Re: [Emc-users] Choice of CNC conversions

[gene heskett]

On Tuesday, December 28, 2021 12:45:44 PM EST Kenneth Lerman wrote:
> Hi Gene,
> 
> Don't give up your only ethernet port. Instead, add one with a $10 USB
> dongle.
> 
> Regards, Ken
> 
> Kenneth Lerman
> 55 Main Street
> Newtown, CT 06470
> 
But but but, all my usb ports are already occupied. The 2 usb3 ports have a 
SSD on them with a startech usb3 to sata adapter, because it is already a 
full development system, and there are 2 port expanders plugged into the 
usb2 sockets.  Machine control to run the Sheldon is a 7I90HD, fed by SPI.

Thanks Kenneth, take care and stay well.

Cheers, Gene Heskett.
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
 - Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page 





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Re: [Emc-users] Choice of CNC conversions

[Kenneth Lerman]

Hi Gene,

Don't give up your only ethernet port. Instead, add one with a $10 USB
dongle.

Regards, Ken

Kenneth Lerman
55 Main Street
Newtown, CT 06470



On Mon, Dec 27, 2021 at 4:37 PM gene heskett  wrote:

> On Sunday, December 26, 2021 1:30:42 PM EST John Dammeyer wrote:
> > Hi Mark,
> > I'll summarize your basic premise here that all machines are different.
> > That's true!
> >
> > And MACH2/3/4 has a huge user base without ever needing a command line
> > editor.  So if it can be done for Windows then certainly it can be done
> > for LCNC.
> >
> > Having said that I'm also not suggesting we do away with the underbelly
> of
> > what is LCNC.   Please recall my original post in this subject.   The
> > ACORN based system cannot run an old iron system with existing servo
> > drives.  It's likely it can't even run a system with a STMBL drive that
> > faults on low power supply voltage which mine does because I have a soft
> > start delay on mine so ENABLE shows up before the Voltage is there.
> > Doesn't look like it can even do step/dir for the spindle (which MACH3
> > can).  So there is a place for the 'raw' LinuxCNC install and HAL/INI
> > file model.
> >
> > But that user I mentioned wasn't interested in learning a new OS and the
> > ACORN was a one stop shop for the Ethernet controlled step/dir/VFD/IO
> > board and windows CNC software.  He went with Clearpath Servos so he
> > wasn't adverse to spending money.  He could just as easily have installed
> > LCNC 2.8.2 and the MESA board with terminal strips and used the config
> > screens in AXIS and I suspect for less money.  But the LinuxOS itself
> > appeared to also scare him away so he likely would never be a user.
> >
> > I think everyone who likes using an editor for configuration and issuing
> > multiple commands with a command line interface has already been brought
> > over to the dark side so to speak.   They aren't the market for expanding
> > the LCNC user base.
> >
> > I've attached a screen shot of something I've been playing with.  Took
> > about an hour to write using a modern GUI based software development
> > tool; in this case Lazarus Free Pascal.  The TCanvas Property has all
> > sorts of drawing tools so I thought I'd take a quick look at the Axis
> > source code.  To see how easy it would be to port over the Preview screen
> > to Pascal.
> >
> > I was immediately reminded of something I written many years ago by
> > Nicholas Wirth the author of Pascal.  "Those who learn Fortran as their
> > first language are brain damaged for life". Rather harsh actually and
> > taken out of context appears elitist .  OTOH, 4195 lines of essentially
> > undocumented python code does look like a lot of the Fortran code the
> > Electrical Engineers were writing in University while we in the Comp Sci.
> > stream were writing in structured languages Algol-68.  And those were not
> > for GUI type interfaces which add to complexity.
> >
> > For example:
> > if o.canon:
> > x = (o.canon.min_extents[0] + o.canon.max_extents[0])/2
> > y = (o.canon.min_extents[1] + o.canon.max_extents[1])/2
> > z = (o.canon.min_extents[2] + o.canon.max_extents[2])/2
> > o.set_centerpoint(x, y, z)
> >
> > If you go searching for o.cannon you find:
> >   o.canon = canon = AxisCanon(o, widgets.text, i, progress, arcdivision)
> >
> > Search for AxisCAnon and we find the object definition:
> > class AxisCanon(GLCanon, StatMixin):
> >
> > Now we're into the include side of things where the rs274 library is
> > needed: from rs274.interpret import StatMixin
> > from rs274.glcanon import GLCanon, GlCanonDraw
> >
> > which takes us to here:
> > https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/lib/python/rs274/
> glcanon.
> > py which is another 1886 lines of undocumented code.
> >
> > The excuses that will be made for no documentation will be the same ones
> > given for command line operation of Linux and LCNC.   It's much better
> > than windows or it's self documenting. You just have to learn a few
> > commands and you can do so much more than with windows
> >
> > I believe we need to step outside the box and ask ourselves this
> question.
> >  How can we attract more people who just want simple CNC (maybe without
> > limit switches even), a VFD and encoder on the spindle and possibly
> > coolant or a few other outputs.
> >
> > One really simple way is that the companies (or people) building the
> > intelligent CNC controls like the MESA change their web sites to have at
> > least one menu choice for "SimpleCNC".
> >
> > I went here:
> > http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxCNC_Supported_Hardware
> >
> > Eventually with more Google searching I ended up here:
> > http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=product/
> product_id=290
> > arch=7i76e
>
> That is a very nice board, I use 2 of them myself, but not in the E
> version. I use the much cheaper parport version. Why? I refuse to give up
> my only ethernet port just to carve metal. The net access is