Re: Alternative IO cards

["Peter Cook" <kf2qd-at-terraworld.net>]

 wuld think that PCI would be a much more reliable and less driver intensive
route for machine control. How can you plan real time on USB? you would be
better off looking at realtime TCP/IP and be using industrial type devices.
Or - to make something other than hobby - Sercos (a bit pricy...) is a very
clean (fiber loop) method for talking to drives - just make sure you use
Sercos and not someones attempt at a propritary sercos...

Pete

Subject: Re: Alternative IO cards


>
> Hi Paul
>
> yes - thats the intel/microsoft published goals to make
> boxes cheaper / better.  6 PCI slots seems common.
>
> serial and parallel can be reinstated externally with usb adapters.
> As long as the SW can cope with the drivers.
> I note too that usb parallel cables (ie a parallel port at the end of
> a usb interface) seem to not hold data valid.  I have not yet checked
> to see if s simple latch (on strb) fixes this for the data port.
> Shall do soon. need it for my current PIC programmer.
>
> I'm sure that clever motor control boards for PCI will be/continue to
> be available, but I'd like to see this complemented with lower cost
> stuff for hobby machines like mine. Probably USB based.
>
> I'll design and test the hardware but I'd need software assistance
> bolting the drivers to EMC.   Should be a candidate for Fred's
> proposed site.
>
> Just slowly starting to get up to speed with options for the
> USB side of things.
>
> Also - thought strikes me that modules like freqmod may suffer.
> Due to the delays in software layers between the rt module and the port
pin.
> One solution would be to offload much of the real time behaviour to
> the external interface.
>
> Any thoughts as to how much to aim for here?
>
> regards, john
>
>
> On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 09:29:34AM -0400, Paul wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hi John
> >
> > Just come back from a local computer fair - It is not just ISA slots
that are
> > disappearing. One motherboard on sale had USD, Firewire, USB2, onboard
sound,
> > video, etc,etc.. But no parallel or serial ports !
> > The only saving grace was the three PCI slots.
> >
> > If this is indeed the future of motherboards, then alternatives must be
found
> > soon for the IO we need for machine control.
> >
> > Regards, Paul.
> >
> >
> > On Thursday 23 May 2002 7:09 am, John Sheahan wrote:
> > > ISA is going away whether we like it or not.
>
>