A Modest Proposal!

Here is an idea for a product. (I love it when I can propose work for other
people to do!)
Anyway, I have been following the development of the Raspberry Pi,
www.raspberrypi.org
More information here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi


It seems that a $35 computer would be great for EMC. It already has Linux
running
on it so porting LinuxCNC to would not be much work. It would need some sort
of
breakout board that would connect to the GPIO on the Raspberry Pi for the CNC
stuff.


With that, you would get a CNC computer for real cheap that you would plug in
your own
keyboard, mouse, and monitor. It has a Ethernet connection, it can even go on
the internet.
A box with the Raspberry Pi and a breakout board would be about 3 inches by 4
inches
and could be mounted anywhere. It draws 3.5 watts so the box could be sealed
and you
would not need a fan.


LinuxCNC could be tuned for this hardware thereby eliminating all the
peculiarities resulting
from PC hardware differences. This seems to be a bane of all PC based CNC
programs.
This could make even the free junker PC's that we all use
look like a bad deal.


Pete.