EMC2 running on Raspberry Pi?

I am going to start a kickstarter project within the next couple of weeks unless something unforeseen happens.

I have pretty much finalised all the parts, and should be trying to get enough volume to place an order for parts that will allow a little profit to allow me to pay for some test equipment to get the gpio input driver sorted out, should be that a 5 axis kit suitable for micro mill/lathe or 3dprinter will cost £100.

Video below, read more on youtube if you are interested

Why? Machinekit already runs on the Beagle Bone, which has much more GPIO plus the
PRU processors to vastly accelerate step generation and other tasks. It works very well
for CNC motion control.

Jon

It does sound nice...but tbh i'm not much of a kickstarter fan.

But i might be interested in the final version if it actually works good.

Andy ? :
Is it really th case that Rasperry is faster than the beagle bone black ? I thought the opposite.
Because i am thinking of Linuxcnc Version for Lathes where I have 2 Axis and some pins which are nit time critical so
it looks that i have to wait till we see finished solution i guess.

thx
thomas

The TI Sitara used on BBB has a PowerVR SGX graphics core. It should be capable to accelerate OpenGL, so if it cannot it must be a software issue?

Indeed, it IS a software issue. The details of the gfx hardware are TI proprietary, and they will
not release the info to the Linux developers, so there's no Linux driver for that section of
the chip. They say they will be releasing a driver for the Linux kernel in 2017 (YES, not a
typo!!) By that time, the BBB will almost certainly be obsolete, and the smart phones
will long ago have moved to the next chip.

I could NOT believe they actually said this in public. (It is somewhere on the beagle board
forums.)

Jon

Welcome to the wonderful world of TI, where datasheets must be read carefully because the most critical info is in a small footnote, if it is already there. Where datasheets say memory type X is supported but nobody can get it working. Where support is nonexistent if you did not exactly follow the reference design even if you can prove that signal timing is within spec. Where peripheral X works fine, but not in combination with peripheral Y unless you have revision 23 of the chip. Where...

Oh well, Broadcom and Marvell are even worse when you are not buying millions of chips per month.

I have done it.

Not sure if I am insane for doing it, if I actually get funding it will be so much work and hassle.

Maybe better if I do not get funding just for my own stress levels, but I thought I would try something big for once.

I used Indiegogo as it actually seemed a bit more flexible than kickstarter.

The project can be viewed here: www.indiegogo.com/projects/linuxcnc-drivers-for-raspberry-pi/

I feel like the project information is way too long, and may try to rewrite a little more concisely.