On 2/23/19 7:29 PM, Dave Cole wrote:
On 2/20/2019 8:42 AM, Ken Strauss wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: John Dammeyer [mailto:jo...@autoartisans.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2019 12:07 AM
To: 'Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)'
Subject: Re: [Emc-users] DIY CNC builder dilemma, open request for
comments
My mill is equivalent to a Grizzly G3606. From the now defunct House of
Tools. They handle the broken parts and assemble and make sure
everything
is there before I ever saw it. No real complaints but it's not a HAAS.
Of
course the price was nowhere near that either.
I know for sure that I'm going to have to either rebuild (redesign)
the X
axis nut or just install ball screws (preferred). The PC, the CNC
control
software are such a small part of the whole thing.
The BeagleBone design is published and can be used in other layouts.
Nothing stops someone from producing a more S100 if you will (but
smaller
cards) system using it as a backbone processor. Although it's video
processing is pretty pitiful. The Pi is not public.
But again, 1000 hours (about 6 months work). $100 to $150 per
hour. Say
with all the design work including metalwork etc. that you can create
that
magic Linux CNC based box for $150,000. The customer base will
probably
only want to pay $500 at the most for it since you can duplicate what it
does with used PCs and some hardware. The motors, couplers, power
supplies
etc. remain constant regardless of the install. So if you want to make
back your investment and earn a living then $150,000 R&D / $500 per unit
is
300 units.
And even with $500 per unit the end user still has to modify his machine
which is where all the work and money is. If the need was there it
would
already be filled. IMHO.
John
Selling 300 units at $500 each would only recover the $150K R&D if the
supplied hardware were free with no advertising/support required for the
sales. I suspect that needing to sell 3000 units is closer to reality.
The PC is not going away anytime soon. I do a lot of industrial
Some form of PC will stay around for time to come. However, industrial
computer is a different beast for number of reasons. Tablets and
Chromebooks are changing this the most in user landscape.
control work and more and more PCs are being installed in factories to
allow access to the MES system, quality control/part tracking system
(IBS QMS,etc) and provide employee log in/log out. Act as cell
controllers for machine cells. They are everywhere. Most of them are
small fanless units with one or more Ethernet ports.
We need specialized SBCs for industrial and CNC systems obviously. It
would be nice to have a handful of well known brands to select from for
DIY projects. They could be functionally the same but use different CPU.
I would participate in related Kickstart assuming the design was good
and supported for at least 5 years ;-)
The factories are using off the shelf desktop screens since they are
dirt cheap. Standard keyboards etc. They break, they replace them.
Dirt cheap are the key words here. Non-technical bean counters select
the technology too often because they don't know better. I've seen it
too many times in industrial and data center environments and small
startups. Computer technology keeps revolving around simplistic PC
architecture even in virtual systems these days. I see users requesting
virtual systems with 4 coreCPUs, 8-16GB RAM, 300-500GB of virtual disk
space just to run simple compiler jobs and such on a daily basis.
I've even seen standard desktop PCs used in steel mills out in the
shop. Its popular to mount the PC behind the screen.
The only reason why PC installation may slow in factories is increased
use of robots which eliminates the employees who would interact with the
PCs.
CNC machines are robots too. They use different language to run and
interact with humans in some steps. CNC machines are a class of co-robots.
Remember when the parallel port was going away 10+ years ago,
well....you can still buy NEW PC motherboards with parallel ports.
Yes, and some printers come with Pport to plug in to those obsolete
ports also. It's like bulky DC power connector designed for use by
stupid smokers in cars decades ago.
Thanks to all for participating in DIY CNC builder dilemma. I learn so
much from such discussions. Too bad we can't get together and solve CNC
automation problems as a company selling an ultimate CNC product.
--
Rafael
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