Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Mazatrol

dougrasmussen@... wrote:

> Ballendo,
>
> What does it really mean to have a PC based controller?
>
> On one level we have the low end systems like Ahha, which are truly
> based on a garden-variety PC.
>
> Then I see the higher end controllers advertising as being PC based.
> I think Vickers is one, Mazak (?) and for sure, Autocon. But you ask
> these people if you can replace their motherboards with a generic
> board and the answer is always, NO!! (I've had salesmen tell me the
> advantage of being PC based is you can get repair components from
> your local Radio Shack....not likely, I think).
>
> I'm wondering if this "PC based" business is more advertising hype
> than anything else. My guess is you're still stuck buying high
> priced proprietary boards.

A friend of mine owns an AcuRite Mill Power. A couple months ago his
hard drive failed. AcuRite told him to just buy a drive at the local
computer store, the smallest he could find and plug it in. The mother
board was a common 486 board, the drive was a common ide drive. Booting
the distribution floppy reloaded all that was needed to the drive. Note
this one uses standard PC hardware, but runs its own software- probably
DOS under it.

However, the system has a couple I/O cards for the glass scales and some
kind of DSP for the servos. I dont recall now, but I did recognize the
brand name on the DSP card.

As we have been saying here- use custom hardware to do the hard parts.

ron