John Stewart wrote: > > Is there anything out there, web page wise, that outlines the benefits of > something better than the parallel port to a Gecko G540 (or equiv?) > The major reason for using extra hardware for step pulse generation is that you can generate higher step pulse rates, and these will have much smoother timing than software generated step pulses. For instance, it is possible with software and LinuxCNC to get up to about 50,000 step pulses per second (varies with how much else is being done and the CPU performance). It is easy to get to 300,000 step pulses a second with timing jitter of a couple percent with the Pico Systems Universal Stepper Controller board. I'm sure the Mesa products can do this or more.
Also, it is possible to monitor position when encoders are present, and also have multiple I/O points as well, all on ONE EPP parallel port. This is by using the parallel port as a communications channel, not just as a step/direction output. So, our USC board has 16 digital inputs, and can hold 8 solid state relays for digital outputs. One of those inputs is the E-stop circuit. An optional DAC for spindle speed control can also be connected. Jon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone hates slow websites. So do we. Make your web apps faster with AppDynamics Download AppDynamics Lite for free today: http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;258768047;13503038;j? http://info.appdynamics.com/FreeJavaPerformanceDownload.html _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
