Zenbot/Gecko/LinuxCNC?

Hi,

I've got a Zenbot 2448 Router that I'm currently using with Mach3, an Ethernet SmoothStepper, and a Gecko motor driver. I'm considering switching over to either LinuxCNC or UCCNC, but would prefer a linux solution because I don't see any reason to use Windows for a dedicated application like this if I don't have to. Ideally I'd use something like a BeagleBone and package it and the ethernet controller and the motor driver together, attaching and external mouse/keyboard/monitor and MPG.

The setup should be pretty conventional except for one thing. This router uses two motors powering two belts for X drive, and the motors spin in opposite directions because of how they are mounted. This caused some difficulties when I first got everything up and running with Mach3/ESS.

So the basic questions here are:

Is this feasible?

What recommendations on motion controller? I'm assuming I'll have to turf the Ethernet SmoothStepper since it seems to be Mach3 only from their website.

Any other recommendations? I've never used LinuxCNC, only Mach3

Thanks for any help!

How about the 7i96? Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it seems that it does more of the low level stepper control work, offloading the CPU?

Thanks for the comment on the mirrored motors - that was my major worry other than just learning curve and so forth.

OK, got it. It wasn't clear from the summary page, it looked like a generic I/O board. That looks perfect.

So is using something like the 7i92 for stepper motor control a pretty standard thing to do with LinuxCNC? I read the documentation page for the hardware model for LinuxCNC and it looked like LinuxCNC really wants to talk to the HW at a low level. It made me nervous. I understand the justifications given, but I really don't want to go down a path of using PCI cards and desktop PCs. Part of the appeal of a Linux based solution is the idea of using a diskless linux board and packaging it together with the 7i92 and the Gecko in one location.

The first board I would try is a BeagleBone Black I've got laying around here. Some might say that it isn't fast enough, and maybe they are right, but I'm willing to give it a go given that what you call the base-thread would be running on the Mesa instead of the Linux CPU. My router is a pretty basic stepper setup other than the mirrored x motor.

I'd just hook up external monitor, mouse and keyboard. I've done this before and it runs the standard Linux UI stuff just fine.

If this board isn't fast enough, I can look at something else.

Thanks for the tip.

I'm having trouble making sense of the GUI comment. I've never used LinuxCNC, but the UI on Mach3 doesn't do anything fancy at all. It's not like they are doing realtime 3D rendering or anything like that. On my current system, the 3D simulation of the machine paths is done ahead of time in the CAM tool (Fusion360).

I can easily afford a 7i92 for $89, especially if it offloads the CPU. But I did read in a forum post somewhere that you need a special distro of Linux to use LinuxCNC with Mesa ethernet interfaces, with a realtime kernel. I could make much sense of that, but there it is.

PRU = ??. Not familiar with the term.