They are a lot more complicated than you think ) I tinker a lot with diy cncs. Well, my first CNC was supposed to be 'just a tool'. So if you get seriously bitten by the CNC-bug then you need that FPGA-card and some servo amplifiers at some point :) AW Now "real" cnc-machines use servos with encoder feedback and not stepper motors. If you need more dynamic range (faster step rate) then an FPGA (either Pluto-P or from ) can be interfaced to LinuxCNC and will provide MHz step rates if needed.
There is recent work with LinuxCNC on beagleboard/bone if you insist on an embedded solution. LinuxCNC with step/dir output on the parallel port is the a cheap and easy way to start.
#CNC USB CONTROLLER MK1 4 AXIS SOFTWARE#
Before you get a controller make sure it will work with the software you are planning on using, e.g. I would like to switch to USB with a more intelligent controller that takes G-CODE and generates the steps with buffering and everything, but the times I've been looking for one, it seems there isn't much software support. As the parallel control is real time without buffering, it's very important the machine doing the controlling is shaved down to a bare minimum of running processes that could disturb the CNC software. I've found that good grounding is essential.
Personally I use a parallel port based interface, but I can't say I like it, it's much too easy to loose steps if you go too fast or the cabling isn't sufficient.
#CNC USB CONTROLLER MK1 4 AXIS DRIVERS#
The USB based controller you linked looks interesting, but it doesn't look like it's got any driving capability, you would need to get 4 motor drivers besides that board. Does the TinyG would be the best option? What do you use at home? What do you think of this board? I dont have experience with CNCs besides my makerbot replicator, any comments appreciate it. once said, most of the CNC drivers use the parallel port and I don't want to buy another pc just for the CNC. Hello, I just want to hear opinions about CNCs and controllers, a friend of mine is going to build for me the mechanics (4 axis CNC) and I just would be doing the wiring and tweaking, I just want a tool not a project, as Chris G.
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