I think it's a great idea, I've had a lot of the same thoughts in the past. Mach3 was traditionally the "go to" solution instead of the Acorn CNC unit due to ease of implementation. I haven't tried either, but agree that LinuxCNC has a steep learning curve. And that comes as a prior hobbyist Linux user. Once you are familiar, it is remarkably flexible and powerful. But that requires the learning stage.
In order to actually do it, it might be nice if we could get someone doing a conversion or new build to walk through each step on the forum. It's been done here and there, but another one might not hurt. As to the clearpath servos, I think "clear choice" is a bit of an overstatement. They're good, but a true AC servo seems miles ahead. And the various Chinese ones seem quite good for the price. Matt On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 2:05 PM John Dammeyer <jo...@autoartisans.com> wrote: > Everyone is probably partying or drinking egg nog this close to Christmas > but on one of the local metal groups a new member posted that he was > converting his mill to CNC. > > His first posting: > "Just doing a cnc conversion to my Craftex knee mill, using the Acorn cnc > board and Clearpath Nema 34 servo's, direct drive. Motor has been converted > to VFD, and just installed a rotor encoder to measure RPM accurately. Post > some pic's when I'm done. Now I just have to learn g-code." > > Here's my question to him: > "May I ask why you chose Acorn over say a MESA Solution < > http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=7I76E%20> > and LinuxCNC running on a PC or Pi4. Granted Pi4 4GB is hard to find at the > moment but PCs can be had for next to nothing as well as LinuxCNC is free." > > And his answer: > "Did my research, liked that it was Windows compatible (sorry been at > computers too long and don't need to learn another set of headaches). > Additionally it is plug and play using the add on board from CNC4PC for the > Clearpath SDSK. Clearpath was to only choice based on the torque and built > in encoding and processing. Based on the basic encoder 0.000125 is possible > if all works as designed and the winds in the right direction." > > I checked and Clearpath motors are not cheap so I don't think money was an > obstacle. And I understand being a Windows type about not wanting to learn > a new OS. I've had a love/hate relationship with Unix/Linux since a PDP-10 > in university. No choice but to learn it for Beaglebone or Pi and now of > course LCNC. > > But I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea in the new year to develop a > build thread that takes a beginner through conversion of a mill to LCNC so > it appears to be turnkey like the perhaps the ACORN CNC approach. > > Comments? > John > > > > "ELS! Nothing else works as well for your Lathe" > Automation Artisans Inc. > www dot autoartisans dot com > > > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > -- Matthew Herd Email: herd.m...@gmail.com Cell: 610-608-8930 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
