Homebrew PCBs

>On the other hand, real-time control on a cheap microcontroller is 
>not as easy as it seems.

That's the least of the issues. The major bottleneck is in the CNC 
software. Most of it is written for open loop stepper setups using the 
tradional I/O control port of choice. This therefore influences 
hardware design. Even though there is USB ready CNC software out there, 
why build in a USB interface when most are using the parallel port. Let 
the user get an adapter instead.

What desktop CNC needs is an IBM of sorts to create a standard that 
both the hardware and software guys buy into. Somehow, a computer in 
every home (or room) is easier to visualize than a CNC setup so we're 
probably a long way from seeing anything like that.

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Phil Mattison" <mattison20@...> 
wrote:
>