Beauty and the beast
Posted by
Arne Chr.Jorgensen
on 1999-10-30 11:22:36 UTC
Hi,
Andrew, Maybe Jon Elson could give you a few lines - maybe off the
list. I am sure you would be able to get some help from some kind of
school. I just don't know the school system over there enough, but a
technical high school my also be a possible place. But I know that many
students have problems to find things they would like to do a project
on, that is something real, and something they could see practical
results from. A machine controller is a very interesting thing.
You could ask, they would not kill you :) (IMO - okay, just to be safe,
keep a heavy wrench nearby :)
The other thing you could do was to put a nice close up picture of the
main board. Then we could see what type of circuits it uses, what kind
of cpu and pio. But as I said before, I can't imagine you should have
any trouble to get hold over a circuit diagram of the main board. It is
not that old.
10K of memory could be enough, but as I said, there could be that it
uses the magnetic tape drive as storage. ( Think of it as a normal PC, -
it uses the hard disk as swap and temporary place for big files )
If the cpu don't address more memory space, there is no use in putting
more memory in it. It would need to know how to use more memory.
It would be normal that you could not pass anything through the RS232
port and bypass the controller. Even beasts must have some brain power
:)
Make a call to the company that made the machine, and talk to them.
There is several ways to "jump rig" the machine, - but you would have
to look at the controller schematics to find out the way to do it. (
What you have, is just the drawings of the external wires on the machine
) There is several on this list, that is capable of writing and
programming small micro controllers, - maybe there is a way to connect
EMC without a ServoToGo board. ( use the IO you have )
Anyway, you need that kind of information in order to use the servos
and encoders you have.
Hope this helps, - if it does, - send me a lollipop :)
//ARNE
Andrew, Maybe Jon Elson could give you a few lines - maybe off the
list. I am sure you would be able to get some help from some kind of
school. I just don't know the school system over there enough, but a
technical high school my also be a possible place. But I know that many
students have problems to find things they would like to do a project
on, that is something real, and something they could see practical
results from. A machine controller is a very interesting thing.
You could ask, they would not kill you :) (IMO - okay, just to be safe,
keep a heavy wrench nearby :)
The other thing you could do was to put a nice close up picture of the
main board. Then we could see what type of circuits it uses, what kind
of cpu and pio. But as I said before, I can't imagine you should have
any trouble to get hold over a circuit diagram of the main board. It is
not that old.
10K of memory could be enough, but as I said, there could be that it
uses the magnetic tape drive as storage. ( Think of it as a normal PC, -
it uses the hard disk as swap and temporary place for big files )
If the cpu don't address more memory space, there is no use in putting
more memory in it. It would need to know how to use more memory.
It would be normal that you could not pass anything through the RS232
port and bypass the controller. Even beasts must have some brain power
:)
Make a call to the company that made the machine, and talk to them.
There is several ways to "jump rig" the machine, - but you would have
to look at the controller schematics to find out the way to do it. (
What you have, is just the drawings of the external wires on the machine
) There is several on this list, that is capable of writing and
programming small micro controllers, - maybe there is a way to connect
EMC without a ServoToGo board. ( use the IO you have )
Anyway, you need that kind of information in order to use the servos
and encoders you have.
Hope this helps, - if it does, - send me a lollipop :)
//ARNE