How to choose?; was "parallel port finally obsolete?"

Dave

Your comments are perceptive and appreciated. Thanks also to the many other posters who offered useful info.

I changed the subject line, as I think that the way I originally framed my question was off the mark of what I really wanted to know, which is by what means can I sort out the numerous offerings to make an intelligent decision on what hardware and software will best suit my needs.

My mention of USB input and "plug-and-play" was based on the goals that Marriss' black box project aimed to achieve, as best I understood them. Although that project was abandoned about the time that I stopped closely reading this forum, I imagined that they represented the way of the future, and that by now, several years later, someone else would have succeeded where Mariss had failed, and might be dominating an otherwise fractured market.

Also my reference to my Mac preference was meant to convey that I was not as conversant with PC hardware as most of the group seems to be, and also that, never having owned a machine with a parallel port and never having missed having one, they didn't seem to me worth hanging onto forever. The difference between serial and parallel is not lost on me, however, and I am broadly technically and mechanically saavy.

So, my real question is how anyone can manage to sort thru all the numerous offerings of DIY motion control software and hardware, absent some sort of Consumers Report that provides reliable testing and separates claims from demonstrable performance? If I was shopping for a dust collector, for example, there are probably a half dozen magazines articles with spreadsheet analysis based on actual testing that i could consult. Plainly there are a great many on this list who have managed not to get hung up on this point, so there must be an answer.

If it is personal recommendation, the only one that I know who has built a machine swears by FlashCut, which is out of my price range, and also seems suspect in ways that I can't quite put my finger on.

If it is by brand loyalty, perhaps that is why I was disappointed when Marriss dropped his black box, as that offered an "all Gecko" solution.

If it is by masterful prose, Tom is pretty good, but then so is Jon.

If it is by the offering of handholding, there is Bob, Dan, Fred, etc, all with outstretched hands.

There are 5 or 6 machines here awaiting CNC conversion. Every time I think that I may have a handle on product selection, some new offering comes along, muddies the waters, and I postpone the project, supposing that clarity will surely come along when I discover the elusive key.

What am I missing, when so many others manage to achieve enough certainty to proceed in spite of the lack of hard comparative data?

TIA

Steve

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "turbulatordude" <dave_mucha@...> wrote:
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> I think there is a different delineation than what most of offered.
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> you can get plug and play. A HASS mini-mill or lathe.
> Roland makes table top units, T-Tech makes circuit board etchers, etc
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> but, the hobby market is based on assembling bits and pieces in order to save costs in exchange for time.
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> many of us think a BOB, power supply, drivers and motors are just a few nights work to assemble so see that as an easy part (albeit costly) part of the project.
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> also, many of us find that the horrible timing pulses from windoz units are actually more than acceptable for the work we do.
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> There really has not been a need for a plug and play package.
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> a simple desktop dremel unit with assembled pipe has entirely different requirements than does a chinese micro-mill or a 4x8 table top router or even a plasma table.
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> There are people who offer the entire electronics package as plug and play, but these are guys who know how simple it is to assemble a power supply and drivers that match a motor or machine.
> And, you still fall back on the software of your choosing.
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> I stepped out of the main-stream for a while. once I had a few machines built for the work I was doing, I was more into production than making a CNC machine. the market is a little wider, the knowledge is WAY easier to get. but there has been little advancement.
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> I bet my great grandfather would be able to drive my car with only a handful of instructions.
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> Dave
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> --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "scyvt" <scy@> wrote:
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> > --- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Tom" <thom@> wrote:
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> > > There are lots of solutions. (unlike 8 years ago) In some ways it just confuses the market.
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> > Well, that may be my answer right there. Perhaps I was caught up in the excitement a few years ago when Marriss was developing what looked to be a be-all, end-all black box, that in its simplest form promised to be plug-and-play. Unfortunately, that particular approach proved to be unachievable. However, it for a while held out the prospect of being a market dominator like Geckodrives, eliminating the head-spinning difficulty of sorting out the pros & cons of all the other competing hardware & software.
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> > Being a Mac person (sissy?), I have been holding out for a Mac-like (not necessarily Mac-based, although that would be nice) integrated hardware/software solution that was a stand-out choice. Perhaps FlashCut comes closest, but is not in my budget range.
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> > Those of you who are up to your elbows in CNC may not recognize that Art's solution to the limitations of Windows looks to an outsider like a temporary kludge, surely to be superseded anytime now. EMC/Linux is great if you have the time and inclination to overcome the learning curve. DOS-based approaches look prehistoric.
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> > On the hardware front, as Tom observed, the variety of offerings can present a dilemma, as much as opportunity. Is there somewhere a matrix (spreadsheet?) that organizes the field into some kind of discernible order? You might think that Digital Machinist mag would have undertaken such a project, but they may be wary of offending advertisers, or it maybe simply outside their capabilities.
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> > Lacking the time or depth of knowledge to sort out all the options, as I referenced earlier, I have been waiting and hoping for the field to coalesce around a consensus approach. For better or worse, the opposite seems to have happened.
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> > I could go on, but either you get my point now, or you just feel that I am stupid and hopeless. Probably Tom was closest to the mark in inferring that the problem for people like me is too many choices, no clear best approach, and no way to get a comprehensive grip on the pros & cons of the alternatives. All compounded with a lingering suspicion that surely a breakthru must surely be around just the corner.
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> > Steve
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