Re: DeskNC - CNC Pro 3x as fast as EMC???

Chris,
Save money in this hobby? Your attitude is what I am talking
about. Hobbies cost money. You forgot about the experence you gained
by building it yourself from scratch. You have to crawl before you
walk. This hobby has three levels period! To pick and any of the
three levels is unfair. Tell me you had no fun at all tinkering. I
don't believe it!



John

> If you can build your own large stepper drive in a way that is
> economical in either time or money, then do so. Most of us can't.

I

> built some small L297/L298 drives, which sort of work, but even

there

> I wish I had bought boards/kits from someone else. If I decide to
> build a larger stepper system I will order one of the Gecko modules

or

> one of Dan Mauch's kits - and I'll save money in doing so. These

two

> have done us all a large favor - they spent the time and money in

R&D,

> they blew the FETs when things went wrong - so we don't have to.
> There is still room if you want to get into that segment of things
> either for yourself or as a business, but you don't have to unless

you

> want to.
>
> Even if you buy the drives there is still a lot of system left to

hack

> - power supply, motor and ballscrew mounts, software, etc...
>
> If you want to build your own drives, build the L297/298 circuit

that

> is floating around on the web and give it a try. It will run little
> sherline/taig size machines and make some of the issues present in
> designing larger drives evident.
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Christopher C. Stratton, stratton@m...
> Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
> 22 Adrian Street, Somerville, MA 02143
> http://www.mdc.net/~stratton
> NEW PHONE NUMBER: (617) 628-1062 home, 253-2606 MIT