Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CNCing a small lathe

Yes... however, Smoothstepper does not run on EMC2 and AFAIK they have
no plans in the works to make it do so.

I had a desktop PC with a parallel port and off-board video card like
they recommend... but I never got good results with the parallel port,
even though Mach3 characterized it as "Excellent". I looked at the
waveforms on a scope, there was a LOT of variation in pulse timing, and
in a regular period I could hear a "chunk" noise about 1/sec from the
stepper, apparently due to some odd feature of the board's chipset.
Although, IIRC, I installed a PCI parallel port card and it did the same
thing.

Bottom line is it seems like there's no way to tell what kind of
performance you'll get off a parallel port. And none perform "really well".

Last I checked there weren't many competitors with the Smoothstepper for
a low priced, yet /effective/ motion controller. So without
Smoothstepper support for EMC2, then that's a major problem for EMC2.

Danny

Jon Elson wrote:

> Mike Hagen wrote:
>
>> I am new to the list. What PC programs are hobbyists using? Serial
>> port output?
>> Are there some that I can try with just some steppers set up?
>> I see all the homemade stuff but not much mention of what is used at the
>> PC end?
>>
>>
> There is also EMC2, see http://www.linuxcnc.org/
> which is a no-cost package. It includes the OS as well as the CNC
> package all on one
> CD, and you can try the CD out before you affect the hard drive on the
> system.
> You will still need step motor drivers to use this. It also works
> through the parallel
> port.
>
> Jon
>

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