Candidate

Visual CNC controller — engineering workspace

Documentation reconciled 18 October 2026 against recorded decisions and evidence. The controller has working disconnected software, LinuxCNC/RTL integration and substantial native electrical/PCB work. Routing, complete electrical qualification, FPGA physical implementation and physical machine qualification remain unfinished. There is no manufacturing release.

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Current product contract

IS-2 requires one active custom motherboard with a soldered FPGA and all twelve motor interfaces fitted, individual enable/alarm on all twelve, at least eight usable motors, four base ABZ encoders, 24 general DI and 16 smart general DO, plus the specified fast inputs, process/analog interfaces, communications, protection and watchdog/permission circuitry. Purchased compute, ESP and storage/settings modules remain replaceable. The older passive base, removable custom motion/I/O cards and motors-9–12 expansion card are superseded.

Local LinuxCNC owns motion planning; the FPGA supplies deterministic timing/capture and the ESP has a bounded diagnostic/service role. Accessory automation is a separately qualified extension. The touchscreen, CLI and optional AI proposals share validation and reversible configuration transactions. Normal operation and recovery remain available offline without AI credits. See setup, configuration, diagnostics and OS experience.

Screen options cover the 7-, 10-, 12-, 14-, 18- and 21-inch classes and further qualified sizes. Screen size and software licensing do not remove fitted motor channels or required I/O. Every package must include and cost its stated display, compute, supplies, enclosure, harnesses and setup scope. See display tiers and commercial policy.

Power-off service exchanges an approved commodity module or the whole motherboard using keyed pluggable terminal/harness groups. Preserve protected machine settings, mirror/export recovery, offline entitlement and deliberate inhibited restart. Whole-board service has its own verification and cost requirements; no five-minute replacement guarantee is established. See repair and machine memory.

Evidence to read in context

Use the source-bound engineering status and continuation receipts before quoting a count. Source inspection, host tests, target compilation, HDL simulation, FPGA mapping, circuit ERC, board DRC and physical measurements establish different things. No physical commissioning or complete machine rating follows from the table.

The immutable Source26 cost audit v11 is a dated partial basket: 105 exact MPNs priced, 185 MPNs/720 fitted pieces unpriced. Known-priced consumed parts at 1/10/100 controllers are US$1,091.51/$877.37/$796.51 per board. Modules, displays, fabrication, assembly, programming/test and packaging remain additional unknowns. US$400 is a preliminary assembly reference; a complete product cost or PCBWay quote is not established.

Use the disconnected workbench

From this directory, with the required Python dependencies available:

python -B -m controller_config setup --directory .controller-setup-demo serve --port 8766

Open http://127.0.0.1:8766/. This starts the local simulation setup UI and shared service. It does not commission or authorize a physical machine. The workbench guide describes intake, readiness, reviewed saves, backup recovery and optional AI budgets. Use a separate demonstration directory to preserve existing machine configurations.

To inspect the engineering bench before choosing checks:

python -X utf8 tools/validate_controller.py --inventory

The documented full disconnected bench is ./validate_controller.ps1 --full or python -X utf8 tools/validate_controller.py --full. It creates a new evidence directory. Missing tools and unfinished stages remain explicitly blocked; physical tests remain unrun. See Rev A qualification and the PCBWay submission checklist.

The 200-feature catalogue preserves proposals and stable IDs. Dated research, component READMEs and report snapshots keep their original evidence scope; use the documentation index to find current guidance before interpreting them as product capabilities.

Published native board snapshot

The existing board-review package, its native baseline/staged files and original provenance remain available alongside the complete engineering source. See GitHub publication scope for the source/evidence inventory.

The corrected global reroute start, clean DSN and converter setup correction are also available. They restore five malformed keepouts and remove 359 conflicting copper items for rerouting; native AFTER connectivity and manufacturing qualification remain open.