Just for fun I made a list of the Pi4 LinuxCNC system costs that I play with on my bench. Really need to mount it all on a board and wire it up permanently. Anyway, also attached is the list of prices. There are some additional costs for cables that I didn't include. Often these can be sourced cheaply or even free. View attachment 38375
BTW, not trying to convince anyone. Just information about this sort of system. For this touch screen I should probably install one of the touch screen user interfaces instead of the standard AXIS one.
John,
Thanks for posting the shopping list, very useful information. If I ever decide to "come over to the other side" I should be able to continue using the existing touchscreen monitor. I rigged up a small programmable keypad for common commands and easier numeric entry, unlikely I could get that working on a PI. Also not sue if I could get Linux running on the SBC that is currently running Win-16?
I'm not an expert at installing linux systems or for that matter I've never 'built' LinuxCNC from scratch. Personally don't think I should have to do that.
However, at least with LinuxCNC what I have discovered is that adding things like your keypad isn't as hard as I thought. Although I'm not sure I'd curse my CNC area with The Starry Night.
Playing around with tool measurement code and the interface to the serial port for CANUSB to CAN bus has shown me that it's pretty easy to access the external world. In MACH3 we see that with the MODBUS connection and the ability to write custom code in VBasic. Don't know about the other 'canned' systems.
But none of that really matters unless you want or have something special or unique that isn't handled by a COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) system.
I looked up the PrehKeyTec site. Interesting. I'm guessing it's a USB connection that looks like a keyboard to Windows.
I'm using the wired version of this unit on my LinuxCNC and
the Shuttle Express on MACH3 system.
Shuttle is a multimedia controller perfect for any editor, whether you work with video, photo or graphic design. Shuttle Pro v2 is compatible with PC and Mac.
That's correct, and now that I think about it I probably could use it with Linux, because IIRC, after programming the keypad, it just acts like a USB keyboard and regurgitates whatever key sequence was assigned to the key. If I wanted to change a key, I would need to temporarily hook it up to a PC.
How do you keep track of what button does what on that fancy ProV2?
I like that safe Z button, might need to replace the key that opens notepad with that, I think safe Z would get used way more often.
For my mill running Linux as usual I have to edit a text file (several) to link the buttons etc to actions or inputs/outputs. Either for the MPG I have on it or for the ShuttleExpress which I have set up on the Raspberry Pi4 system. Then you just remember what button does what.
For MACH3 it's easy but you still have to remember what button does what because it's a membrane keypad with numbers on.
Here's the shuttle Pro and Express taken directly from my CNC Router MACH3. You check off which version and then fill in those fields.
The problem is that in Linux generally unless you are into using Lazarus Free Pascal (like Delphi Pascal on windows) this is very difficult to do and requires multiple programs. And since lately so many people 'hate' Pascal and love Python command line programs remain the norm.
I was running my Syil Ex250 this Sunday with mach3 controller. For 2 axis turning it seems pretty good. If I could find a perfect post for fusion360 to mach3 turn I would be even happier. I haven't found a post for fusion that will turn a ball properly yet.
I was running my Syil Ex250 this Sunday with mach3 controller. For 2 axis turning it seems pretty good. If I could find a perfect post for fusion360 to mach3 turn I would be even happier. I haven't found a post for fusion that will turn a ball properly yet.
I finally managed to get the gmoccapy touch screen interface running on the Raspberry Pi4 LinuxCNC system. Had to use the PNCconf program to create a new installation since for some reason just changing the user interface to gmoccapy from axis didn't work. Not sure why yet. We're working on that.
In either case at least now I can try the touch screen stuff. This version, compared to the stock axis interface is more like MACH3. Lots of features. Now if I could only figure out how to load a file. That part, for me, isn't intuitively obvious.
Anway in reality I'd have it fill the entire 1920x1080 LCD touch screen but then that pyvcp dialog created for an axis panel doesn't appear to be part of the gmoccapy screen and I'm pretty sure I specified 4 axis but I only see 3.
