Bridgeport Retrofit motion control?

[drumsticksplinter]

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the info, I've toyed with the idea of linux in the past, but only got as far as loading the demo operating system off a disk. Other than that I have no idea about it. I've seen other people using the mesa cards and they certainly are cheap for what you get. What combination of card and daughterboard would you recommend?

Say if I were to set up linux for the first time without any previous experience and little to no programming experience, how quickly could I have stuff moving around? I'd like to build a custom control panel with MPG FRO and spindle speed over ride etc, are these easy to implement in linux cnc?

You've got me thinking now.... I'm also finishing off a router at the same time, so if I could crack linux on my mill then I'd use it for that also

Thanks,

Adam.

[skunkworks]

what is your hardware now? analog servos? Step/dir? Mesa has a 5i25 or 6i25 (pci or pci-e) that right out of the box acts like 2 printer ports on steroids. (so you could use your existing bobs if you are using printer ports) On steriod - I mean it does hardware (high speed) step/gen, pwm gen, encoder counting, and i/o. ie - well into the mhz..

if you need more i/o than 2 printer ports - you can get daughter boards like the 7i76 that is a stepper interface. (gives you 5 axis step/dir output, analog spindle output, 48 i/o, spindle encoder input - and still expandable)

you can buy it as a kit..
http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?r...product_id=215

linuxcnc has a configuration utillity for mesa hardware - I have never used it but it is constantly being improved.
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/2.6/html/config/pncconf.html
main docs
http://linuxcnc.org/docs/2.6/html/

do some reading....

sam

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the info, I've toyed with the idea of linux in the past, but only got as far as loading the demo operating system off a disk. Other than that I have no idea about it. I've seen other people using the mesa cards and they certainly are cheap for what you get. What combination of card and daughterboard would you recommend?

Say if I were to set up linux for the first time without any previous experience and little to no programming experience, how quickly could I have stuff moving around? I'd like to build a custom control panel with MPG FRO and spindle speed over ride etc, are these easy to implement in linux cnc?

You've got me thinking now.... I'm also finishing off a router at the same time, so if I could crack linux on my mill then I'd use it for that also

Thanks,

Adam.

[Clive S]

drumsticksplinter ] You can also buy them here in Europe http://eusurplus.com/index.php?route...tegory&path=63.

Sam I would like to ask you some questions re threading with G76 could I do it with email to you. ...Clive

[drumsticksplinter]

Thanks Clive, I was looking for other sellers of the mesa boards.