The problem is the EMC2 is an old program designed when hardware was different. Today no one would design it as one big app that runs on a a PC with an RT OS.
Starting over from scratch I'd put the real-time functions on a low cost commodity single board computer. One of the best is Texas Instrument's "launch pad" series. They start at $12 for an ARM based SBC. These are well supported by a big company (TI) that is not going away soon. There are others like Beal Board and Pi. Each of these boards can have very good timing. Then you build the GUI to run on some other platform such as a tablet or phone or web browser or whatever The problem is that everyone reading this likely has a day job and many other things to do and does not want to re-implement software that works well already. Maybe you don't have to start over? Write a driver for a common SBC and let al the timing be done there. Then the hardware for the rest of LinuxCNC is not critical, any old notebook would work. Is the interface for drivers documented? End users WILL buy Linux based solutions only if they never have to know Linux is inside. We have proof of this because currently more people own Linux based computers then Windows. All those Android phones and tablets are Linux as are a good percent of home routers, TV set top boxes and even the firmware inside some printers. It might even be the #1 OS in the world right now. But no one wants it if they have to learn anything new they want the OS hidden inside the device. My interest in CNC is to build robot parts. Robots are a lot like CNC machines in that they use steppers, serves and DC motors (some times all of these on one robot.) But typically they have many more degrees of freedom then does a CNC mill but require much less precision. None the less the problems are similar. in the last few year a control architecture has become popular for robots called "ROS" > Agree. 3D printing world is growing precisely because of dedicated SBCs > built with low cost microcontrollers and motor drivers. They handle > everything including UI for selecting files from tiny memory cards. > > Large CNC systems require more computing power of course, but that too > should not be a problem for decent IO cards independent of motherboard > latency. > > > -- > Rafael > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Site24x7 APM Insight: Get Deep Visibility into Application Performance > APM + Mobile APM + RUM: Monitor 3 App instances at just $35/Month > Monitor end-to-end web transactions and take corrective actions now > Troubleshoot faster and improve end-user experience. Signup Now! > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=267308311&iu=/4140 > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- Chris Albertson Redondo Beach, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Site24x7 APM Insight: Get Deep Visibility into Application Performance APM + Mobile APM + RUM: Monitor 3 App instances at just $35/Month Monitor end-to-end web transactions and take corrective actions now Troubleshoot faster and improve end-user experience. Signup Now! http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=267308311&iu=/4140 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
