RE: New project...PCI based servo control board

["ERIC KELLER" <eekeller-at-psu.edu>]

As far as alternative hardware strategies go, I would like to say that there are
great alternatives for those who want to have an outboard box that does the
control.  Start with Jon Elson for parallel port solutions.  

Then there is the Gecko 2002, see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/geckodrive/
This can have usb or ethernet connections.  

The way things go in this hobby, I doubt you are going to have a thriving
community of users if you make alternatives to these solutions that have only
minor differences.

I personally think there is room for an "in the pc" solution, particularly since
Don's long promised pci servo 2 go board is nowhere to be seen.  A pc has
plenty of capablility to handle this load, and the real time linux systems are
robust and well supported.  No need for development systems or learning funny
language variants.

I just installed the full set of Orcad/cadence tools yesterday, and I'm ready to
go.
Eric