Machinekit Blog

Machinekit Blog: "In the past, the argument for minimum latency has been its usefulness for software-based step generation and quadrature encoders - the actual servo cycle computations do not need that low latency. But fact is - the PC's parallel port is an extinct piece of hardware (and even then RT-PREEMPT can deliver reasonable software step rates). Plus, inexpensive FPGA hardware can deliver higher performance if needed."

'via Blog this'

This quote is the first time I have seen it acknowledged that the parallel port is gone. I had wondered why it looks as though it is still the only way to interface to hardware.

Yesterday after reading the above article I put

                       FPGA hardware linuxcnc

into the google search box and got a bunch of interesting results.    FPGA field programmable gate array.

My problem with the LINUXCNC documentation is it is very dense reading. I will need to reread it with the knowledge that other hardware interfaces are available in addition to the legacy parallel port. When I scanned the appropriate sections I originally saw nothing about other routes.    

I have this in my EverNote and will post this here so I don't forget.
Now I need to let this set for a couple of months and get back to FREECAD.

 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?RaspberryPi
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?RaspbianXenomaiBuild
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxCNCKnowledgeBase
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?FPGA
 https://emergent.unpythonic.net/01166412010
 http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?EMC2_Supported_Hardware

Blogger Buzz: Blog This!

Blogger Buzz: Blog This!: "If this sounds familiar, you may find the “Blog This!” Chrome Extension of interest. It enables you post to your blog from any web page with just one click. The Extension is available on the Chrome Web Store under the “Blogging” "

'via Blog this'



Ok installed on my laptop. we will see how much it gets used.



I have Evernote and that does much of what I would like this to do.

Three years and back at

Okay it's been 3 1/2 years.

Raising three grandchildren and working full-time do eat up a lot of spare time. And frankly reading political blogs eats up a lot of time also.

So now the grandkids are ten, eight, and six years old. It makes a lot of difference in how closely they must be monitored. A month ago my wife started a new part-time job. She is now a lunch lady at the elementary school that the grandkids go to three blocks away. Three hours a day five days a week. A year and a half ago I went back to third shift. There are some definite pluses and minuses. The biggest minus is being tired. The biggest plus is some free time in the middle of the day. There is no one here from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. I don't usually wake up until noon but that still gives me one and one half hours to do what I want.

I have been working on a couple of things. The first is learning a software program Called  FREECAD. I am working on learning it well enough that I can write a textbook on the subject. There is a very definite need for a good book. The online documentation is less than wonderful. It does not mention some of the worst gotchas. It would be nice to have a longer text that Has a fuller description.

I believe I've spent at least three weeks on this. I do understand the basics of the software. There are still a few things I need to work through.

Now for the hard part, writing. I have spent at least a week writing different chapters. I'm not thrilled with any of them. I have taken the last week off and been goofing off.

I will get back at it tomorrow. Last night I was poking around my old bookmarks. One of the things I found was blogger and these old blogs.

Today I am using Dragon speaking naturally and dictating directly into blogger. No background grandchildren and it's working fairly well. Seems Best when I speak three or four word bursts. Still needing to do "correct that" a lot.

For the rest of this post I'm not going to do any correcting. We will see if it's reasonable.

In three more months I will be 64 years old. I would like to retire as soon as possible. But I have an Excel spreadsheet that shows monthly income from my pension and Social Security and my wife's Social Security with different retirement dates. I like the numbers or dollars if I retire Two or six years from now. The only way that retiring now works is if I have a part-time job. Writing it could be a part-time job.

Okay one book is not a part-time job.  Need more books and more subjects.
Possibilities are:
TurboCAD,
geometric dimensioning and tolerancing,
building a CNC machining center,
building the electronics to control the CNC machining center,
printing and binding a hardcover book,.


well time time to close for today
question do I want to save this as  draft or post this. No one is reading and it's easier for me to find if I post. Warts and all.

Ok I posted and then came back and looked at this five hours later. Had at least ten strange spelling and word choices thrown in by Dragon Speaking Naturally. I believe from now on I will save to draft and correct and post later. The warts were embarrassing.