Testing Equipment

[hani_a]

Two quick questions:

a) Which instrument would you recommend using to debug the printer port output, an oscilloscope or a logic analyzer?? I'm using turbocnc for the first time.
b) Is there a tool/sensor that measures whether the servomotor has moved a certain distance?

Thanks in advance,

Hani A.

[Rance]

Well, let's see here... for a)

O-Scope, $3000
Logic Analyzer $5000
Transistor/Resistor/LED 98 cents

Tough choice here but I'd go with a simple LED circuit

Seriously, I'd say you could do about 98% of what you need to do with a simple LED circuit. It doesn't even have to incorporate a perf board. Initially you only need to know the levels of the pins. Later when you are dealing with timing issues, you can start out slow and slowly ramp up the speed, then back off just a little after it starts failing.

My 2c worth

[BobWarfield]

Rance is right. If you want to get fancy about the LED approach, try something like this:

http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=7514

Using Mach 3 at the computer end (somebody probably makes a purpose built gadget too), you can turn the pins on and off as well.

Best,

BW

[hani_a]

Hi again,

Logic analyzers are actually much cheaper now.. about $389 (Intronix, pc based).
besides, I actually need it for my microcontroller/fpga programming.

thanks for the help!

Hani A.