Thanks for posting here Steve, it made me realize I forgot to post the weeks 3 winners. I’ll do so below,
The SmoothStepper is an awesome motion control board for use with Mach3. It offloads all the stuff the parallel port driver normally does into custom hardware made for motion control. All of the motion and ‘real time’ stuff is done with an FPGA. The new Ethernet version also contains a separate uC to offload some of the less time critical things. The biggest limitation with the parallel port driver for CNC use is the underlying PC hardware and the fact that it is software generated timing. Both Mach and LinuxCNC have the same limitation even though they approach the problem slightly differently. With an external motion control like the SmoothStepper the step pulse timing is much more accurate (no jitter) and the pulse lengths are consistent so the stepper drive won’t miss a short pulse. I’ve been using them for about five years now since they came out.
The limit switch box was one of those things that was designed to make wiring easier. Rather then having to run wires form home/limit switches all the way back to the controller you can run them to the limits junction box, plug them in, and run a DB9 extension cable back to your control box. I use a script in Mach to set my Z axis when I change bits so having the 1/8" phone plug on the box for a probe/tool setter is very handy.
The results are in from the third week of our contest. The winners are:
David Wescott, USA
Karl Gross, USA
Congratulations David and Karl, an email has been sent to both of you with
your code to receive $50 off your Soigeneris.com order.
The last week of the contest is now open, if you did not win previously you are eligible to enter again. Same rules as before.
Good luck to everyone in this week’s contest, here are the details on how to enter.
I wanted to have this little contest as a way of saying thanks and to give back to the DIY CNC community; I feel fortunate to be able to start and keep a small business running in an economic downturn and good fortune should be shared. It is also Christmas time so it seemed like a fun idea and running it for four weeks with two winners a week to allow more folks a chance to win. A few weeks ago I got a lot of guff from one list moderator and thought about calling off the whole thing off. My goal is not to annoy anyone. If you find the whole idea of this contest annoying then please let me know at the email address below.
For the month of December 2012 we will be holding a drawing each week and giving away two $50 gift certificates for Soigeneris.com. We will draw two names out of a hat on Sunday from all entries the previous week (so we will draw on December 9, 16, 23, and 30).
Entering is easy. Go to http://www.soigeneris.com and take note of one of the items that are displayed on the front page. Then send an email to birt_j@ soigeneris.com and tell me the name of one of the items you saw displayed on the front page. In the subject line please include the word ‘Contest’ (this will automatically sort the email into the correct folder) and include your full name and address. I will not be divulging, in any way, your personal information to anyone. The reason I’m asking for this information to verify that a real person, not a computer program, is sending in the entry. One entry per person per week is allowed and you may only win once. Pass the word around to your friends. Everyone is welcome to enter.
Please nobody try to spam me with multiple entries. I want this to remain fun and fair for everyone.
Good luck to everyone!
Jeff Birt
Soigeneris.com