Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CNCing a small lathe

Danny Miller wrote:

> [snip]
> 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.
>

There's a list of supported hardware here:
<http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?EMC2_Supported_Hardware>

Note that EMC2 doesn't require the hardware to have its own motion
controller, that's what EMC2 does quite nicely.

Any of Jon Elson's (Pico Systems) products or those from Mesa
Electronics would let you run a stepper based machine at least as well
as a SmoothStepper. There are also servo-only cards listed, as well as
systems that can control step/dir, analog, PWM, and other drive types.

I asked Gary (of Warp9) whether he would publish the protocol used for
the SmoothStepper so we could write an EMC2 driver, and he said no. He
may do that eventually, but it's up to him as to when.

- Steve