With hardware step generators like the Mesa and Pico, emc2 sends a "desired step frequency" command every millisecond or so (and reads from the hardware how many steps it's actually taken since last time). The step signals are generated on the 5i20 or similar, at the requested frequency, and sent to the stepper driver.
The max frequency of the step signal depends on the hardware that generates it, and it's ridiculously fast - it's down in the nanoseconds or tens of nanoseconds. You don't compute it, you look it up in the manual for the hardware. It does not depend at all on the PC's latency. That's not the whole picture, however. The limiting factor is generally the stepper driver's ability to respond to the step signal, this often takes many microseconds. -- Sebastian Kuzminsky never be discouraged just let your nerdy flourish -----Original Message----- From: "B GARDNER" <r...@verizon.net> Subj: [Emc-users] emc2 hardware step generators Date: Sun 2010 Jan 10 4:39 Size: 992 bytes To: <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Hello, When using EMC2 with stepper motors and software generated steps the highest step rate seems to be limited by the computer latency. We have a clear formula to calculate that rate based on the stepper driver requirements and the computer latency. How do we calculate the highest step rate when we use hardware generated steps (Pico, Mesa, etc.)? How does the computer latency effect these rates? Are there other factors? Thanks, Rick ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Verizon Developer Community Take advantage of Verizon's best-in-class app development support A streamlined, 14 day to market process makes app distribution fast and easy Join now and get one step closer to millions of Verizon customers http://p.sf.net/sfu/verizon-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
