G2002 Announcement

Hi,

This pertains to people that are programmers that may wish to take a
crack at the "black box project" covered a few months ago. It is now
called the G2002 and it is a 6, maybe 8 axis motion controller based
on hardware frequency generators and a Rabbit 2000 MCU.

I have set up a new yahoo group today:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/geckodrive/

That will cover the open source development of this controller. I
have done this because the development of this controller is by
enlarge OT to this group; I don't wish to clutter it it up messages
that would otherwise not pertain to the stated mission of this group.

Once it comes into completion, it will be on-topic again. Between now
and that time, what seperates is a lot of hard work by a lot of
different people.

There is no point in going to this new group unless you are:

(1) You are coversant in Z80 assembly language.
(2) You are conversant in Dynamic C emedded MCU language.
(3) You can write Win XX stuff.
(4) You are willing to get a Rabbit 2000 development system, or:
(5) You are willing to buy Softools WinIDE.

This is going to be an open architecture controller. This means the
schematic diagrams and the core assembly language motion control
algorithms will be available to all for free.

It will generate up to 5MHz step pulse rates on 6 to 8 axies
simultaneously and be able to do linear or circular interpolation on
4 axis pairs simultaneously. It will have the ability to output a
bunch of TTL level outputs and a bunch of TTL level inputs.

Besides the general purpose I/O, there will be quadrature inputs, D-A
inputs and outputs as well as A-D inputs (joystick or the like).

I will have 100 prototype G2002 systems/boardsets in 3 weeks that I
will sell at cost (<<$50 per axis) to those that qualify for the
development phase. The units will be able to do the basics; home,
point to point moves, linear interpolation, circular interpolation,
gearing to an axis, etc. at absolutely crazy speeds. If you can't
program, don't bother getting them; they will be useless to you.

The whole point is, after eveyone's effort into this will be a
terrific and groundbreaking piece of hardware for CNC applications.

Mariss