Controller recommendations (other than mesa)

bevins wrote:

rodw wrote:

cmorley wrote: I was going to mention your board Jon - but he specifically said Ethernet.

Ethercat was not going to be helpful to this fellow.

Chris

X 2.

Its a shame the Mesa ethernet cards don't have a DHCP server on board. That would make life much simpler...

How is it that dhcp would be helpful to a 20 year IT veteran?

Could that the poor chap is suffering PTSD from Y2K & being Rick Rolled too many times.

Did you follow the pinned thread about setting up the connection in the driver boards section?

Not true anymore. There is a very nice open hardware card, called rioctrl:
github.com/festlv/rioctrl-hw/tree/main/rioctrl-controller
I still have a number of those surplus from the last production run and can sell those.
I also designed Mesa-Style IO hats for it with
5 axes 4 encoder inputs, 8i/4o direct I/O and 16 out/32 in (shifted),
which I could sell, if anyone is interested.

Just for curiosity: How much would one of those "surplus" cards cost?

Would it be manageable for someone who is only end user level?
Is it really easier to use than a MESA card?
(referring to the original complaint that the documentation and instructions were not sufficient)


Maybe in 2020 the complaint was more valid than it is today. Because some info and updates made it better since then.

First of all, some users do not need LinuxCNC at all because they perform simple tasks for which GRBL/FluidNC is enough. LinuxCNC is just an unnecessary complication and additional cost for them. Secondly, the conversation about LinuxCNC should start with github.com/jzolee/HAL2UDP - the cheapest solution worth recommending (ESP32 + W5500 +OptoBOB or CNCshield), unfortunately with limited possibilities. Then there is riocore (recently active topic on the Forum). Later, Chinese cards compatible with 7i92 available on Aliexpress. And finally, the original MESA cards, unfortunately expensive and difficult to obtain in some countries, but widely praised. The most expensive and so far quite difficult to configure is Ethercat (I use it and I like it, but I don't recommend it to beginners).

tuxcnc wrote:

...the conversation about LinuxCNC should start with github.com/jzolee/HAL2UDP - the cheapest solution worth recommending (ESP32 + W5500 +OptoBOB or CNCshield), unfortunately with limited possibilities.

Correction, no need for OptoBOB nor cncshield, all new-ish china drives have their own optocouplers, so unless doing something out of the ordinary, there is no need for it.
Do not use those "arduino wires" to connect the ESP32 to W5500 though as it will cause a lot of grief, solder wires, short, 10-15cm max.
Here is such combo tested at 40kHz i think
www.youtube.com/shorts/55287Iaa4Y0