Linuxcnc ethernet over Arduino?

Hello,
does some knows or want to create a software use an arduino nano with an ethernet shield to emulate one printerport? For newbies who built a very small milling machine it must be possible to control the machine with a laptop or an tablet.
I am sorry to say that I am not able to do this, but this can not be a problem for a software profi.
For a beginner with a small machine will be one printerport enough.

Thanks

Hans

Hello andypugh,
a nano with ethernet shield costs under 10,-$, but its not only the price. In Germany its not so easy to get a mesa-board. When someone will test his milling machine with a laptop and linuxcnc he will use a nano, but he will not order a mesa-board outside Germany?

Thanks

Hans

If this is for motion control, I suspect the Arduino Nano lacks sufficient horsepower
to maintain real time Ethernet communications at 1 KHz and generate multi axis step
pulses at the same time. (if you had a Nano and shield, a ping test might give some
idea of performance)

Starting from scratch, there are many other (non Arduino) microcontrollers that
could handle this, for example a STM32F407 would probably be a good choice

Hello PCW,
do know some possibility to emulate one printerport with linuxcnc over ethernet? For a small 3 axes milling machine are 10 I/O-pins enough.

Thanks

Hans

The bare minimum for 3 axis of motion, is 6 outputs. (Step + Dir * 3 = 6). But a parallel port has 17 possible IOs, 5 inputs, 4 outputs, and 8 that could be either (as a block all inputs or all outs).

Hello Todd,
is there a possibility for networkconnection with six I/Os?

Hans

You could just buy one of these.
store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=produc...oduct&product_id=302
but it has already been suggested above.

It's a pitty about the arduino speed issue, as even if you used multiple uno's to control a few axis, (conected to pc via ethernet) it still works out pretty cheap -(at $5au per uno from china). And would get a lot more enthusiasts onto linuxcnc. -not saying mesa's stuff is any less. I have used it and it's brilliant. Just out of my price range for setting up a 3d printer.