On Sat, 2012-03-17 at 17:28 +0100, Roger Holmquist wrote: > Thanks for your responses. > It seems I have to give LinuxCNC a closer look. > > There is a low cost commercial alternative in MACH 3. > I guess you have an opinions on that system too? > I know it's based on Windows with some kind of realtime extension who > doesn't sound too good in ears.
The Mach-LinuxCNC-FlashCut-TurboCNC-etcetera debate is an opinion magnet, but I think what really matters, does X or Y do what you need it to do? In most cases any of the popular systems will work very well if implemented properly. There have been Mach users that have been talked into trying LinuxCNC and many, but not all of them, have returned to using Mach. For me, open source and getting under the hood with LinuxCNC suits me very well. > My impression is that it doesn't look professional after a brief > examination. In my opinion, none of the diy CNC systems look professional yet, but I think that issue goes away pretty quickly after one starts using the system and gets a feel for how the system feels. > It also seems to be mainly focused on stepper motor systems who I > believe is off topic in heavy duty systems. My 3500 pound mill with steppers works well enough: http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/Shizuoka/ Tormach has a good paper on why they chose steppers: http://www.tormach.com/engineering.html but I'm still a fan of servos. > My assumption about Tarjectory planning was based on Anders Wallins > message as he mentioned some problem with limited look-ahead, > I suppose this affects the shape of the calculated path in some cases? > > / Roger I think every trajectory planning scheme at some point will have perfectly valid flaws to someone. I would consider trying to find a working system that closely matches what your requirements are, download the trial software if available and try it out. If the software is acceptable, copy the example system as closely as possible. I suspect that as you learn more, your requirements will change, but hopefully this will get you closer to what you want on the first steps. -- Kirk Wallace http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/ http://www.wallacecompany.com/E45/index.html California, USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF email is sponsosred by: Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users