Copied from post to Siggi
This is a resume of some of the the non BBB options.
The 5i25 is PCI and the 6i25 is PCIe.
It is available with low profile brackets, for slim cases, but the card
is the same height, its just the mount that is different.
If you get that wrong you can always make a new one from one of the
spares in the case or from an old card.
The PC you show has a PCIe x 16 slot, which is intended for a graphics
card. In theory you can run a PCIe x 1 (or x4) in that slot
but some cards won't and I don't know about the Mesa compatibility, you
would have to ask them.
If you get a 5i25 and run it from a standard PCI slot, it is guaranteed
to work.
If later you upgrade computer to something with just PCIe slots (as I
did on one of mine) you can get a PCI to PCIe converter , for example
https://www.novatech.co.uk/products/startech-com-pci-to-pci-express-adapter-card-1-x-pci-express/pci1pex1.html?gclid=CNOcvI7FstMCFdxWDQodhasLLg#utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=products
(If you order from China direct through Ebay and wait 2 -3 weeks, you
can knock the price down hugely)
You would just need to make sure the new computer had a large enough
case to allow a piggy-back card like this.
Then is the question of whether you buy a 7i76 daughter card too. That
is actually more expensive than the 5i25, but greatly simplifies
connection, as it gives access to a lot of the IO on a multiplexed
connection.
The alternative to this is flashing the 5i25 so that header P3 is '7i76
equivalent' giving 4 stepgens and an encoder and header P2 is GPIO and
can be taken out to a normal BOB and used. The PROB_RFX2 config is
probably nearest general purpose config for that.
Just to confuse matters, I mentioned the DE0-NANO-Soc
This is a FPGA board with a 'system on chip', basically a complete
computer with FPGA built in.
Charles and others have programmed this to emulate a 5i25 and he has
designed a DB25 interface board, which allows it to completely replace a
computer plus 5i25
I have 2 of these in use currently.
The only downside is that it will only run headless as there is no GPU,
but you already have the Thinkpad.
~~~~~~~~~
It all depends on your budget and preferences.
Parallel port / rtai kernel / Linuxcnc : just the cost of the
computer and BOB and some installation, BIOS set up etc
Mesa 5125 $89 plus cost of BOB and computer
Mesa 7i76 $119 plus cost of 5i25 and computer
DE0-NANo-Soc $103, replaces computer and 5i25, can be used with 7i76 or
just a BOB and use second header for GPIO alone
~~~~~~~~
On 19/04/17 22:44, Sigurður Ásgeirsson wrote:
I can get a Dell Optiplex 380 SFF with 3Gb RAM and 160Gb disk for $46
just up the road, it looks like. I guess I'll kit it out with
something like a USB WiFi card for networking, and start off by
driving with the parallel port. A Core II Duo at ~3GHz ought to work
OK for that, and should swing it out of the park with one of those
Mesa cards.
The thing that confuses me is the PCI/PCIe slots in the thing
<http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/optiplex-380-tech-guide.pdf>.
I see the Mesa card is available with low-profile and regular(?)
brackets.
I'm not on the up'n'up on the mechanical standards of PCI nor PCI/PCIe
compatibility - are you? Do you think/know the Mesa card would fit in
one of them?
It's not the end of the world either way - but it'd be nicer to get a
suitable beige box the first time out, if I can.
Siggi
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