Re: emc

At 03:48 PM 10/11/99 -0500, you wrote:

>If you intend to use steppers ONLY, and have no desire for servo motor
>performance,

Fine, have a hard-on for the cheap and simple anyway.

and if you are content with the features and functions (and

>axes) provided with some other package,

Six axes not enough? I found plenty of features in I-LPT, haven't by a long
shot exploited all of them yet. I do intend to look over emc source code
though, what lang is it in?

>If you find that the other packages leave too many rough edges,

What's a rough edge? If you mean finish, that's a function of the size
increment related to one step. On mine that's .0002". Am building one now
that will resolve .00005".

>have a rapid feed that's too slow,

My 12 megga 486 will make 47,000 steps/sec. Hard to find the power to drive
them that fast.

>are missing an important G-code that
>you feel is necessary,

When I find something I need I write routine for it.

>motion planning software with blending and lookahead is easier than
>installing Linux, you don't know what is involved, believe me!

I can tell right now it's a tough problem. Well over my head in fact. Am
still struggling with file pointers and stuff like that. I-LPT however has
queue control, v-shift, lookahead, etc built in. Too bad nobody is
supporting it in CAD anymore, w/o a means to produce files for contouring
it's limited to more straight machining tasks. But that's my B&B, so I
could care less.

I got over my lust for diddling around with complex installations when
things were all DOS and there weren't any set-up wizards. Too damn long on
the learning curves with these things. Now all I want to do like some of
the others in here is make my chip-producing life faster and easier.

Best wishes,

Hoyt McKagen


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