Delirium? or inspiration!?

[CubeSpawn]

So, given the new design decision, relating to EMC, and the new
motivation to get it working quickly, I'm rummaging around in the junk
pile here at "Rancho Incomplet-o" for a old motherboard to mockup as
an "embedded PC controller" as an adjunct to the motion module:

My thought process is as follows

EMC on a headless motherboard in the cube with a VNC client or an
XWindows export and ssh

a "bridge board" with the EMC Parallel breakout and the 4 motion
boards

the PC and Motor Power supplies and any attendant fans, heatsinks, etc

a terminal block with all the labeled connections

All mounted on a piece of hardboard or light aluminum plate

a light frame to support the whole assembly above the motion module,
but within the cubes frame...

This should serve as an interim solution until a suitable embedded
Single Board Computer is chosen, what SBC architecture is selected and
the "daughter-board" for the motion/EMC/cooling solution is worked out

feedback appreciated

James

[John Griessen]

On 04/21/2011 08:20 PM, CubeSpawn wrote:
> This should serve as an interim solution until a suitable embedded
> Single Board Computer is chosen

Sounds good. How about the AHS guy, David, that offered a PC-brick computer?

JG

[John Griessen]

On 04/21/2011 08:20 PM, CubeSpawn wrote:

> EMC on a headless motherboard in the cube with a VNC client or an
> XWindows export and ssh

Instead of headless from the start, you could use an old IBM Thinkpad Z300 brick
thick laptop I have... smaller power supplies, fans etc...has parallel port...

and it has a handy screen for debugging things at first.

JG

[Samuel Rose]

I agree, keeping it easy in the beginning seems like a good move.

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ambition." - Carl Sagan

[Data Pathway]

Well whaddya know!? I found 3 (count 'em) 3! old laptops in the pile...

A dell lattitude c840 with a busted screen - but it Does boot and run

A lattitude c600 that works fine 

also a Toshiba portege 660CDT that boots to windows 95!! Dunno if ubuntu will run on that, but I'll give it a try...

so - laptops it is!

Onward!!

[Samuel Rose]

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Data Pathway <data.p...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well whaddya know!? I found 3 (count 'em) 3! old laptops in the pile...
> A dell lattitude c840 with a busted screen - but it Does boot and run
> A lattitude c600 that works fine
> also a Toshiba portege 660CDT that boots to windows 95!! Dunno if ubuntu

Awesome! Debian will work on really old laptops very nicely, FYI
(perhaps not so much supporting graphics, but you can get a nice
little command line terminal/server running).

> will run on that, but I'll give it a try...
> so - laptops it is!
> Onward!!
>

James, I think you are on the right track here. This could be a way to
get EMC Linux people involved too.

Still asking: do you need any contributions in the way of wiring
diagrams, software/code writing, or CAD work at this stage? (I am ok
with heeksCAD, which can produce CSG of cubespawn designs)

In any case, it's really exciting to see you continue to move forward!
I still owe you a blog post. I may post it to p2pf blog in addition to
our own