe should have been different. I am one of those individuals that is loyal to a fault. I am also under a great deal of stress with a health issue with my wife, and I may, and I repeat may, have been coming to the aid of a friend whom I assumed was under attack. I ask your forgiveness. It just that I know things that have been shared with me that at one time was on the site, and now are not, that I believe would help everyone understand Bruce for who he is. Nerd is how he describes himself, but I assure you genius is much closer.

Mike

[brccrb]

**All,

Appreciate everyone's support, questions, and comments. Let's see if we can cover a few topics. (Milo, never took you as angry ... or anyone as truly angry ... seemed more anxious that anything, and that is a very good thing )

1) We encourage everyone to call directly (865-622-7497). The main number patches to personal cells on off-hours so someone is almost always available. We also speak/chat to many on Skype ("CNCBrain"). If we are on the phone (or its 3am), it goes to voice mail. Leave a message, we will call you back.

If we miss an email, in between the spam and sales offers, write us again ... or better yet, call us.

40 posts of information on a forum can usually be resolved with a 3 minute conversation.

Mack used to have a small plate on each truck with a phone number directly to the engineers. It worked for them in creating a durable and practical product. This might be a little different, but this is how we do things as well.

Don't be afraid, we don't bite ... at least not over the phone

2) We are not a huge company. We try to automate a lot of what we do to keep our size small and overhead low. Why? Well, simple, cost. The CNC Brain has a tremendous price point for what it does and we don't want to destroy that.

If the website is not formatting properly under FireFox and that bothers you, "sorry" (there isn't a dedicated webmaster ... if your site is 27% FireFox, fantastic, ours is 7%). When time permits, we'll fix it. Our focus is on the CNC Brain and its functionality. That is first priority.

When we run out of bugs to fix or features to add, then we'll focus on the other stuff.

3) This isn't a product we're out here promoting to the masses (this thread and one tiny rotating banner on this site only ... that's it). No clever ads. No sales pitches. No search engine enhancements or purchases.

A majority of emails and calls begin with "...we didn't even know you guys existed...".

We do not offer conversion kits (yet). After a "production" version, yeah, we'll have kits and "turn-key solutions". This limits the user base for now.

Why? To find the best of the best to help create something for everyone.

4) Now, let's be very blatantly honest ... in the past, there were devices sold in mass that didn't do as they were intended (not blaming anyone for that either). Many people still have them sitting on a shelf.

We are not them! PoolQ nailed what we are doing exactly!!!

We've made it very clear that the users can return their device anytime. The return window doesn't close until 60 days after a "production" version is available for download. The risk is ours.

5) It is all too easy to be impatient, especially if you are interested in a product. But things take time and to build/rebuild a machine takes tremendous effort and skill ... and a few buckets of sweat.

Shoot, make a PB&J sandwich with the silverware in the wash ... how much time can you waste just on that ... compare that to every bolt, gear, and bracket on a machine

This strikes at that most popular phrase today, "just a". Its "just a" this or that. My personal favorite is "just a Dixie cup" ... if anything is a "just a", then build one from scratch. We live in a world of miracles, but that doesn't mean the miracles aren't as valuable.

6) I've put my face (scary as it may be) on one of the videos posted to the website. That isn't a little thing. I've been Googled and "rubber gloved" a dozen times over.

It takes a lot of sincere belief in what you are doing ... this isn't an informercial with "operators standing by".

You call, we answer.

7) If you think we are too fast/too slow/too much/too little/too open/not open enough/too big/too small/etc., well, sorry to disappoint. We are who we are and make no excuses for it.

Our plan is to role this out slowly, fix any bugs, when everyone is happy, then role it out more, when everyone is still happy, role it out completely.

8) A big, big, huge thanks to all those that have provided the experience, knowledge, wisdom, and ideas that are going into the CNC Brain. This has truly become your CNC Brain.

You are very much appreciated!

s/Bruce

[brccrb]

**All,
Let me try this without all the long winded yammerin'

Phil, understand you perfectly (and like the fact you are interested in the CNC Brain ). We try to be personal and have been on the phone 'til after 1am on many a night.

Cyclestart, thank you for the kind words and keen interest.

Ger21, as usual, smooth as glass!

Turmite, hope to live up to your expectations. You never go to far.

PoolQ, insight, simply insight (and really like the programming humor).

Switcher, HA! I'd like to meet you in person too.

To All, we have shipped units to have a very varied base of implementations (not in mass). It has been low volume to some very sharp guys! Patience. Things take time.

s/Bruce

[Ryobiguy]

Bruce,
I'm extremely interested in how this thing works inside the MPP firmware, is this layer as open as the ones above it, or is it locked up as top secret IP? Are there at least any block diagrams of how the big parts of the inner-workings fit together that could be shared?
Is the hardware of the Brain open enough that I could use it as a more general purpose FPGA development platform?

I'm definitely more geek than machinist - I look at a hobby machine tool and am almost more excited for having an excuse for playing with motion control algorithms than I am to excited to make stuff with it. The thought of what goes on inside the CNC Brain keeps me up at night, and I'm actually a little upset that I wasn't the guy who thought of and first implemented the Brain.

As others have said, I also think this is going to be the greatest innovation in the hobby-affordable CNC controller category. I can't speak for pro-CNC level stuff, but the hardware is powerful and the firmware just needs to evolve.

-Matt

P.S. I must say, you have the most cheerful responses I've seen in 20 years of reading message boards. You're like asbestos to the flames. (Well, I'm presuming - there weren't necessarily any actual real flames...)

[sandefuj]

Bruce:

In the Brain Control Panel under the I/O tab, and then the X (could be any axis) you have Inputs and Power pin-outs labeled. But for the X Axis you have pin 8 for both Reference and Ground. How can pin 8 be both?

Thanks
Jay

[brccrb]

**Ryobiguy,
HA! No flaming. Everyone is just anxious and super, super nice.

The MPP is a little more than just the processor itself. It is a designing algorithm. **Hold on everyone, going to "nerd out for just a second"**

We load into the MPP Designer (piece of software) the matrix "premise"(math, logic, etc.) and it generates the net lists for wiring AND the firmware code that gets "compiled".

This lets the MPP scale to the hardware, even spanning chips if necessary. We've built large matrix spanning dozens of hardware boards (63 so far) to create single a massive processing matrix ... grunt, grunt :banana:

Think about this for just a second. The MPP can interconnect dozens (theoretically hundreds) of chips, even providing the PCB net lists (which are fed to PCB autorouters) for creating the board to mount the chips and the code for each chip.

As for general development hardware, yes (the product will be called "IT" ... because IT is whatever you want IT to be ... part of the "Factory of One" thing ... no time to support it right now, but it is on the shelf). The device is the same as the CNC Brain hardware (just won't load the CNC Brain firmware).

IT has the base code used in creating the CNC Brain (minus the MPP). It is a base (C++) SDK with stub code for the FPGA (VHDL and Verilog) with the communications already resolved (27MByte/sec bandwidth).

Now, the MPP Designer is private (sorry) as is the "premise" logic fed to it. The CNC Brain is a "~form~" of cascade pid with RLS capping the planner and each axis (which has several each to prevent over/under shoot).

When you get time, give me a call and we'll chat.

s/Bruce

[brccrb]

**sandefuj(Jay),
Simple, I'm stupid.

Its a typo in the Control Panel. The label needs to pull dynamically from the control instead of static text.

Follow the "dynamic" pins as you move your mouse until V1.0.6b is released (before v1.0.7, getting ready to release v1.0.6b to fix some bugs like this one and others).

Thanks for finding it! Good eye!

s/Bruce

Bruce:

In the Brain Control Panel under the I/O tab, and then the X (could be any axis) you have Inputs and Power pin-outs labeled. But for the X Axis you have pin 8 for both Reference and Ground. How can pin 8 be both?

Thanks
Jay

[Switcher]

I had this idea a couple years ago when doing calibration on a 5-axis cnc at work, it's a long drawn out job (6-7 hours), the thing is the machine runs great & only needs calibrated maybe twice a year or anytime it gets crashed. Since it only gets calibrated so few times, it requires a lot of digging thru notebooks (I have a bad memory ), & hope I can find what I need to know. The machine has to be calibrated in a specific order.

Anyway, my idea was "I wish I had a video, of the last time I did this calibration".

So I got to playing with the "CncBrain" SDK, here is a (rough) video example of what I had in mind.

What is happening in the video:

1) I'm stepping thru the g-code that is loaded into the "CncBrain" cnc control.

2) Anytime the "CncBrain" detects an "M1", a video starts playing. In the video below, it keeps playing the same video clip until the video gets to frame"00:06" then the video stops, & allows you to continue stepping thru the program.

Again this is just a rough draft, the video could play from any frame in the video, or play any number of videos that you have, it could be coded to play videos to help with complex setups, or for training new employees.

All this could be activated with a simple checkbox in the "CncBrain" control, "Yes, I want Videos" or "NO, I don't want Videos" to play.

As far as the g-code file it could be something like:
M1(Video 00:37) or (M1 Video 00:37) that way it would only pick up the video, If the g-code was ran inside "CncBrain", otherwise any other cnc control would only see it as a comment.


brccrb, hope you don't mind I used your video, as a sample.

Sorry for the crappy quality in the youtube video, I used Windows Media Encoder for the screen grab.






.

[brccrb]

**Switcher,
Holly Crap!!! What a great idea!!

This could be used to create "training videos" when hiring new people! It could, with a click of a checkbox, walk someone through how to run a task!

Or even with someone experienced, to help remember what setup to use. Shoot, I forget what to do half the time and end up digging throught the G-Code to remember the setup.

DO YOU REALIZE THE POWER OF THAT??? (Of, course, you're Switcher the Brilliant). But, Wow!

We also need to have an option to display text/pic with audio. Imagine, a picture of the setup, notes, and audio interchanged throughout the run!!!

OK, let's do this. M1 it is (the "Switcher Function"). We just need to add a checkbox to turn it on/off and on the M1 set the video file and the start/end time. That should really make it easy.

We also need a tab that will help insert these files/audio into the G-Code. That way you can step through the program (or run/stop), few clicks of the mouse, record some audio, type some text or insert a pic or video. When done, save it.

Dude, I am simply in awe! :cheers:

s/Bruce

[ger21]

OK, let's do this. M1 it is (the "Switcher Function").

Careful there. With Mach3, M1 is optional stop. Best to make up an unused M code for this and other special functions.