An Ethernet connected Mesa board seems like it would connect with any computer, pi, Intel PC or BBB. Ethernet is pretty universal.
If you are worried about electrical power get an Intel Atom mainboard and install a PCI connected Mesa card. The Atom uses so little power it does not need a fan. In fact if you search for "fanless" main boards you get quite a list of them and they all have conventional PCI connectors so the cards will fit. What's really needed is a Mesa replacement that has a universal connector on it like Ethernet or USB3. Could one of those inexpensive $16 FPGA cards do this? I don't know if the Ethernet or USB interface could be done with the FPGA. Or perhaps an ARM Cortex-M replacement for Mesa. Either now would be under $20 I think the best idea is to NOT make a new card but use software to adapt an existing one to this use. On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 11:47 PM, Greg Bentzinger via Emc-users < emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > I don't know how long the Pine64 will be available. The Raspberry Pi group > on the other hand I expect will be around for the long haul just like the > original Arduino project. Beagle Bone may not be moving forward anytime > soon, but it looks like Centroid has gone in deep for that platform for > there low end controller. > > Ideally it would be great if someone could design a cape/hat/shield/ > whatever that mates to the Rpi/BBB and could approximate a EPP parallel > port. I know there are existing BBB capes that route PRU stepgens to DB25 > and I am not recommending revisiting that. Don't get me wrong as I am in no > way advocating trying to hook up a standard parallel step/direction type > BOB. > > What I would hope for is a reliable interface that could be used to drive > Pico FPGA hardware or MESA 7i90 or 7i43 boards. > > Another option would be MESA SSERIAL. This would open all sorts of options. > > I am slowly conceptualizing how I want to do a scratch build CNC > conversion on my G0602. As crazy as it might seem the driving reason to do > this is power savings. My existing CNCturning center is a 23KvA machine and > heats the whole shop when running. That machine is such overkill for so > much of the small simple parts I often do. > > Peter - any chance an SSERIAL adapter could be made? > > Greg Bentzinger > ------------------------------------------------------------ > ------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
