Re: FPGA for PCI based servo control board

[Jon Elson <elson-at-pico-systems.com>]

John Kasunich wrote:

>
> At 03:22 AM 4/6/03 -0400, you wrote:
>
>
>
>>>> Jon has already done this with his external stepper driver boards and
>>>> found the market to be in the region of 5 a year ho hum.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sad but true.  However it is fixed at four pulse outputs, four 
>>> encoders,
>>> and a fixed set of digital I/O.  I'd buy it myself, but I want more 
>>> flexibility.
>>
>>
>> No, it is expandable.  You can daisy-chain the boards.
>>
>> Jon
>
>
> I admit, it is expandable, but in $200 chunks.  I was thinking of 
> something
> a little finer grained.  And it still doesn't support analog outputs.

Well, it has an extra header that can output an 8-bit value, for a 
spindle DAC.
If there was a market for the $650 PPMC analog servo set, I might rework it
to use one big FPGA, and put everything on one board.  But, the incredibly
slow sales of this product is not encouraging me to put a lot of effort 
and money
into a lower-cost version of it.  I figure I could do a 4-axis version 
of the PPMC
on one board for about $300 - 350, without going completely broke.

Jon