Working on a new winder. . .

[kayakerca]

Well, I just did a little googling and in fact twisting the wires reduces electro-magnetic radiation so keep them twisted.

Thanks David. Not often I get to learn something I wasn't even aware of the existence of. You probably saved me a week of googling and reading, and scratching my head.

[kayakerca]

Yes !!! This happened to me too. The USB just stopped sending/processing seemingly randomly. I have set the process priority to High and avoid using a USB hub. Haven't had issues since ... oh and turn off the power saving / screen saver stuff too

Good point on the USB hub Steve. I have trouble with other USB hubs on 2 other computers I use. I have 3 USB ports on the LG mini that runs the app, so I'll take the USB hub out of the equation going forward.

[CheopisIV]

I've been studying and dissecting this thread for a few days now with more than a passing interest. It took me probably most of that time to figure out I wasn't seeing the whole thread as this forum doesn't seem to work properly in Firefox... Chrome to the rescue!

I'm taking the plunge (slowly) and am going to try to do something with all this knowledge to build my own winder and control software. Others have done Visual Basic and Actionscript so I'm going to try my hand at C++ or C# to keep it fresh.

I want to say thanks to Jim for the help so far as he's been answering a lot of my questions via PM. I have one of the LR motors enroute and hope to dig into the programming side of things soon. I'll start my own thread when I get something worth showing and document the progress.

[Lyrebird Steve]

I have one of the LR motors enroute and hope to dig into the programming side of things soon.

Drop me a line when this arrives, there are some specifics that I can help you with.

Cheers
Steve

[CheopisIV]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate that! Is this the same one you're using? I have a few questions if so...

-Dave

[Lyrebird Steve]

Thanks Steve, I appreciate that! Is this the same one you're using? I have a few questions if so...

-Dave

Yes, I use this exact one purchased from the same guy.

In case you haven't found them ... here are the "tech specs"


http://www.haydonkerk.com/LinearActu...3/Default.aspx

http://www.haydonkerk.com/LinearActu...7/Default.aspx

[David Schwab]

Yes !!! This happened to me too. The USB just stopped sending/processing seemingly randomly. I have set the process priority to High and avoid using a USB hub. Haven't had issues since ... oh and turn off the power saving / screen saver stuff too

And this is why you guys need to write these controller programs for a Mac. You won't have any of that flaky crap going on.

[kayakerca]

And this is why you guys need to write these controller programs for a Mac. You won't have any of that flaky crap going on.

OH, you Mac guys are always putting us PC users down. But I'll put my PC based CNC winder up against "YOUR" MAC based CNC winder any day of the week!

[David Schwab]

OH, you Mac guys are always putting us PC users down. But I'll put my PC based CNC winder up against "YOUR" MAC based CNC winder any day of the week!

No one put down a PC USER. But Windows is crap. Us Mac guys don't go saying how software updates interrupt processes or that USB connections get dropped. Seriously? What kind of modern OS does that?

This is why more Macs are used in recording studios. These days the hardware is very similar between Macs and PCs, but Windows is a crappy OS. NASA uses Macs (and other Unix based computers) for a reason!

I just said why not compile the software to run on more platforms?

But that's OK, I can run Windows software (as well as Windows) on my Mac. I can run Linux software too. How about you?

[Lyrebird Steve]

I just said why compile the software to run on more platforms?

The software could have been written in C/C#/C++ or JAVA or PYTHON and could be easily ported as there isn't a whole lot to the "back end" of my latest version.

If it takes your fancy even COCOA and Applescript are supported.

[big_teee]

IMO, Linux or Unix Rules!
However In Jims defense, I don't have a Unix, or Linux CNC Winder either.
T

[kayakerca]

No one put down a PC USER. But Windows is crap. Us Mac guys don't go saying how software updates interrupt processes or that USB connections get dropped. Seriously? What kind of modern OS does that?

Microsoft O/S better not be crap as it runs my Ford Explorer!

This is why more Macs are used in recording studios. These days the hardware is very similar between Macs and PCs, but Windows is a crappy OS. NASA uses Macs (and other Unix based computers) for a reason!

I just said why not compile the software to run on more platforms?

But that's OK, I can run Windows software (as well as Windows) on my Mac. I can run Linux software too. How about you?

I'm not totally convinced that it's not an issue with the design/operation of the controller board itself. These boards are really hobby grade products for prototyping, not commercial grade products. There's also always that rarest of possibilities, that the guy that coded the app really could have benefited from more than a couple of weeks of self study in the science of computer programming. No, what am I saying. . . that's just crazy talk, it's got to the board or Windows! ! !

[David Schwab]

Microsoft O/S better not be crap as it runs my Ford Explorer!

Are you sure about that? Usually they uses embedded real-time OS's.

[EDIT] OK I looked it up and it runs Windows Embedded Automotive OS, based on Windows CE. But good luck with that! Ever been to an ATM run on Windows that crashed? I have. I was right in the middle of a transaction to take out case to get my car out of the shop. Lost my card and couldn't get the cash, and since the machine reported that I withdrew the cash, couldn't get it from another ATM either.

So have many others... look at the photos! lol Windows ATM crash



Back in 1998 the US Navy tried to have a computer operated battle ship running on Windows NT. The PC blue screened and the ship sailed around in circles!

Sunk by Windows NT

Because of that, the US Navy ordered Bill Gates, who used his Cascade Investment LLC to buy 8% of Newport News Shipbuilding, a group that makes surface ships for the navy, to install Sun SPARC/Solaris UNIX systems. But Bill ran his robot house on Macs anyway.

Then there's the time (back in the late 90s) that the US Army ran their website on Windows NT servers and it was hacked into and defaced. They switched to Macs, which are fairly hack proof.

I'm not totally convinced that it's not an issue with the design/operation of the controller board itself. These boards are really hobby grade products for prototyping, not commercial grade products. There's also always that rarest of possibilities, that the guy that coded the app really could have benefited from more than a couple of weeks of self study in the science of computer programming. No, what am I saying. . . that's just crazy talk, it's got to the board or Windows! ! !

Could be, but Windows should not be interrupting a process to check for updates, etc.

My background with computers is in the print/publishing world. While it's 90% Mac based, we also used Unix (Sun and SGI) systems and Windows NT and 2000 systems as RIPs and file servers. The Windows machines crashed and had other problems all the time. Including one time they caught viruses, even though they never went on the internet! Apparently someone on the local network had an infected internet connected PC and it spread throughout the network.

Because I was the sysop in many shops I worked, my friends and family know me as the computer guy. Luckily, all my family members use Macs, as well as many friends (the musicians and artist friends), but I know a lot of PC users. So guess who they call for help? So I know first hand that Windows does the most ridiculous things, and makes you jump through hoops to do something simple. But because Windows users often have never used anything else, they accept this as part of using a computer and think its normal. Meanwhile my iMac has 100% uptime (but I put it to sleep at night) and hasn't crashed or locked up, etc., in years. The only time I ever had a kernel panic (the Unix version of a BSOD) is when upgrading to a new OS, and having an incompatible kernel extension (like a hardware driver).

The CNC winder I'm building has a stand alone brain (the winder project that was started here), but I'd also like to try this winder software out. I can cobble together a cheap PC, that's not a problem. But I'm more concerned about performance issues.

[big_teee]

I installed #5 ESS (Electronic Switching Systems),for many years in the Bell Telephone offices across the states.
It ran on the Bell Labs Unix.
A stipped down no BS Unix Code.
Later it was copied and there is a version called Berkely Unix.
Linux was written using similar unix type code.
Unix, and Linux Works, and runs most Servers, and IMO Runs the World!
It seems to be catching on in the desktop environment also.
Never had my hands on a Mac.
They are about non existant in the Southwest.
T

[David Schwab]

Later it was copied and there is a version called Berkely Unix.[QUOE]

BSD Unix (Berkeley Software Distribution). It shared the initial codebase and design with the original AT&T UNIX.

Never had my hands on a Mac.

A descendant of BSD was FreeBSD and NetBSD. In 1985 Steve Jobs who had been fired from Apple, started NeXT, Inc, and in 1988 released the NeXTSTEP operating system, which had code derived from BSD and used the MACH kernel.

NeXT computers helped create the internet, when the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, was written for NeXTSTEP by Tim Berners-Lee. The US Postal Services website used to run WebObjects on PC based OPENSTEP servers. These days Apple's website and iTunes store runs on WebObjects software. And the games Doom and Quake were written on NeXT computers.

In 1997 Apple purchased NeXT for $429 million in cash, and along with the company's software they got Steve Jobs back. Apple used OPENSTEP as the basis for Mac OS X.

So today's Macs (as well as the iPhone and iPad) run a Unix operating system directly derived from AT&T (Bell Labs) Unix! I like to say it's what Linux wants to be when it grows up, or it's Linux with a better GUI and commercial software like Adobe Photoshop and MS Office. lol