Very new: will I be able to communicate with this controller board?

I'm a software developer and I'd like to help someone out with a side project. The thing is: I'm pretty green when it comes to programming against CNC routers, which is what we're trying to do. After searching around, I figured my best bet was to utilize linuxcnc in some way, hopefully figuring out how to automate some of the things we want to do with it (or on top of it). Before jumping in, though, I have a few questions.

Essentially: this is the device that my friend purchased, and it has a JP-382C controller board. The thing came with some USB Controller Software by planet CNC and claims to be "Mach3" compatible; however, the latest version of the USB Controller Software (I think it's called TNG2 or something) doesn't work with the JP-382C controller, and the Mach3 software I downloaded doesn't seem to interact with it either. I'm hoping linuxcnc, with its open source and broad user base has a solution for me. I've perused your supported hardware and didn't see this device, and so I thought I'd post a question before digging much deeper in hopes someone can just tell me if I'm on the right track.

Ultimately, the end product is going to be a computer-vision based device, and so I need to be able to directly send G code to the controller programmatically, and as a result of what I'm seeing with some mounted camera; in other words, I cannot create a pre-determined script of gcode and send it all at once -- it has to be something I can code on the fly. I'm equally comfortable in C/C++ as I am in Python (among other languages), so I'm fine with the code perspective, I just need to know what platform to use to start writing the code itself. And I'm hoping linuxcnc will give me that platform.

Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the newbie questions.

Ben

I know, we are on LinuxCNC forum.
But for this usage is (according to me) simplest and cheapest way to use GRBL. Ie any Arduino with GRBL firmware.
From your controlling computer you will be sending G-code over USB virtual COM.
Arduino will be direct connected to DB25 connector on the black box.

kwende wrote: Essentially: this is the device that my friend purchased, and it has a JP-382C controller board.

If it has the parallel port controller as shown then LinuxCNC should be able to run it.

The thing came with some USB Controller Software by planet CNC and claims to be "Mach3" compatible; however, the latest version of the USB Controller Software

If it has a USB controller then LinuxCNC will not run it.

First, thank you so much for your response. It's very insightful. I really appreciate it.

Second, perhaps this is time for me to educate myself a tad on the subject and I'd love to borrow you brain for a moment. Somehow, at least I'm assuming, there is some standard protocol with which the third party software running on my Windows box is communicating with the black box of the router. I'm confused why this isn't clearer or documented somehow/somewhere. I've got the black box connected to my Windows box over USB, and while the hardware was made by some Chinese company, the software that's directing it to command the router is made by Planet CNC. Presumably there is a standard wire format of some kind tying this all together?

I've been able to sniff the wire traffic and emulate certain actions by resending the commands over USB, as well as manipulate the data and play with router speed and so forth. I just can't get past the fact that the data I'm seeing over USB is just a protocol, and if I could just find it I could do whatever the planet CNC software is doing directly.

I'd love it if you could tell me where my understanding is breaking down.

Whilst Linuxcnc and Mach3 originated from the same original US government sponsored project, they took vastly different directions. Linuxcnc maintains the motion controller in a real time Linux operating system (which is a different kernel to the plain vanilla Linux).

Mach 3 which is now well and truly obsolete chose an OS which became non real time (Windows) so the only way forward for them was to move the motion controller to an emasculated microprocessor external to the PC connected by a flaky USB connections or via ethernet.

I don't know anything about Mach3 but I suspect there is no easy way forward for you to build a reliable working machine.

Wait, that box has "parallel port" written on the back !
Find a PC with a parallel port, connect it, run Linuxcnc stepconfig and find the pinout, use the machine !
It should be as simple as that!