Re: Any port in a storm - USB? Firewire?

> The "flashcut box" is a std. microcontroller serial-type board.
> Has processor and oscillator, a max232, and some "update able"
> ROM. I believe it is a proprietary "motion system on a chip".
> I would not want this!! I really would want to keep the interp
> algorithms and trajectory planning on the pc.

> But I do like the idea of a multi-axis pulse gen that I have
> to "update" periodically... And I'd like some I/O "out there in the
> box" as well... How many I/O bits do you think we NEED? And how
> many do we Want? :-)

Being a "Mac person" primarily, has encouraged me to look into this approach
quite a bit. I have two links to serial indexer solutions you might want to
check into:

The first is a new product being developed by Kelly of K-CAM
http://www.kellyware.com/max_stepper/max_stepper.html

This looks like it could be a great low cost method of handing off indexing
via a serial port. I don't know what the time frame is on completion.

The other is:

http://www.simplestep.com/simplestep2000/motion_controlp1.html

These folks offer a line of serial based motion control products including a
quadrature encoder.

I haven't seen any motion control products based on either USB or Firewire
and IMHO neither of these protocols have proven to have the stability that
was promised. Of the two, I would go with Firewire just to stay ahead of the
curve a little.

If anyone knows of either USB or Firewire based indexers please post info.

Ken Jenkins