Connecting to a CNC machine, pros and cons of USB vs PP vs Ethernet etc.

[Jess]

Twas a Joke Hence the Jester.!!

Yeah, I saw the jester, but I'm afraid that it didn't entirely put my mind at ease at the time. I guess I'm jaded, heard too many 'jokes' where someone's actually a bit more serious than they're letting on etc., If I actually knew you, of course, I'm sure my interpretation would have been totally different!

arguing something that wasn't relavant and pointless to the discussion.!

From my side, if you're interested:

L.A.N. had just bought a machine with a USB controller, so whatever ethernet ones did was irrelevant; if you've just paid well over £3k for your mill, the last thing you want to see is that you need to go buy a different controller (well, except that it's jammed itself in estop again, of course.)

At this point if I'd read 'The Same can't be said for USB Controllers they've all been irratic and unpredictable...they're just not good or suitable for reliable Motion control', I think we'd have been fine. There's lots of (frankly) crap computer peripherals, so a few dozen more isn't a surprise - especially with USB peripherals where the spec often feels more a guide to how it won't be implemented.

Unfortunately, I read 'The Same can't be said for USB it's irratic and unpredictable...it's not a good or suitable connection for reliable Motion control'...I replied about USB as a connection (I've experience with it on the design side) and the rest is...well...this thread.

Now FFS lets leave it alone.!!

Deal.

Nothing specialised about that tool it's just a T-slot cutter.!!!

It's not fancy, but I think we both know what I was trying to get at there! (Also, I'll take an undercut of twice the diameter of your largest t-slot cutter! )

I get it, Ethernet isn't suitable for something no-one here needs to do, good point(less) well made!

I've found that it's dangerous on forums like these to assume that nobody needs to do it...and exceptionally dangerous to assume that no one wants to do it!

I suspect there is very little TCP/IP-Free Ethernet in use outside industrial applications though.

There's a good bit actually! Ignoring nitpicks like UDP/IP, SCTP/IP etc.,
Just off the top of my head, there's methods of attaching hard disks (like ATA over Ethernet), some thin clients etc., PPPoE does too, and that's used by almost everyone who's got VDSL2 (BT Infinity) or got Virgin Media before they moved supplying an all-in-one.

And of course, some of the industrial standards go and use, say, UDP/IP anyway!

but neither is any other remote communication system - the motion controller deals with closed loop rigid tapping locally.
;-)

If the communication system was explicitly designed for control purposes, you can! If you want to see a video example, the spindle encoder in the earlier rigid tapping video Dean posted is connected over CANbus. I'm sure that you can also do it over other things like Modbus/RS485 too...but I'm not going to bother finding examples.