> Regarding the G-rex - at one time I had plans to write a > driver for it, and I have both the Grex board and the Rabbit > development kit. But I have other things on my plate right > now. For my own project, I've decided to use the 5i20, because > I want to do some very non-standard things and the Grex has > neither the I/O count or the processing power to do what I > want.
I have one (and the Rabbit kit) obtained for Mach3 work. As of today, Mach3 will move its axes but with several limitations. New firmware is due around now together with an API for the host computer (as control at a register level seemed to prove difficult to accomplish reliably). I do not know what the source availability of the API will be for porting from Windows/PC. At a lower level one can, of course, load anything into the FPGA and the Rabbit but one does need to take account of the limited capability of the Rabbit (a faster Z80 with memory management). Steve Hardy's firmware includes his own design of custom CPU embedded in the FPGA to overcome this. The Ethernet (or I suppose at a pinch USB) communication link does require difficult decisions about how to split the intelligence of a CNC contoller between GRex and PC although the ethernet is beguiling for electrical robustness and lack of reliance on mobo slot architectures. Geckodrive/GRex discussion is at http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/geckodrive/ I hope this helps and is not too much a "statement of the obvious". John Prentice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. Influence the Future of IT Join SourceForge.net's Techsay panel and you'll get the chance to share your opinions on IT & business topics through brief surveys - and earn cash http://www.techsay.com/default.php?page=join.php&p=sourceforge&CID=DEVDEV _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
