Chinese CNC 3020 / 6040 - USB variant

cmorley wrote:

Guys you are missing the basic concept. With linuxcnc transmitted over lan to a mesa card. That instruction could be parsed and sent out over many different transmission protocols as basic gcode instruction which grbl is capable of using.

Respectfully I believe you are missing our point. Linuxcnc will _never_ output gcode to an external controller.
If it did, it wouldn't be linuxcnc any more - that is the principle difference of linuxcnc - linuxcnc _is_ the controller.

Chris M

Exactly. Its like trying to control an Okuma lathe with a Fanuc Milling machine. It makes absolutely no sense. They both are their own stand alone controller.

Sorry mate you've missed the point.

First read this recent post, Rod makes a most excellent point.
forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...iant?start=30#155512

Why cripple Linuxcnc just so that you can gcode via a USB serial port. It makes not a single bit of sense. What's next wanting these features in Tormach's Path Pilot release ?

Rather than acting like a petulant child, realise that Linuxcnc devs have no immediate plans for USB, nor that it looks likely that they would support a device such as grbl or smooth stepper.

Mayhaps it would be better to to put on your Big Boys Pants and partition one of the GRBL sender programmers to include the features you want.

To support canned cycles with GRBL either that feature would need to be added to the firmware or one of the senders would need to convert the canned cycles into gcode that GRBL can use.

EPP & ECP ports can reach up to 2.0 & 2.5 MB\s where as USB 1 max speed is 12 Mb\s......Note the Mega Byte per second rate compared to Mega bit per second.
Yes the original PP was 150kb per second.

Sure anything can be sent via USB......but it's real time part that prevents USB from being supported. So until reliable real time USB drivers it doesn't appear Linuxcnc will support USB.

As far as I know Fusion does not have a Linux Version.
Freecad & Librecad are 2 cad packages that spring to mind. Freecad can also handle CAM. CamBam also has a Linux version. Plus there are many more CAM programs around written in python.

If your Windows based cnc users would want to use Linuxcnc they are going to have to learn to use Linux........I can say with 99.999999% certainty that a windows port is not on the horizon. Nor being able to run Linuxcnc to control a machine from a VM.

In essence (being very simple about it) Linuxcnc & GRBL do the same thing, read gcode and then convert into it motion. Yes it is gcode that gets sent to grbl plus a few other things that the grbl controller understands.

I can almost guarantee if you went to the Machinekit (forked from Linuxcnc) google group and asked the same question and you'll receive the same responses.

Would you start a heated discussion with Ducati to build a Le Mans Prototype for you to race, when there are already existing options from other manufacturers ?
Both can get you from A to B but each does it in it's own fashion.

MrJTJinx wrote: . Windows has won.

You so funny :silly:

petulant child, that’s actually a compliment - im 50 next year and an ex-serviceman.
just out of curiosity what signal is sent to mesa cards over lan, possibly a serial string. the reason why people may want to use the linuxcnc as an interface only is because they may very well have forked out a fortune on hardware and ripping it out to interface a mesa card might cost more than just an interface card.

Rod. There are cross platform controllers out there which interface with both Fanuc and Haas not to mention tens of other manufacturers as well. you don’t have to be restricted by their controller.

The outcome is i will have to buy a mesa interface card from the states pay twice as much due to ridicules postage charges then pay almost as much on import tax due to the fact the interface is only sold by the US manufacturer.
Shame i have to throw the rest of my investment down the pan.

I would wager that every single user who has asked the same question as walked away disapointed as well.

I'm not going to beat my head against this wall anymore.

MrJTJinx wrote: Rod. There are cross platform controllers out there which interface with both Fanuc and Haas not to mention tens of other manufacturers as well. you don’t have to be restricted by their controller.
.

Of course they are but I said a milling machine controlling a lathe so imagine these two big machines with one trying to control the other. Thats how silly your proposal is.

The Mesa card is interfaced via the hostmod2 driver which is fully documented here.
linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/man/man9/hostmot2.9.html

You've not listened to one word or attempted to understand the paradigm.
I'm in a timezone 15 hours from the US and I manage to buy their hardware and pay the applicable taxes my country levies.I don't whinge and complain even when the exchange rate is much worse now than it has been for years.. There are some resellers in Europe.

But I think you said that you were going to buy a Mesa card so that implies you are dissatisfied with your CNC paradigm.... So welcome aboard.