RE: EMC with intelligent stepper controllers

["jguenthe" <jguenthe-at-nafis.fp.trw.com>]

Steve,

That I under stand,  and since the output of the RS274 interpreter is NOT
sent directly to the parallel port for step and direction control, I was
merely looking for where to start.  I have built the RS-274 interpreter in
standalone mode and have looked at the output of it.  There appears to be a
great deal that happens to the canonical commands before they are actually
converted to step and direction pulses or commands for the STG boards in
EMC.  I really don't want to get into an in depth study of the EMC source to
determine which module I need to replace with code to drive the SimpleStep
boards.  The idea of using intelligent controllers that do not rely on the
processing power of the host PC for stepper control appeals to me.  I have
looked at Flashcut which is an intelligent controller connected by a serial
cable to the host PC, but I really don't want to speed 3 times the cost of
my mill for their product.  The SimpleStep 2000 boards provide the
intelligence, drive the stepper motors, monitor limit and home switches all
independently from the host PC which really appeals to me.

John Guenther

-----Original Message-----
From:	emc-at-nist.gov [emc-at-nist.gov] On Behalf Of Steve Carlisle
Sent:	Monday, October 09, 2000 3:17 PM
To:	Multiple recipients of list
Subject:	Re: EMC with intelligent stepper controllers


John, the G-code(rs-274) is an industry standard machine control
language. You would have to build an interpeter  that converts
g-code to Simple-Step command language.

Steve Carlisle

----------
> From: John Guenther <jguenthe-at-nafis.fp.trw.com>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <emc-at-nist.gov>
> Subject: EMC with intelligent stepper controllers
> Date: Monday, October 09, 2000 11:24 AM
>
>
> I have a question for this list.  If I wanted EMC to work with an
> intelligent stepper controller, one that requires commands such as
> X1M1000 to move the X axis 1000 steps, where would that type of driver
> need to be implemented in EMC?  Does that require a replacement for
> steppermod.o or freqmod.o or is there some place else that would need to
> be changed?
>
> I would like to use the SimpleStep 2000 boards for my CNC conversion
> with EMC even if I have to write a new driver for EMC.
>
> John Guenther
>