Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Driving the parallel port in WindowXP

caudlet wrote:

> Investigate the Wizard Scripting in MACH3. There is also an SDK for
> programmers. It's Windows based and supports pulsing through the
> parallel port, external pulsing via the Gecko G100 and soon a USB
> pulse card. Because of it's popularity and use by a lot of OEM's
> there is a lot of external hardware support as well. It may be fun
> to reinvent the wheel but not ususally very profitable.

The momentum on the hardware controllers seems to have wained. The G100
still has a lot that needs finishing and only one developer working part
time and the next generation USB controller has been promised for months
now, without appearing :(
Perhaps now is the time to have a look at alternatives, and integrate
them with Mach.

> If your intent is to give the program away in order to sell hardware
> then EMC might be the best approach. If your intent is to make money
> from the software piece you may find your (paying) marketplace in
> the Linix world limited.

That is probably a realistic viewpoint.
My only incentive to playing with EMC is that it increases the profit
margin drastically on any packaged system I build. I can get the
hardware for 200GBP and load EMC for nothing, or currently I'm looking
at another 200GBP to put a legal copy of Windows and Mach3 on.
Actually its cheaper to buy a small slow tower machine which has
WindowsXP bundled with it and cannibalize it to build the ITX based
system :(

--
Lester Caine - G8HFL
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