As an example of what I am talking about, a couple of years ago, I had a film scanner, costing new several hundreds of thousand of dollars, fail. The service tech came out and stated a box in the system had failed, and would cost $6500 + labor to replace. I sent him home! I pulled the box out of the system, opened it up to find a Pentium 5 SBC, and several servo control boards (that I looked up on the internet). On close inspection, I found that the fan on the Pentium heat sink had failed. I pulled the chip out of the socket, and it showed that the magic smoke had leaked out due to excessive heat. I found one on Ebay, ordered it, got for less than $7, delivered. Installed it, put everything back together, and tested. SUCCESS!
Moral of the story: many systems are put together with commodity parts and made to look like proprietary systems with custom software! I put my LinuxCNC system together, inside of a high end PC case, and made it look like my own proprietary system. Cables out the bottom to the steppers & sensors. Mounted it on the same brackets that the 70's era NC controller previously occupied, did a small customization of the axis screens, and nobody is any wiser that it is not an expensive, commercial controller. It is used by a high school robotics team. Ray --J. Ray Mitchell Jr. [email protected] (818)324-7573 The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 12:46 PM, Pete Matos <[email protected]> wrote: > unfortunately that is completely accurate. There is BIG money in keeping > the commercial controls proprietary and away from the open source cheap and > free options. In my view that is never gonna change but what it does do is > make THOUSANDS of nice used machines available for scrap prices just > because the owner got sick and tired of dumping umpteen thousands of > dollars into a control that is less than a decade old or so. It is a > vicious cycle not all that unlike the cellphone wars and PC wars we see in > other avenues. People gotta make money tho so I can't fault them. I would > not want someone to rip the carpet out from underneath my feet either if I > had ownership and royalties coming in from a system I built and sold. It's > the nature of things nowadays it seems. > > Pete > > > On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 3:35 PM, jrmitchellj . <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > If those service techs understood what is really inside, at the core of > > those expensive, name brand control systems! > > Their job is to sell the end user module based repairs that cost several > > thousands of dollars. > > The commodity based solution, like a LinuxCNC installation, does not fit > > that paradigm, and cannot support them. > > > > Ray > > > > --J. Ray Mitchell Jr. > > [email protected] > > (818)324-7573 > > > > > > The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, > > understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. > > And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, > > egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire > > the quality of the first they love the produce of the second. > > -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) > > > > > > On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 9:40 AM, Stuart Stevenson <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > > Gentlemen, > > > I guess I was not clearly expressing myself. > > > This may be a little more direct. > > > I don't see ANY competition between Mach and LinuxCNC. When you compare > > the > > > quality of apple to the quality of oranges any argument fails. > > > The competition between the "new" youngsters and "old" cnc guys does > not > > > exist either. When the youngsters need the capability of LinuxCNC then > > they > > > will learn it and adopt it. > > > I see service guys (here in Wichita) that will not 'consider' putting a > > > garden variety PC on a machine tool. That would be heresy. > > > It is difficult to get some of them to come in and service the > commercial > > > controls they specialize in. > > > > > > They will not even look at the LinuxCNC running in my shop. They will > not > > > discuss it with me. History of more than a decade of PC based solutions > > > here (first with MDSI's OpenCNC installed in 1997 still running and > then > > > multiple LinuxCNC installs) has no sway in the argument. > > > > > > One consolation is "they will not consider Mach either". > > > > > > All PC based solutions are lumped together in one trash bin. > > > > > > I do not mean to ignore progress in all other solutions. We need to > > improve > > > the LinuxCNC solution. Not so it is more competitive with another > > solution > > > but so the LinuxCNC users are more competitive with their competition. > We > > > can worry about what another solution has but if we don't have > solutions > > > that enhance LinuxCNC we will lose because it cannot be used profitably > > in > > > industry. > > > > > > If the LinuxCNC community improves the solution then progress is made. > > The > > > way I see it we need to show the installed base of users and techs > > LinuxCNC > > > is a viable solution. Then we will have more competent people > installing > > > and using LinuxCNC. That will then allow the 'new' blood to learn how > to > > > make a real machine run. > > > > > > now this is 4 cents :) > > > Stuart > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 11:11 AM, Kirk Wallace < > > > [email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > > > > On 10/22/2014 08:24 AM, Charles Buckley wrote: > > > > ... snip > > > > > > > > > You want people to adopt LinuxCNC? You have to tie it to a new > > machine > > > > that > > > > > is cutting edge, then bill it as open source. Right now, > > Instructables > > > is > > > > ... snip > > > > > > > > Hows about: > > > > http://www.tormach.com/product_lathe.html > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Kirk Wallace > > > > http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/ > > > > http://www.wallacecompany.com/E45/ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Emc-users mailing list > > > > [email protected] > > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Addressee is the intended audience. > > > If you are not the addressee then my consent is not given for you to > read > > > this email furthermore it is my wish you would close this without > saving > > or > > > reading, and cease and desist from saving or opening my private > > > correspondence. > > > Thank you for honoring my wish. > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Emc-users mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > > Emc-users mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > > > > > > -- > Pete Matos > A and N Precision and Fabrication > Maryville, Tennessee > 865-236-8996 > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
