Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Interface. Gauging interest.

> Roy,
>
> Let's say you want to sell perhaps 100,000 CNC machines...

> Now imagine that these machines are in regular retail dealers,
> sitting on shelves, ready to be purchased.
>
> Now imagine reading the box on this 2000 dollar item, and seeing
> "works with 486 dos based computer" or "must have ISA slots"...
>
> How many folks do you think will find that a good thing?
> Not theoretically, rhetorically or justifiably.
> But TRULY, gut feeling. How many?
> Imagine watching 100 people walking up to that box and what will be
> their response?
>
> Laughter? Dismay? Confusion? Frustration? Sadness? Perhaps a tilt of
> the head, eyes looking upwards as they try to imagine where they
> might find something old and used suitable for use with this
> otherwise compelling item?
>
> NOW...
>
> Imagine the SAME scenario, BUT the box says, "plugs into your USB
> port"...
>
> Yeah, no contest. The USB item is going to fly off the shelves
> compared to the "486" version...
>
> Ballendo
>
> "And the seasons, they go round and round, and the painted pony goes
> up and down... We're captured on the carousel of time..." J Mitchell

> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Roy J. Tellason"
> <rtellason@...> wrote:
> > On Monday 15 May 2006 03:21 pm, Codesuidae wrote:
> > > Mariss Freimanis wrote:
> > > >> ballendo wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> What we truly need is a usb EQUIVALENT of the parallel port.
> > > >
> > > > That's just not possible for CNC programs that output step and
> > > > direction signals from a parallel port. Step pulses have timing in
> > > > the microsecond range.
> > >
> > > You are of course presuming that microsecond precision is required.
> > > There are plenty of motion control tasks that could be performed
> > > using less precise pulse timing. The availability of a cheap, bit-
> > > bangable USB parallel port would enable control of such tasks from a
> > > wider range of hardware. It doesn't take much imagination to see a
> > > variety of possible configurations and applications for such a device.
> > > I suspect that it's probably more 'neat' than 'useful' though.
> > >
> > > Applications that require higher performance (of the sort for
> > > which one might be inclined to use a Geckodrive) probably wouldn't be
> > > driven from such a device and likely would justify spending a bit more
> > > to get better hardware.
> >
> > I for one do NOT understand the focus on USB. Nor do I understand
> > this stuff all seemingly headed toward "needing" the latest and greatest
> > in terms of computer hardware to make it run, which is where the "no ISA
> > slots" seems to come in.
> >
> > What the heck am I supposed to do with all these 486 boards I have
> > around here, anyway? :-) Seriously, I do believe that they're quite
> > suited to a great many machine control tasks, and maybe I'll even
> > eventually get around to doing so with some of them.