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Hello Rodw, I think this is what I am coming-up against. When running 'sudo halcmd loadusr -W Icec_conf ethercat-conf.xml ' I get 'commandlin>:0: execv(Icec_conf): no such file or directory' then 'waitpid failed Icec_conf', and then 'Icec_conf exited'..
I'm on the last parts of setting up Ethercat and get stumped by this.
Also, thank you for pointing me in the right direction on the RTAI thread wrt ethercat.

Sorry not clicking on to you were going the Mesa route, and the touch screen, so I guess you’ll want hdmi for video as well.

My excuse, uhmmm well anyway, you know the thing.

Buy two, one for the router and one as a back up

C’mon you know it makes sense.

Cant do this anymore bye all wrote:

Kinda depends of whether you want to use a mesa card (then just about anything PC will do), if you want use a parallel port then it's a different kettle of fish.

I'm kinda a fan of Lenovos, have a couple of Thinkpads T61 & T530 (use this everyday and do alot with it), a S20 ThinkStation (this gets a lot of use, builds Mesa firmware when needed), M93 that runs Win10 for Mum and a M72e with a i5 3470 (found this by the side of the road, use this for all sorts, alot of testing various driver board projects for Linuxcnc).
Also have used a Asrock J3355B-ITX which ran the mill fine with a Mesa 7i92, tho I changed the cabinet and use a Odroid H2 Plus (has 2 etherent ports so thats great) which works great with the Mesa card.
Apart from Mums computer, everything runs Linux, the T61, S20 & T530 also dual boot various windows installs which I really try to avoid using.

 

Oh! I left out that important piece of info: Yes, yes, totally yes to a Mesa board:)

I felt that it would be OK, at these used prices, to get a slightly better, less old PC in case my main computer which I design on (a Macbook Pro, sorry;)) craps out all of a sudden and I need to use the 'mill computer' to run Fusion on. Since that Mac is actually my sole other computer, I think this still makes sense for a backup plan.  
(Which reminds me, I guess I'd still need to have a windows partition on that machine computer for that oh, shit scenario lined out above...)

It looks like you have the needed components for this (limit2 and near)
but they are not connected.

That is you have the PID spindle speed  command coming directly
from the commanded spindle speed:net spindle-vel-cmd-rpm => pid.s.commandRather than having been fed through the limit2 component.

 Also the limit2 maxv (which limits the ramp rate) is not set

Similarly you do not have the near component connected
nor is the near components  scale or difference values set
 

depends on your hardware. is this an older pc? you may be able to grab a cheap video card that uses the later version.

Kinda depends of whether you want to use a mesa card (then just about anything PC will do), if you want use a parallel port then it's a different kettle of fish.

I'm kinda a fan of Lenovos, have a couple of Thinkpads T61 & T530 (use this everyday and do alot with it), a S20 ThinkStation (this gets a lot of use, builds Mesa firmware when needed), M93 that runs Win10 for Mum and a M72e with a i5 3470 (found this by the side of the road, use this for all sorts, alot of testing various driver board projects for Linuxcnc).
Also have used a Asrock J3355B-ITX which ran the mill fine with a Mesa 7i92, tho I changed the cabinet and use a Odroid H2 Plus (has 2 etherent ports so thats great) which works great with the Mesa card.
Apart from Mums computer, everything runs Linux, the T61, S20 & T530 also dual boot various windows installs which I really try to avoid using.

I have not yet. I’ll give that a shot for a wiring diagram.

Interesting in the different board. They look almost identical. This machine was for sheet metal only so maybe that would be the difference.

found a meldas 300 controller with most of the parts. got it working and initializing a MR-S11 drive. hooked up a logic analyzer and it looks fairly straight forward... next, i need to get the motor spinning and rig up some kind of an interface board...

Don't worry about GND or Power when counting inputs. Just the actual input itself.

Wow
It worked,
Kudos to you, Robbbbbb

Yes that's it, openly is only version 2.1 mesa 22.3.6
Can I just upgrade this?

rodw wrote:

the new GUI's you are considering are more touch friendly than Gmocappy which has a lot of tabs you need to open all the time . eg jogging.
QT dragon has a lot flatter UI but still has plenty of tabs but the jogging controls are always exposed.

Yeah, I just had another look around and found a very short video of Probe Basic being demo'ed with touch on a 21.5'' screen which actually looks like a nice size for me. Still a bit "far" from end to end, but I like the bigger text, icons and sliders. 
I'll be buying the screen secondhand, so what's available will also be a factor.

Cant do this anymore bye all wrote:

Simplifying things.
DIgital has 2 distinct states either 1 or 0 , using 5 volt logic as example:
5v = Logic 1
0v = Logic 0
A simple on off switch would give you these 2 values.

Anlaogue on the other hand... would have an infinite amount of voltages between 0v & 5v, ie any voltage between 0v & 5v.
A rheostat or potentiometer will give these voltages.

Turning a knob on a rheostat gives you an analogue signal. eg like a old school light dimmer, the like will go from dim to bright
Flicking a switch on & off gives you a digital signal. eg a light switch, will turn the light on or off.

 

That was a great explanation, thanks:)

Now, a question to properly cement my ignorance. Let's say I have a Dig signal coming into the MESA, like a probe or tool setter - how many pins will it take up? Is it two pins? Is one of them ground and if so, can the ground just go "anywhere"? Would it be the same for analog?
I am trying to get my head around how to actually count how many IOs I will be using in total and how many pins it will take up...

I am looking to buy a used mini/micro PC to run my router via a MESA board. 
I've looked through more posts and latency lists than I care to admit and the more I look, the more confused I am getting.  
What stuck with me were mentionings that newer generation PCs can be more trouble in terms of bios settings and killing "features" but I don't know what constitutes "newer" or if there's any hard rules on this. 
On the other hand, since I only have one other computer for my work, private stuff and my Fusion endeavors (a Mac laptop), I thought it would also be nice to go with a slightly newer mini PC in case my Mac dies all of a sudden while I have to CAD/CAM some stuff. So, basically, the machine PC could be a backup for Fusion work. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse, just something that would work in a pinch. 

I've made a list of what I can get my hands on pretty easily from 2014-2019, all mini PCs. All USD 60-80 so not enough difference price wise to worry. I am sticking to Dells and Lenovos for now - enough rabbit holes as it is with this build, haha.
Any of these that you think I should stay away from, any you like more? 

Lenovo Thinkcentre

• M93p, I5-4570T, 1 x 8GB, 128GB SSD, 2014
• M93p, I7-4790T, 2 x 4GB, 120GB SSD, 2014
• M900, I5-6500T, 1 x 8GB, 256GB SSD, 2016
• M910q, i5-7600T, 1x8GB, 256GB M2, 2019

Dell Optiplex (Micro Form Factor)

• Dell 9020M, i5-4590T, 8GB, 240GB SSD, 2014
• Dell 3050MFF, i5-6500T, 8GB, 256GB NVME, 2017
• Dell 5070MFF, i5-6500, 8GB, 256GB NVME, 2019