RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Toolchanger

Jon:

This often seems, at first blush, as the right way to implement a system,
and may well be if it's for a hobby that you will be the only maintainer and
absolute minimum costs rule.

But consider - You're running a CNC G-Code interpreter under what many (not
necessarily me) would consider to be an arcane operating system (that is,
not many know much about it). Now, you're going to add either another module
or separate program written in a language that most maintenance folks don't
understand. So, it follows that when the machine quits, it's this system
that's first blamed. And, guess who's going to be called to diagnose and fix
the machine whether this system is the actual cause? No, I think that
partitioning the CNC into its own computer and adding a low cost PLC running
a ladder logic that most maintenance folks (electricians, that is) know
something about is the preferable solution.

Been there, didn't do that!

-- Jerry

|Some people are working on hooking PLCs to it, but that
|seems ridiculous to me. You already have a very powerful computer with
|lots of I/O capability there, why add another CPU? Probably you'd need
|another parallel port, but left over bits on the aux I/O port might be
|enough.