How do the various HSM and look-ahead functions from the various cnc controllers compare? I am curious because the PC based controller, ie Hurco, Mach 3 and others, looks more impressive on paper than the embedded system of Haas or Fanuc.
It's a very complicated subject and I am just guessing here, but assuming a pulse every .0001" a 1 Khz controller can have a max speed of .1"/sec, a 1Mhz controller can have max speed of 100"/sec or roughly 6000ipm. Assuming a finer encoder, overhead resources, multiple clock cycle per instruction depending on chip architecture, my overly simplified theoretical max for a even lowly modern industrial cpus running in the sub Ghz range are still beyond the max cutting speed of the cnc machines I see.
Have we progressed far enough in electronics where the bottle neck is in mechanical system, ie servo motor and machine design rather than the electronics? I am leaning toward that conclusion because I see wide discrepancy in the specs of the cnc controllers without much market differentiation. . . . or because I'm a Haas owner and need to convince myself that my Haas controller is just as good as or better than PC based controller
I also wonder how Haas controller can hold it's own against dedicated cnc controller manufacturer's like Fanuc or Siemen? Haas controller looks the same over the years but I think they go through hardware/cpu upgrade every few years, but how come the specs for HSM and look-ahead seems to stay the same?
Will HSM work with program running from USB? Even the lowly USB 1.0 has a theoretical max transfer rate of 12Mbits/sec vs 115Kbit/sec for RS-232. I am asking because with limited funds, should HSM be favored over 16mb upgrade. .. or is HSM even necessary for the newer processors?
In addition, how do the various controllers compare, not so much in interface eye candy but in actual raw machine performance?
I know, a lot question in one post but all this recent talk about Haas controller options really brought out the my curious side. . .