ubuntu 14.04.1 linuxcnc help

I suppose if there was a problem with the output votage of the laptop and the breakout board i could always boost it using darlington transistors. they would add a tiny bit off latency as well though.
Im also iterested in controlling four to five axis robotic arms, and was curious to hear others use linuxcnc for this as well. being in the robotics trade, could you point me towards websites geared for this particular use?

I own this and plan to use it in my build

www.omc-stepperonline.com/5-axis-cnc-bre...iver-stv2-p-197.html

Also as a note I do believe grbl board will not work with linuxcnc only grbl software

Tim

I wanted to add, that i tried using isoclpus and idle=poll independently and for some wierd reason, they work best with both of them in boot parameters. Its actually a great decrease in latency using them both. they are conffigured with idle=poll first then isoclpus second, plus im running scripts to make the most use of isoclpus by further limiting interupts to one core, leaving the other free to process userspace? I think this is how it works. Anyways, latency is at ~8000 and ~14000 with five instances of glxgears running and a cd playing. usb spikes the latency, but copying from the hard drive to the harddrive has little effect. Some of the computers specs are 2.2 ghz cpu 2gb ram, nvidia graphiics (140? or 340?.. something with a 40)
This is why i was mentioning the t9300 as a possible cpu upgrade, plus i could overclock it safely, and upgrade the ram, if the computer will accept ddr3, as i think its ddr2 natively.
i think i could squeeze every bit of performance out of this thing safely if i do it right...

I deal with six axis robots used mostly in auto industry. In my job I program Fanuc robots price is way out of everyone's range unless maybe refurb.
I assume that you are going to use stepper motors and not servo motors scene you are going parallel port direction. I do not know what amp range of driver you are going to use.

This below web site has allot of hobby based electronics
www.pololu.com/category/9/motion-control-modules

The next has a little more robust resources which I bought most of my mechanical stuff
openbuildspartstore.com/

I also bought some electronics from
us.stepperonline.com/

Tim

It seems like a much better bet over the cheap chinese boards although tis one seemed pretty full featured for a cheap board...
www.ebay.com/itm/Upgrade-5-Axis-CNC-Brea...%26sd%3D351594158722

The drivers i built are supposed to handle 3a without heatsinks and up to 5 if cooled properly. they literally came out of the same printers i robbed the steppers from. makes sense that if the printer has a good motor then it has the electronics to drive them as well.
In all actuallity they had a part that was better than the others and cheap to boot so i simply ordered two more and built three matching drivers. so, the answer is max 3 to 5a, nema 17 and 23 steppers.

I can see why you would want the pendent to teach robot arms with manual gcode entry which will be a tough way to go but I do not know of another way for robot path to be entered using linuxcnc. With a industrial robot you move the robot using a teach pendent and once you have it where you want it you record that position. With a set of parameters for each point then with multi-pull points to create a path.

Tim

I do have some dc motors and radial optical encoders, i wanted to make something cool out of. I was even considering using on for the z axis because it would have been a bit more powerful geared, only i was afraid i might not encase it properly and it could get dust, or chips inside of it, ruining the performance. Plus they would have required a much tighter latency requirement.
Thats not to say they wouldnt be useful in other applications.
My current plan is to go with arduino for the robot arm, and set parameters to govern the more comlex motions, down to a simple 8 button input sceme for my kids to play with. (foward, back, rotate left, right, up, down, grab,release.)
Kinda like a really cool claw machine game.
(plus the basic arduino controllers come with eight buttons, so seems to make sense to stick with what you can get lol.)

Google and look in forum for x-box type joy stick controller to use with linuxcnc for your setup it has been done before

So basicly i could use a manual entry method to record multiple points, then assemble them into gcode? That would be accomplished the easiest by using a breakout board like the one in the link in my previous post.
I still have a lot to learn, im sure that the curve will not be as steep once my machine is up and running. or... i may have yet miles to go.
My first project once my machine is up and running will be tthe robot arm. i promised the kids one and i have the plans mostly drawn up... I have templates for the motor mounts, but i may just cut them out blank and drill for the taps manually. Im not for sure which motors i'll use yet.
Im sure theres a way to calculate torque to leverage but for now the design is based off a picture, as best as i interpret it.
Wish me luck lol