Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
2011/2/9 John L. Craddock john.cradd...@xitech.com.au: -Original Message- From: Jon Elson [mailto:el...@pico-systems.com] Sent: 09 February 2011 13:09 To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 Viesturs La-cis wrote: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ So, that's $500 US to get an FPGA on the ethernet? Yishin is right, expensive. Jon From what I can find out, etherCAT is a proprietary development of Beckhoff in Germany that only appears on the surface to be open. The catch is the requirement for special slave devices that come in the form of ASICs or node-limited IP cores for FPGAs. Seems odd to consider it for open-source EMC2. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks for the opinions! I totally agree that it is pricey, compared to other alternatives for FPGA cards from Mesa or other sources. On the other hand, I do not feel it that pricey, when the machine requires one such item to be used with several servo-amps, costing the same amount for each of them and also having several servo motors also costing approximately the same. So cost of this thing is pretty small, when compared to cost of all controls and motion hardware. I am convinced that many of EMC users have hardware that cannot be considered as opensource. Including my ServoStar 601 servo amps. My personal feeling (not supported with any facts, numbers or other data) is that also Mesa or Pico Systems products contain some proprietary components. So I do not see a problem here - if that solution is working and delivering expected performance, then I consider the price to make decision. EMC is meant to be smart CNC controller to work on simple, not-that-smart (dumb) hardware, so I think it is acceptable to have proprietary elements in hardware as long as it is fully configurable to fit each particular machine and situation. Viesturs -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
On 02/08/2011 05:35 PM, Yi-Shin Li wrote: On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 3:03 AM, Viesturs Lācisviesturs.la...@gmail.comwrote: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ They are expensive. -- Yishin ROFL! Mark -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ They are not that expensive by themselves, but I think they _DO NOT_ contain the EtherCAT slave IPs. So you have to buy those separately from Beckhoff. Regards, Alex -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
2011/2/9 Alex Joni alex.j...@robcon.ro: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ They are not that expensive by themselves, but I think they _DO NOT_ contain the EtherCAT slave IPs. So you have to buy those separately from Beckhoff. Thanks! I sent them e-mail to find it out. Viesturs -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
-Original Message- From: Viesturs Lacis [mailto:viesturs.la...@gmail.com] Sent: 09 February 2011 20:52 To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 2011/2/9 Alex Joni alex.j...@robcon.ro: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ They are not that expensive by themselves, but I think they _DO NOT_ contain the EtherCAT slave IPs. So you have to buy those separately from Beckhoff. Thanks! I sent them e-mail to find it out. Viesturs There is another alternative that might suit that appears not to require the special hardware in the slave nodes; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_Powerlink Not quite as fast as etherCAT but might be fast enough. Regards John C -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:56 AM, Belli Button be...@iafrica.com wrote: I 'configure' the rotary axis for 'linear' axis, still 360degrees per turn. This allows a call of A720, two turns (A1080, three turns, etc). Specifying it as rotary means it rolls over every 360 degrees, when you have done a few turns you don't know where you are on the part. It does mean that when you call A0 at the end of your part it has to 'unwind' all the turns instead of a partial turn. It will also probably solve your feedrate problem. Clear as mud? This is how my axis is configured However, your message did no answer my question at all. My question was , how o specify rotational speed. i - Original Message - From: Igor Chudov ichu...@gmail.com To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 8:00 AM Subject: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis) So I have this rotary table for 4th axis. If I specify a rotational move in conjunction with a move in coordinae axes, like this G1 X1 A25 f1 then the rotary move is timed to coincide with the dimensional move. But f I specify G1 A360 F1, the speed is ignored and the rotation occurs at the highest speed. Is there some way to specify a speed of rotation alone? -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3431 - Release Date: 02/08/11 19:34:00 -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
[Emc-users] Jog plus and jog minus using I/O
Hello EMC users, I was wondering if I could use HAL for jog plus and jog minus for any axis. This is like using the + and - buttons for the selected axis in the manual page. The idea is to use I/O through the parallel port for jog plus and jog minus. Thanks Farzin -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
On 9 February 2011 15:03, Igor Chudov ichu...@gmail.com wrote: However, your message did no answer my question at all. My question was , how o specify rotational speed. F ought to work in rotary units per minute, Depending on how you have set up the rotary that could be degrees per minute, rpm or possibly radians per minute. Are you saying that that does not work? (Have you tried a very low F value?) -- atp Torque wrenches are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 12:00:42AM -0600, Igor Chudov wrote: So I have this rotary table for 4th axis. If I specify a rotational move in conjunction with a move in coordinae axes, like this G1 X1 A25 f1 then the rotary move is timed to coincide with the dimensional move. But f I specify G1 A360 F1, the speed is ignored and the rotation occurs at the highest speed. Is there some way to specify a speed of rotation alone? I would expect your second command to rotate A very slowly at 1 degree/minute. If you are getting fast motion with that command, there is a bug. What EMC version does this? Chris -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 08:56:13AM +0200, Belli Button wrote: I 'configure' the rotary axis for 'linear' axis, still 360degrees per turn. This allows a call of A720, two turns (A1080, three turns, etc). Specifying it as rotary means it rolls over every 360 degrees, If you are talking about EMC, this is incorrect. -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Jog plus and jog minus using I/O
On 9 February 2011 15:12, Farzin Kamangar farzin.kaman...@gmail.com wrote: The idea is to use I/O through the parallel port for jog plus and jog minus. Thanks Yes, absolutely. http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gui_halui.html But you might want to consider economising on HAL pins and jogging with USB: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/emcinfo.pl?Simple_Remote_Pendant -- atp Torque wrenches are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
On 2/9/2011 6:30 AM, John L. Craddock wrote: -Original Message- From: Viesturs Lacis [mailto:viesturs.la...@gmail.com] Sent: 09 February 2011 20:52 To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 2011/2/9 Alex Jonialex.j...@robcon.ro: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ They are not that expensive by themselves, but I think they _DO NOT_ contain the EtherCAT slave IPs. So you have to buy those separately from Beckhoff. Thanks! I sent them e-mail to find it out. Viesturs There is another alternative that might suit that appears not to require the special hardware in the slave nodes; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethernet_Powerlink Not quite as fast as etherCAT but might be fast enough. Regards John C Parker uses Powerlink and apparently it works ok. Drive Cliq is yet another that Siemens is using with their Sinamics drives. http://www.automation.siemens.com/mcms/infocenter/dokumentencenter/mc/Documentsu20Brochures/6fc5095-0aa83-0bp0.pdf I thought they would have used Profinet, but there must be some speed advantages to using Drive Cliq instead. Dave -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
Guys, I have an egg on my face. I did no work right when I was just staring out with 4th axis. I would specify speed and it would no work, it would go a full speed. This is no longer he case. It works great right now. Possibly it is so, because I am using more recent software, since I switched back to my newer 10.04 PC. i On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 7:18 AM, Chris Radek ch...@timeguy.com wrote: On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 08:56:13AM +0200, Belli Button wrote: I 'configure' the rotary axis for 'linear' axis, still 360degrees per turn. This allows a call of A720, two turns (A1080, three turns, etc). Specifying it as rotary means it rolls over every 360 degrees, If you are talking about EMC, this is incorrect. -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
[Emc-users] setting Z offsets
Gentlemen, I have a request for consideration When setting the Z offset (ie g55...) it is sometimes confusing to the operator how to implement the tlo into the value written into the var file. start machine home machine make sure z and w values are zero mdi g43 H(ToolOffsetNumber) to put the value in the W axis here is where the confusion comes the operator will set Z zero now and be off by the tlo the operator will g49 g91g28z0w0 to raise the tool to zeros and then do another g43 H(tlo) g90g00z0w0 the machine will alarm because the spindle will try to raise by the tlo amount the operator needs to put the tlo value in the set window when setting the g55 offset value or g90g00z(-tlo)w0 then the tlo is in the set value written to the var file here is my request for thought It seems to me to allow the Z and W values to be summed and written into the g55 offset value would obviate the need for the operator to finesse the system. admittedly this would only be valid when A and B are zero but that is the case in all situations if the zero needs to be set with the tool at some angle accommodations for the angle must be taken into account thoughts comments welcome thanks Stuart -- dos centavos -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] setting Z offsets
On Wed, Feb 09, 2011 at 11:15:22AM -0600, Stuart Stevenson wrote: g43 H(tlo) g90g00z0w0 the machine will alarm because the spindle will try to raise by the tlo amount This is the part that most directly causes the pain, I think. The (pain in the butt) workaround is g90 g0 w0 z-[more than tool length] Thinking outside the box: I do not have a W axis on my machine but it strikes me that the solution I use would also work for you. I have a probe that's longer than pretty much all my tools. I call this the zero length tool, and I use it for various things including setting Z origins on fixtures/workpieces. If you had a reference tool that was fairly long (it could even be an indicator mounted in a tool holder, which is awfully nice for setting Z origins) you would gain at least two advantages: 1 - when using a shorter tool, the above gcode sequence would make the spindle move DOWN and not give the limit error, because the tool length would be negative 2 - you can use the reference tool/indicator to directly set Z origins on fixtures/workpieces, in the most simple way: G49 mode with W=0. -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
Igor Chudov wrote: So I have this rotary table for 4th axis. If I specify a rotational move in conjunction with a move in coordinae axes, like this G1 X1 A25 f1 then the rotary move is timed to coincide with the dimensional move. But f I specify G1 A360 F1, the speed is ignored and the rotation occurs at the highest speed. Is there some way to specify a speed of rotation alone? Yes. I tried to get EMC2 to include rotary axes in the velocity calculation, but was overruled. So, you have to use inverse time mode, G93, to specify the time the move is to take. The deal is if you are going to include the rotary axis in the feed velocity, the radius needs to be taken into account. G code doesn't formally specify this, so EMC would have to ASSUME that in the active coordinate plane (G17 - G19) the vector distance from zero would be the radius. That was too big an assumption for the purists, so all angular axes have no feedrate. Jon -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
Viesturs La-cis wrote: I am convinced that many of EMC users have hardware that cannot be considered as opensource. Including my ServoStar 601 servo amps. My personal feeling (not supported with any facts, numbers or other data) is that also Mesa or Pico Systems products contain some proprietary components. So I do not see a problem here - if that solution is working and delivering expected performance, then I consider the price to make decision. EMC is meant to be smart CNC controller to work on simple, not-that-smart (dumb) hardware, so I think it is acceptable to have proprietary elements in hardware as long as it is fully configurable to fit each particular machine and situation. Well, I don't make you sign a license to use my servo amps. With this scheme, any time you wanted to recompile the rest of the FPGA code, you would need to invoke the etherCat license in some manner to include the IP in the FPGA. That could be worrisome the way companies come and go. If they went out of business or just decided to dump the product, you might not be able to compile it again (I have no idea how their IP protection works.) So, that's the issue, I think, is that this IP licensing is a lot more like software in a way, and not like hardware that just sits there taking signals and driving motors, for instance. Jon -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to specify rotational speed (4th axis)
On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 12:01 PM, Jon Elson el...@pico-systems.com wrote: Igor Chudov wrote: So I have this rotary table for 4th axis. If I specify a rotational move in conjunction with a move in coordinae axes, like this G1 X1 A25 f1 then the rotary move is timed to coincide with the dimensional move. But f I specify G1 A360 F1, the speed is ignored and the rotation occurs at the highest speed. Is there some way to specify a speed of rotation alone? Yes. I tried to get EMC2 to include rotary axes in the velocity calculation, but was overruled. So, you have to use inverse time mode, G93, to specify the time the move is to take. The deal is if you are going to include the rotary axis in the feed velocity, the radius needs to be taken into account. G code doesn't formally specify this, so EMC would have to ASSUME that in the active coordinate plane (G17 - G19) the vector distance from zero would be the radius. That was too big an assumption for the purists, so all angular axes have no feedrate. Jon, I am not sure why, but with 10.04 and the latest packages, specifying feedrate for angular-only moves, does seem to work nicely. It did not work before, for any reason, maybe it was an older version of Ubuntu and EMC or maybe it was something else such as my mistake. But now I can make the rotary table go fast, or slow. I fully understand your comment about taking part radius and the rotating component into account when calculating feedrate. At the same time, I understand that the trigonomotry of this can quickly become complicated. i -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
On Wed, 9 Feb 2011, Jon Elson wrote: Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2011 12:07:40 -0600 From: Jon Elson el...@pico-systems.com Reply-To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 Viesturs La-cis wrote: I am convinced that many of EMC users have hardware that cannot be considered as opensource. Including my ServoStar 601 servo amps. My personal feeling (not supported with any facts, numbers or other data) is that also Mesa or Pico Systems products contain some proprietary components. So I do not see a problem here - if that solution is working and delivering expected performance, then I consider the price to make decision. EMC is meant to be smart CNC controller to work on simple, not-that-smart (dumb) hardware, so I think it is acceptable to have proprietary elements in hardware as long as it is fully configurable to fit each particular machine and situation. Well, I don't make you sign a license to use my servo amps. With this scheme, any time you wanted to recompile the rest of the FPGA code, you would need to invoke the etherCat license in some manner to include the IP in the FPGA. That could be worrisome the way companies come and go. If they went out of business or just decided to dump the product, you might not be able to compile it again (I have no idea how their IP protection works.) So, that's the issue, I think, is that this IP licensing is a lot more like software in a way, and not like hardware that just sits there taking signals and driving motors, for instance. Jon Most of these issues with EtherCat can be avoided by using the Ethercat slave ASIC. I think of the Ethernet alternatives EtherCat is the nicest technically but I think a simple UDP based parallel port replacement would be good as well, just a simple dedicated Ethernet link to the external CPU and or FPGA motion interface. We will have some low cost hardware to play around with the simple UDP idea later this year. Peter Wallace Mesa Electronics -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2
If you're set on ethercat, you may want to look at an ethercat module like... Hilscher COMX-CA-RE http://www.hilscher.com/products_details_hardware.html?p_id=P_4579e8138180c; bs=15 Beckoff fb11xx http://www.beckhoff.de/english.asp?ethercat/et1100_et1200.htm They are drop in modules available with/without the firmware. I'm sure they're expensive too. Frank -Original Message- From: Viesturs Lacis [mailto:viesturs.la...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, 9 February 2011 8:46 PM To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 2011/2/9 John L. Craddock john.cradd...@xitech.com.au: -Original Message- From: Jon Elson [mailto:el...@pico-systems.com] Sent: 09 February 2011 13:09 To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Ethernet with EMC2 Viesturs La-cis wrote: Guys, what do You think about these two? http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-starter/ http://www.enclustra.com/en/products/fpga-modules/mars-mx1/ So, that's $500 US to get an FPGA on the ethernet? Yishin is right, expensive. Jon From what I can find out, etherCAT is a proprietary development of Beckhoff in Germany that only appears on the surface to be open. The catch is the requirement for special slave devices that come in the form of ASICs or node-limited IP cores for FPGAs. Seems odd to consider it for open-source EMC2. Please correct me if I am wrong. Thanks for the opinions! I totally agree that it is pricey, compared to other alternatives for FPGA cards from Mesa or other sources. On the other hand, I do not feel it that pricey, when the machine requires one such item to be used with several servo- amps, costing the same amount for each of them and also having several servo motors also costing approximately the same. So cost of this thing is pretty small, when compared to cost of all controls and motion hardware. I am convinced that many of EMC users have hardware that cannot be considered as opensource. Including my ServoStar 601 servo amps. My personal feeling (not supported with any facts, numbers or other data) is that also Mesa or Pico Systems products contain some proprietary components. So I do not see a problem here - if that solution is working and delivering expected performance, then I consider the price to make decision. EMC is meant to be smart CNC controller to work on simple, not-that-smart (dumb) hardware, so I think it is acceptable to have proprietary elements in hardware as long as it is fully configurable to fit each particular machine and situation. Viesturs -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- The ultimate all-in-one performance toolkit: Intel(R) Parallel Studio XE: Pinpoint memory and threading errors before they happen. Find and fix more than 250 security defects in the development cycle. Locate bottlenecks in serial and parallel code that limit performance. http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-dev2devfeb ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
