mill cnc conversion set up

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11 Dec 2017 21:52 #102943 by bkhill
I'm kicking the idea around of converting my mini mill to CNC. my plan is to use fusion 360 on IOS to get my G-code then upload it to a dell OptiPlex 790 that I am going to dedicate to linuxCNC and use it to run the mill through a probotix unity controller.

does anyone see any problems I would run into with that plan? will I need to make special accommodations to run LinuxCNC on a OptiPlex 790?

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11 Dec 2017 22:28 #102944 by InMyDarkestHour
If your machine does not have a parallel port (usb to parallel port adapters are out of the question, due to real time issues, this has been addressed a few times via the forum) be sure to read this part of the wiki
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?NetMos

PCI Parallel port cards seem to have less trouble to setup.

Be sure to read the wiki & documentation & also browse through the forums.

Most issues with latency have been addressed via the wiki and various forum threads.
And of course if you get stuck there is plenty of help available.

What sort of mini mill ? I'm running a BF-20 \ G0704 myself.

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13 Dec 2017 14:37 #103078 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic mill cnc conversion set up

I'm kicking the idea around of converting my mini mill to CNC. my plan is to use fusion 360 on IOS to get my G-code then upload it to a dell OptiPlex 790 that I am going to dedicate to linuxCNC


That ought to work (and matches my workstream pretty well, except that I often start in a VM on the Mac with Windows and Inventor before transferring to iOS and Fusion for the CAM. I hate to admit it but it's hard to beat Fusion for CAM at the price.

If you try to match UID to the Mac UID when you set up the LinuxCNC machine it can make file-sharing between the machines a little bit easier. You can even remote-mount a G-code folder on the Mac to the LinuxCNC machine, or vice-versa.

If you don't have a parallel port on the PC then rather than buy a $10 parallel port PCI card you could consider a $90 Mesa 5i25 which looks like a parallel port but has an FPGA for on-board step generation and encoder counting. This might give better performance, especially at the sort of speed that the 40V drive of that controller uses. But, equally, it might not if the limit is not step-pulse rate.

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