Greetings everyone! New guy here. I've been following the group for several weeks and feel it's time for an intro and to get some suggestions for a small project I'm working on.
First, my motivation for looking into LinuxCNC. I own an older Bridgeport R2E4 CNC mill (Boss 9 with DC servo motors) that works flawlessly at the moment. However, every time I open the cabinets and look at the mass of wires and circuit boards I know at some point, something inside is going to fail. Even though I have the schematics and am comfortable doing basic electronic troubleshooting, I know that sooner or later I will be faced with replacing that rats nest with a modern servo control and software. In anticipation of that event, I would like to experiment with different control software to see which I like best. I generally prefer Linux over Windows and am currently favoring LinuxCNC. To that end, I plan to start on a small project and go big if/when the BP fails. To start that journey I would like to convert a Shapeoko type desktop mill, from TinyG, to a real CNC control in order to become familiar with the CNC software. My question for the group is, what hardware would you all recommend for this task? I've looked at some of the ~$150 Chinese, 3 axis, PLC/control/stepper drive combos available on Ebay, but I get concerned when I read articles regarding the poor quality and wide variation in the actual driver chips used in many of those stepper drives. I'm not sure if those problems are actually related to junky hardware, or possibly just operator error, so I'm left wondering if anyone has found anything in that realm that actually works? (I only need to drive NEMA 23's) If not, I would appreciate hearing what some of you may be using for motion control/drive hardware for an inexpensive mill like the Shapeoko. One final consideration is whether to use a parallel port solution, or if there are USB or network controls available in a wallet friendly price range? I've read that USB controls tend to be susceptible to induced electrical noise, but I have no idea how widespread the problem is or if a good quality, short, shielded USB cable plus shielded stepper cables can resolve noise issues? My preference would be to consider an alternative to the parallel interface, but the price of other options may be overkill for this small application. From what I've read, LinuxCNC seems to have good support for parallel, but I'm unclear if/how it supports network or USB controls and would like to hear your thoughts on that aspect. Down the road (hopefully WAY down the road!) I may poll the group again for Bridgeport servo control recommendations, but for now, any suggestions on the most appropriate hardware (ie low cost, reliable, LinuxCNC ready) for this small 3 axis mill would be greatly appreciated. Looking forward to hearing feedback from the experts! Thanks in advance, Brent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download BIRT iHub F-Type - The Free Enterprise-Grade BIRT Server from Actuate! Instantly Supercharge Your Business Reports and Dashboards with Interactivity, Sharing, Native Excel Exports, App Integration & more Get technology previously reserved for billion-dollar corporations, FREE http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=190641631&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
