> > Perhaps what's needed is the work to make the MESA boards function > with the BeagleBone. Then it's a plug and play change with no large amounts > of physical hardware to move around. Like Sam does hanging it off the back > of the monitor. > > How many Bone users are out there that want to run LinuxCNC? The only > advantage the Bone has over the cheaper and more easily available Pi is > the PRU stepgen. Unless someone volunteers to do the work it's not going > to get done. > You're right of course. I don't think the target is existing BBB users. I think the target market is people whos PCs are running MACH and the hardware has potentially reached end of life. I found with this latest set of PCs I bought that the motherboard hardware is too new for WIN-XP. So one has to find drivers. It's like plugging in an ASUS USB WiFi module. Doesn't work with WIN-XP. Does with WIN-7. Could never find a driver for LinuxCNC.
So the PRUs are pretty well useless if you decide you want to go with an Ethernet based BoB. And since the Pi has a much better video driver and multiple USB connectors it's definitely more attractive. So then the question is what is the least cost route for someone running a single parallel port version of MACH3 on WIN-XP to migrate to LinuxCNC given that their existing PC is toast. They will already have a parallel port based BoB and all the wiring. One option which I'm trying now is the MESA 7i92H and LinuxCNC on a much newer surplus computer. Another option is a BBB with the PRUs used along with perhaps the newer Xylotex board that isn more generic for parallel port signals. Still a lower cost solution than an internet based one. But in both cases unless LinuxCNC comes with an "easy to install" bundle of screens and wizards like MACH3 most of those users will look for WIN-7 and their MACH3 or upgrade to WIN-10 and use MACH4 along with an Ethernet Smooth Stepper. Way more expensive but it has those wizards and screens. John _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
