Yesterday and today I dedicated to finally putting all the pieces I have for my CNC controller in a nice enclosure instead of laying all over my desk. First a little about it..

The controller is PC based and I run debian linux on it as the OS, here are the specs..

700MHz Intel Processor on Embedded Motherboard

• PC104/+ Motherboard is a smaller form factor. EBC I believe
• 1 PCI Slot - Unused
• VGA, USB, Parrallel, Serial, LCD Panel.... etc..
• 40Gb Hdd - (Will replace with a solid state one day)

MESA 4I65 PC104+ FPGA Board

• Anything IO board, can be custom programmed for whatever you want.
• 3 - 50 Pin IDC headers with 24 IO each. IO Module Compatible
• 8 Leds for debugging purposes.

Opto-22 IO Module Board

• Standard IO Module interface connects to the 4I65 via 50Pin IDC
• Gives 24 isolated inputs or outputs
• Replaceable modules

Mesa 7I33 Analog Servo Interface

• Connects to the 4I65 via 50pin IDC
• Gives 4 Analog Outputs +/- 10V
• Gives 4 Incremental Encoder Inputs, Single or Differential.
• 4 Enable Outputs

3-Yaskawa Servo Amplifiers

• 400W per axis
• Dual side drives X1,X2,Y
• No money for motors yet :(

1-Advance Motion Control DC Amplifier

• Used for lift motor on to be Plasma Station

So thats whats going in to it. I will use the software I wrote in linux to control it all (OR EMC). The software runs a real-time kernel and does all PID loops and trajectory generation in software. There is a network interface to the front end GUI which is very simplistic at the moment. I have had math issues trying to figure out a good 2 axis profile generation with circles but I will tackle that after the table is done....

Anyway, more to come.......