Interesting Kickstarter project.

[nirmal]

Disclaimer: I have no connection with this project whatsoever apart from being a backer.

I came across this kickstarter project which seems to promise to take most of the pain of setting up Linuxcnc for someone unfamiliar with linux. I thought folks here might be interested.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ed-cnc-control
If you are interested, you might as well make use of the early bird offer and help them get up and running.

PS: I wasn't sure which area of the forum would be most appropriate for this so I've put it here in the general discussion section. Could a moderator please move it if it belongs elsewhere.

[John S]

Be a good kickstarter project if they did it with a decent screen set instead of the AXIS one which is little more than etch-a-sketch on acid.

[nirmal]

I emailed the designer of the board to enquire about support for spindle encoder input for thread cutting on a cnc lathe. Unfortunately this board does not support encoder input.

Despite this, it is probably still an excellent deal for a milling machine or a router if it does what it says on the tin. €150 or even less (after adding in the price of a beagle bone black) for a complete plug and play motion controller including software seems pretty good to me.

[John S]

Still needs things like monitor etc.
Get one of these for £119 complete stand alone

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/50KHZ...001500686.html

[Jonathan]

I think the price they're offering it at is pretty terrible - he should be able to get that board made and populated in China for £5-£10. That plus copying a bit of software on to an SD card ... doesn't seem right to profit so much from open source software.

Also, the board doesn't need the opto-couplers for the stepper drivers almost everyone uses, as they're already isolated. Remove those and the cost is now well below a fiver.

[Leadhead]

John - Your Aliexpress "box" looks very neat. Could you elaborate on it a little please. i.e. some pics of your setup and a word or two about setting it up for my non electronic brain would be well recieved if you have a moment.

[m_c]

I think the price they're offering it at is pretty terrible - he should be able to get that board made and populated in China for £5-£10. That plus copying a bit of software on to an SD card ... doesn't seem right to profit so much from open source software.

Also, the board doesn't need the opto-couplers for the stepper drivers almost everyone uses, as they're already isolated. Remove those and the cost is now well below a fiver.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought it was a bit overpriced for what it is, however some people are happy to pay for an almost ready to run package.

If you read the full description, the step/dir outputs don't have optos.

[nirmal]

I agree with you that it probably could be better specified, but I think his USP is that it comes with his custom made user interface which promises to make set up a breeze and is essentially ready to plug and play right out of the box. While this is no big deal for people with cnc experience or a technical background, it is quite attractive for non technical newbies like me as it makes linuxcnc a realistic option to try out for a relatively low cost which wouldn't be the case otherwise.

I think it is priced to recover development costs upfront, as there will be cheap clones appearing on all the popular far eastern auction sites within a few months if it is released commercially. I can't really fault him for that if it is his business plan.

I have one of the better specified aliexpress motion control boxes on order. It cost £114. If I get hit for taxes and duty, it will cost about the same as this so apart from needing a keyboard, monitor and mouse (which I already have lying spare) the costs are roughly in the same ballpark. It may or maynot perform better than this or the traditional parallel port PC/ Mach 3 solution but it is nice to have a choice that is usable for someone with rudimentary knowledge.

[magicniner]

it is quite attractive for non technical newbies like me as it makes linuxcnc a realistic option to try out for a relatively low cost which wouldn't be the case otherwise.

You can download a bootable CD image with Linuxcnc and you can buy a very good second hand desktop PC for £50.
I'm a massive fan of component systems where all your eggs ( Pounds Stirling ) are not in one basket ;-)

- Nick

[Fred]

I agree with magicniner. A cheap PC is much better. I tend to go for a Dell as even the newer ones can still come with a parallel port.

If you don't want a PC then something like a Smoothieboard gives you a lot more (like stepper drivers).