Linux CNC going Commercial...

@ Wizard69:

I am aware of what you write. And you are Right! But to sell that Controllers isn`t my main intention. At least any bigger machine tool Builder will never Use such a Controller, even it is much better, faster and cheaper as the Products of the Big control-system Builders...

But think of the advantages a stable out of the Box Platform for Linux CNC brings to someone who is already retrofitting Machines or small machine tool Builders:

They will always Pay much higher Prices for their controllers like the bigger builders. And many small Builders are already working with controllers developed by single Persons (Like BES-Grav or CNC-Graf).

I think there is a chance to earn Money by offering Services arround LinuxCNC the same Way services arround Linux itself are (mostly) well paid. Anybody in the Community can participate in devolping and servicing that kind of controllers, because there are no secrets. It will stay an Open System, so anybody can service It.

So think about, how many Members the LinuxCNC Community has? just take 10% of them... Which company has got that much skilled service Personal. And operates in so many Languages and Countries?

Until here its just a Plan... But I think its worth a Try...

cncbasher wrote:

fitting to a 19" rack is not much of a problem
i'm currently building touch screen based controllers

Dave, this sounds interesting. I'm thinking of small instruments for lab-use. These usually have 1-4 ADCs and 1-4 DACs and maybe some digital IO.
- Have you found small 7" or 5.3" touchscreens that would fit the front panel of a 3U high 19" rack enclosure?
The smaller instruments could fit in a half-width 3U 19" rack-enclosure I hope. The touchscreen would be the only UI for day to day operation, and more drastic changes to the program etc. could be made by attaching a keyboard, mouse, and bigger monitor.
- Do you have the setup for booting directly into a gscreen (or similar) UI, and also shutting down the machine when exiting the UI? also thinking of day-to-day standalone operation only through the touch-screen here.
- It seems HDMI-output is available on the latest N2800 Atom board. Are you using that? And USB for the touch-screen. Are there drivers that work with USB-touchscreens for ubuntu/linuxcnc?
- I've been browsing the gscreen thread and that looks like a great new UI for cnc and other use through touchscreen. Are you using/developing that?

thanks,
Anders

Anders,

i'm currently using 17" touch screens for main displays , mostly because of the ease of use on the bench development system , and also larger 22" screens the touch side is USB
and I have a library that works with Linuxcnc , although they can be sometimes a pain , mostly adding in USB id's .

I find 10" about the smallest screen that's reasonably easy to touch in a workshop environment , 7" would be nice overall I don't see a problem for them to be used for pendants or as you suggest
small instruments .

yes gscreen was the main focus here with Chris's help it's not far off now
as always the smaller the screen the more difficult it becomes to be able to touch accurately , hence the minimalistic buttons on gscreen and multiple reuse of buttons through the modes
and booting directly into gscreen and hiding Linux in the background , I have the machine all operating via gscreen so until gscreen is loaded then the machine will not switch on , and the estop out is used to shut the machine off
on gscreen close .

awallin wrote:

cncbasher wrote:

fitting to a 19" rack is not much of a problem
i'm currently building touch screen based controllers

Dave, this sounds interesting. I'm thinking of small instruments for lab-use. These usually have 1-4 ADCs and 1-4 DACs and maybe some digital IO.
- Have you found small 7" or 5.3" touchscreens that would fit the front panel of a 3U high 19" rack enclosure?

Anders

You really should look at the BeagleBone and all the accessories made for that,
if it fits your needs. I have used the slightly larger Beagle Board in some
instrument/control projects, and it is great. The first one used a TK/TCL GUI
that ran on a client computer and sent TCP messages to control it.
The latest one has a GLADE GUI running directly on the Beagle and
you connect to it with ssh -X to put the GUI on your client screen.
Development was really easy.

Jon

I just found some interesting things:

github.com/flosse/sercansiii

Looks like a working Linux-Driver for the SercansIII Card from Bosch-Rexroth. If it (somehow) works with Linux CNC the problem of missing Hardware for bigger Machines is solved.

Is anybody able to check that drivers?



Thanks,
Christian

Im still waiting for Prices for the SercansIII Card... This may take some days....

Thanks for that Information!

I am looking for a Sercos-Solution because at my Company we are already working with Sercos drives (Controlled by Andronic 3060 Controllers). So I can get instant support from our Specialists for any Problem that may occur with the Drives.

I am Sure, that there is no bigger Problem to control big Machines by LinuxCNC. But I want to have a "Up to Date" System. And I think in the Future there will be mostly Ethernet-Based Systems like Sercos3 or EtherCAT. The advances of this Systems are abviously... In addition, the Bandwith of available Hardware makes Sercos and EtherCAT a very flexible System and that is what I want to have: A (mostly) Standardized Controller for milling Machines with up to 5 Axis and lots of Peripherial like Touch Probes, Coolant Systems, Chip Conveyors, Tool-Changers, Robots, Auto-Doors and all that Stuff...

LinuxCNC going commercial sounds good... but I have some questions regarding the license...

What about the LinuxCNC license ?
Does the LinuxCNC license allow it ?
Do i have to publish my work ?

Thanks you in advance,
Victor

cewematec wrote:

I am Sure, that there is no bigger Problem to control big Machines by LinuxCNC. But I want to have a "Up to Date" System. And I think in the Future there will be mostly Ethernet-Based Systems like Sercos3 or EtherCAT. The advances of this Systems are abviously... In addition, the Bandwith of available Hardware makes Sercos and EtherCAT a very flexible System and that is what I want to have: A (mostly) Standardized Controller for milling Machines with up to 5 Axis and lots of Peripherial like Touch Probes, Coolant Systems, Chip Conveyors, Tool-Changers, Robots, Auto-Doors and all that Stuff...

Before you spend big money on making a LinuxCNC controller for a modern 5-axis VMC, please make sure you understand the current limitations in LinuxCNC wrt. to lookeahead/blending. If you have machines with high-power motors resulting in high accelerations (approaching 1g or so) and high feedrates (10m/min is a lot in hobby use!) then you may have problems.
There is ongoing work on improving this (e.g. araisrobo on github + others?), but I haven't heard reports on how that is progressing.