Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: running the BDI EMC on a real machine

k8zre wrote:

> Jon....I went to your machining page and read with interest the Pico Systems info regarading the parallel port driven controller/drivers: 4 channel 16 DAC board, 4 channel 24 bit quadrature encoder counter board...plus other products yet to come...(ppmc set). I take it you will be writing drivers for EMC??

Done! There are drivers for the encoder & DAC boards in the BDI, I think. These may not
be fully up to date. Anyway, I can get the software to anyone who needs it.
I also have a test version with digital I/O working here. The one remaining little
detail is to have the condition of digital I/O (spindle, coolant, etc.) to display
on the screen. Right now, they function at the digital outputs, but the screen
doesn't show the change.

> I would appreciate additional info as to application, availability, price, and how this board set will compare to STG-II. Thanx...Richard in Michigan.

There is a price list link on the page http://pico-systems.com/PPMC.html

The digital I/O will be ready pretty soon, I'm shooting for late January.
The encoder and DAC cards are ready now, and several are in use.
With the addition of the digital I/O card, it does everything the STG I and
II do, plus more! The digital inputs are all opto-isolated, the digital
output has positions for 8 solid state relays right on the card, so you don't
have to have an external Opto-22 mounting card. Finally, there is
separate emergency-stop control logic on the digital I/O board, so you
can have past-limit switches, emergency stop mushroom switches,
servo amp fault relays, etc. tied into this function to cause a hardware
emergency stop totally bypassing all software. (The DAC card has
a watchdog timer that will cause an estop if the computer stops updating
the DACs.)

Jon