g-rex, what is the primary use?

[h_2_o]

crazyman: from an earlier question in this thread you would still need the 320's the grex works in conjunction with drives so you would need both.

rpm mill, what mill's pc hardware are you using this with a centroid? i'm curious as to your setup.

[ger21]

And does Mach4 get issued to all licensed Mach3 users free of charge?

I believe the software end will be free, but most likely you'll be purchasing the G-Rex from Artsoft, which will include the required provessor and firmware. No price has been set yet.

[crazyman]

Ok, So that means I can purchase 3 G320s add on a G-rex at later date?

So the advantages of the G-rex are simply faster output rates for faster rapids, Assuming your servos and power supply can keep up.
Also, seems better smoothing of transitions (ie no stop and go for complex contours)

[ChrisJ]

For my system the way it is going to be configured, if I were to switch to the GRex, the investment that is lost in my current configuration is the price for the Campbell breakout board/spindle speed board, since I believe these functions/capabilities would be built into the Grex and these components would no longer be necessary. If my understanding of the Grex is correct, although the Grex will provide the on/off signal, I would still need some relays to power up things like the coolant system, etc.

Chris

[turmite]

Guys I actually talked with Mariss over a year ago about this new device, it was not called G-Rex back then. This piece of hardware will in fact be able to do away with breakout boards, add tons of i/o's and from the mouth of Mariss
"have the capability to be used as a plc". I happen to have a competitor who built their own specilized cnc machine years ago. this thing would feed itself precut blocks of wood from a hopper, do pallet changes and if a bit broke it would call the owner via telephone and send a message. All of that was done with a plc. I didn't even know what a plc was much less have any idea how to use one. But I are learning. I go to church with some guys who own poulty farms and the house systems are set up on plc's. They are always getting ph calls from their chickens!

Mike

[crazyman]

PLC - Programable logic controller

These are used in the power generation industry (and others) quite a bit.
They are easy to program and have input/outputs (I/Os) to allow for control of systems. So as you can see the G-rex should be able to duplicate a PLC to some degree having all these extra I/Os.

[steveg]

The very original idea for what is now the Grex, is the disappearance
of the parallel port from computers (being replaced by USB) the laptop
I'm typing this on has none.

All the other stuff is a happy side effect

[JFettig]

if your laptop doesnt have usb its time to upgrade btw, mach4 will use ethernet for the interface.

I was watching that video on machsupport about setting up a plc to controll stuff, why can't a plc controll some drives through mach3?

Jon

[steveg]

parallel port darn it!!!

It's only 6 monthes old.

[DennisCNC]

^^^^ 6 too old!

[h_2_o]

actually parallel is important for a lot of smaller shops. every shop i know around here still has many machines that they can drip feed into and well usb just doesn't work for that.

anyway the grex sounds like it could be an interesting product. is there a seperate driver needed for the grex to work with mach4?

[ger21]

anyway the grex sounds like it could be an interesting product. is there a seperate driver needed for the grex to work with mach4?

Mach4 is being developed for the Gecko G100 (G-Rex). There is no driver like Mach3 uses. Mach4 just sends commands to the G-Rex via ethernet. There is an Alpha version of Mach4 available at www.machsupport.com