On Tue, 2012-02-21 at 03:47 -0800, charles green wrote: > the allocation of computing resources seems to be a recurring theme > with pc based machine controllers. > > while i have wished for an accesible pocket calculator gui more than > one time while standing in front of a machining center console, i have > almost never wanted to surf the web or send emails while doing so. > > the enhanced machine controller spans a disparity between its intended > function and the common usage of it's supporting hardware.
I tend to think the CNC PC should only have CNC software on it, it seems more grown up to have a purpose built machine that requires a certain amount of discipline to join the club, but the more I use my LinuxCNC PC's the more I also find I use the generic programs. While tuning, I need to access the Net to find what I or FF does. While setting up a new piece of hardware, I need to find a pin-out or spec., or download grpn so I can calculate a component value. (By the way, I've found the default gcalctool has a better Hex<->Dec feature, so I usually have both on the screen.) I often have my VFD PDF manual on the screen. Inkscape and gEdit are often running for documentation purposes. gFTP is up too, so I can store and share my work. It all comes in handy, and in reality, none of it detracts from the core LinuxCNC function. My biggest frustration now is in finding PC hardware that plays well with Ubuntu and doesn't kill latency. The choice here is, develop new purpose built hardware and maybe rebuild LinuxCNC, or spend a day or two swapping out hardware until I get something that works well. Aimlessly fiddling with PC hardware for a couple days is painful, but months and months of development is not one of my options. -- Kirk Wallace http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/ http://www.wallacecompany.com/E45/index.html California, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep Your Developer Skills Current with LearnDevNow! The most comprehensive online learning library for Microsoft developers is just $99.99! Visual Studio, SharePoint, SQL - plus HTML5, CSS3, MVC3, Metro Style Apps, more. Free future releases when you subscribe now! http://p.sf.net/sfu/learndevnow-d2d _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
