Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: CNC, Fix it or replace it

Hi Bruce

I would concur with with Tom's opinion - If you are running servos on this
machine, by the time you have bought a computer, interface card, and all the
other bits, a new controller may not be that much more expensive. Recently had
a discussion with Fagor about the exact same topic. The bottom line was, they
could part exxhange my existing control for one of their's for around �3000. I
would still have to do the retrofit though.

EMC on the other hand, is better suited to my long term requirements - I have
the source code, IF there is a problem, OR I want a particular feature, I can
add it at no additional cost. If the GUI doesn't suit my needs, I can change
it.
This could easily turn in to a long discourse on the advantages of open source
software.....

One final comment - Do not equate low cost with low end performance. EMC may be
"free", but it will do as much, if not more, than some of the expensive
packages.

Regards, Paul.

On Fri, 07 Sep 2001, tom@... wrote:
> > Should I fix it or switch to EMC? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

> IMHO if you use this machine to make money and your time (and any
> employees) will be expended on trying to build a new controller then
> you will be far ahead to pay and have the controller fixed. Doing
> things for a hobby are fine but those are "zero" dollar hours cause
> we love to do it and if we payed ourselves a reasonable rate it would
> make the decision to mess about with CNC less attractive!
>
> If on the other hand you happen to not derive income from this
> machine than this forum is a rich source of information for making a
> computer spin the handwheels on a piece of equipment.