Matt,
That is very well said and I could not agree more. I am trying to get
my VMC into a profitable position and after spending THOUSANDS of dollars
trying to fix the aging control only to KNOW that at some point it will be
beyond the support of the factory let alone anyone else was quite
disturbing. While it was not easy to retrofit the machine I sit
comfortable in the knowledge that if EVER I want to upgrade the control
system or add a fourth axis or probing or basically ANYTHING I want to do
to this machine I can do it without worry about the factory coming back and
asking me for more cash or having me actually pay for their phone support.
I mean to me it is a no brainer. That's good because I sometimes have that
LOL.
The other end is that I removed all of the original control electronics
and replaced them with commercially available much less expensive units
that are brand new with a warrantee. If anything goes wrong I can either
have them repaired or replaced at considerable savings over just a repair
of any of the original components. A single Axis drive and motor for my
machine cost far less than a single repair on one of the original drives.
That is not to say that the new stuff is BETTER than the old stuff but I
love that I am not tied to a single company or supplier anymore. LinuxCNC
seems to be solid as a rock and works great with what little use I have
been able to do so far. It has already started to pay me back some LOL...
I think back to my first retrofit using Mach3 and all the bugs and
issues I had and knowing that I actually paid money to use that program
when LinuxCNC is completely free I just feel like kicking myself in the ass
a bit. Peace
Pete
On Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 12:03 PM, Matt Shaver <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, 13 Jun 2013 06:07:20 -0500
> Charles Steinkuehler <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > Why do you use LinuxCNC and what are the features you like best?
> <...>
> > Help me out with some "talking points"! :)
>
> It's similar to the reason I use Linux (I guess, considering the reasons
> I'm about to give, I should say GNU/Linux, but it's just too awkward).
>
> There are technologies that I need in my life on a continuous basis.
> Each of these will have costs: Initial cost of acquisition is one (but
> not the largest over time), maintenance, upgrades as required, etc. The
> largest cost of all in any technology, is what I will call the "sunk
> cost of intellectual investment". This is not a money cost. This cost
> is the sum of all the learning and thinking you have done with respect
> to a particular technology. In CNC, that is no small amount of learning
> and thinking time, and once invested is mostly sunk, that is you can't
> recover your investment by disposing of the goods as surplus; Your
> excess thoughts aren't going to bring much on eBay. It is true that
> some of the learning and thinking you will do with any particular
> technological solution will port to another similar solution. For
> example, a general knowledge of g-code will help you on any control
> system you need to operate.
>
> To me, it's unwise to make any further investment of this type in a
> proprietary technology. I justify this out of my previous experiences
> with proprietary technologies I have used in the past from
> manufacturers including Microsoft, Bridgeport, Autodesk, Symantec, et
> al. What happens (and it _always_ happens at the worst possible time)
> is that the manufacturer will stop supporting their product by making
> repair parts unavailable, or stopping technical support, or raising the
> costs of either of these to a level intended to herd you towards their
> sales department. I don't mind spending the money, but I won't abide
> extortion. Using their proprietary technology means that at a time most
> inconvenient to you, you may have to scrap your intellectual investment
> with no hope of recovery AND THEN MAKE ANOTHER intellectual investment
> to get up and running with the replacement technology.
>
> Using free (libre) technologies in the key, critical parts of your life
> will at least allow you to manage the process of technological advance
> in a way that avoids crisis. Even if the free technology is an
> imperfect replacement for the proprietary technology, it is cheaper to
> add your own extensions to fill in the gaps, or learn to live with the
> current limitations of the free technology (don't worry, mechanisms are
> in place to keep free technology advancing and the deficiencies of
> today will be fixed tomorrow) than to risk the loss of your mental
> assets whenever it suits the schedule of the proprietary vendor.
>
> This is the only reason you need to use LinuxCNC.
>
> Thanks,
> Matt
>
>
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