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Author Topic: What is the latest motion controller for 2012  (Read 3145 times)

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Offline Pythagoras

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What is the latest motion controller for 2012
« on: June 11, 2012, 06:09:35 AM »
Having been off the scene for quite some time, I've lost track of who's who and what's what.
What is the latest and greatest motion controller, that's meant to be the ants pants today?
What are its features that make it stand out?

Thanks, Benny
« Last Edit: June 11, 2012, 06:11:12 AM by Pythagoras »
The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).     a² + b² = c².

Offline Hood

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Re: What is the latest motion controller for 2012
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2012, 01:55:30 PM »
Hi Benny,
Heres my opinion on the devices either available now or  coming online soon.

I think for lower end stepper machines the Pokeys looks promising.

For machines that require a higher pulsrate the Ethernet Smoothstepper is a good choice.

For more industrial type machines then the controllers that CS-Labs are starting to produce look like they will be a good choics.

Now to reasons,
Pokeys is cheap and although it is only 25KHz pulsing (at the moment anyway) it will be worth watching to see how it develops but if it comes along it should make a nice board for small stepper based machines that dont require a fast pulserate, in addition it has expandability via their expansion port and it also has analogue inputs. All of the I/O however are 5v

Ethernet Smoothstepper is a better device than the USB Smoothstepper, it doesnt suffer any of the problems with communications being droipped that some have seen with the USB version. A lot of the small annoying issues the USB version suffered from have been sorted and the only issue I still have is step/dir spindle control  is not perfect. It can, like the USB version, pulse at up to 4MHz and it has 3 full parallel ports worth of 5v I/O where the USB one only had 2 plus 6 extra Inputs.

CS-Labs have a few different devices coming on line and they are more industrial orientated. What makes them look so promising is Ethernet connection, 24v I/O and lots of it with options to expand a lot.  Differential Step/Dir signals which help with noise immunity. Analogue I/O which can be used for FRO etc. Also there is an encoder module coming online soon which will be needed for lathe threading but may also provide the possibility of using encoder feedback to Mach for updating DROs on reset or after E-Stop.

Hood

Offline Pythagoras

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Re: What is the latest motion controller for 2012
« Reply #2 on: June 13, 2012, 07:08:49 AM »
Thanks Robin for the write up. I appreciate that.
From memory the USB SS had issues with lathe work, ( I could be wrong)
If that was so, have they resolved that with the Ethernet version?

WOAH !!!! 17,514  posts. That's truly amazing. !!!  :)
The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).     a² + b² = c².

Offline Hood

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Re: What is the latest motion controller for 2012
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2012, 07:46:23 AM »
No probs with USB and lathe as such. As said there were a few niggles for me with the USB SS but that was no matter whether it was on lathe, mill or whatever. Others suffered from loss of communication with the USB one but again that was not type of machine dependant.

Yes but 17,500 plus are just likely a load of drivel  :)

Hood

Offline Pythagoras

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Re: What is the latest motion controller for 2012
« Reply #4 on: June 13, 2012, 08:11:49 AM »
Drivel ???.....Hardly !!!.... You and a hand full of others have contributed to 1000s of Mach users experience over the past 8 years.
You guys are the unsung heros.

I knew when I made this post, that I could count on you for help.

Thanks so much Robin, for your years of service.

Benny
« Last Edit: June 13, 2012, 08:14:52 AM by Pythagoras »
The Pythagorean theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a and b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).     a² + b² = c².