Test system setup

I had the same issue with shipping/duty. I purchased a 7i96s and I don’t regret it.

pb12 wrote:

Had to drop back to V2.7 to get a reasonable jitter number on my old Athlon X2 CPU. (20,000)
 

Very bad idea...
Wheezy with RTAI has low jitter on some motherboards, but today this is time waste only.
This is 32bit Linux, Python 2.7, no realtime ethernet, and old LinuxCNC not compatible with modern, even at configs level, so you get many useless experiences...

Yesterday I installed Debian13.5 with LinuxCNC 2.10 on my Lenovo M725s SFF Ryzen 3 8GB 128GB M.2 NVMe (not newest but still modern), jitter is 20,000 and all works well.
This model has LPT connector at motherboard, but you can buy cheap second hand PCIex to LPT card.
In my opinion, LPT is obsolete, but if exist, you can serve some auxilary signals by this.

There are cheap 7i92 clones on Aliexpress.
I have model similar to original MESA, and chinese version with I/O drivers, both works well.

In my opinion, the future is ethercat and modbus. 
This is more cost and more dificult, but works like in dreams...
 

tuxcnc wrote:

pb12 wrote:

Had to drop back to V2.7 to get a reasonable jitter number on my old Athlon X2 CPU. (20,000)
 
Very bad idea...
Wheezy with RTAI has low jitter on some motherboards, but today this is time waste only.
This is 32bit Linux, Python 2.7, no realtime ethernet, and old LinuxCNC not compatible with modern, even at configs level, so you get many useless experiences...

Yesterday I installed Debian13.5 with LinuxCNC 2.10 on my Lenovo M725s SFF Ryzen 3 8GB 128GB M.2 NVMe (not newest but still modern), jitter is 20,000 and all works well.
This model has LPT connector at motherboard, but you can buy cheap second hand PCIex to LPT card.
In my opinion, LPT is obsolete, but if exist, you can serve some auxilary signals by this.

There are cheap 7i92 clones on Aliexpress.
I have model similar to original MESA, and chinese version with I/O drivers, both works well.

In my opinion, the future is ethercat and modbus. 
This is more cost and more dificult, but works like in dreams...

 

Yes. I have come too this conclusion too. Linuxcnc has passed the old hardware plus parallel port plus BOB stage, it seems. My old Athlon X2 might have to be reporposed as file server. That will free up an Intel i5 machine.
Although I didn't realise Linuxcnc 2.7 was 32bit. The process did give me understanding that the config was different enough so as not to be useful for the future..
So now booting iso from USB stick and testing with SIMs.

Phil

 

I still have machines running LinuxCNC (named EMC2 back then) on Ubuntu 8.04, and 10.04 and...
It is all dependent on how you look at things, but i would definitely not discard parallel port as it is extremely reliable, extremely cheap be it as a old PC for 20-50$ or add on card for 10-15$, does not need a BOB (although it is recommended for new users as it adds a bit of safety for wiring).
Overall, when you realize you can have a fully functioning and very reliable machine control for under 50$,that will control whatever contraption you can think of by adding some cheap drives and motors found on old photocopiers, the possibilities rise sky high.
So no, parallel port and 32bit are not obsolete, nor will they be any time soon, they are the perfect setup form learning CNC on a very low budget.
Go out, scavenge some motors and belts and linear rods, build something, then build something else even better, then...
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Personally i use Mesa cards for everything and by now i have installed over 70 or 80 or 100 (probably more but i have no clue of the exact number), but still sometimes i build machines using a parallel port, even plasma machines that produce huge amounts of interference and THCAD wired directly to parallel port with no BOB, using HF start plasma sources work perfectly but do require very strict wiring and shielding and grounding.
Visit the "show your stuff" section, find topics started by me, plenty of pictures and videos of machines i have built and/or retrofitted, and some other stuff...