Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Question Re: Work Offsets

Tim Goldstein wrote:

>Jon,
>
>Are your comments based upon the older RH 5.2 build or the newer BDI
>build?
>

Most of my actual machining is done on the old RH 5.2 version of EMC,
but I do have BDI running on another system with a minimill. I really
haven't played with it enough to be fully up to speed yet on the differences
in the BDI, though.

> I know that you were/are running the older version on your
>Bridgeport. The handling of G92 offsets (what is done behind the scenes
>when you do a right mouse click on an coordinate display and set a
>position in manual mode) changed drastically from the RH 5.2 versions to
>the new versions the BDI is based upon. In my balsa cutting program I
>need to have a G92 position I call at the end of a program persist to
>the next run. In the older EMC version it works perfectly. In the BDI
>versions the G92 offsets are cleared on each program run and I get to
>dive for the floor as my tooling heads to places I never intended.
>

Yes, I find this behavior to be a real problem, too. But, using the right
code (M01 ?) instead of the usual M02 (or did I just get rid of any end
program command at the end?) made it hold the offset.

>Needless to say, I only use the older EMC version on that machine. All
>other machines are instead converted to Mach2. I would change the EMC
>machine also, but it is making me money so I am leaving alone what isn't
>broken. Probably make the switch to Mach2 on it when I finally get
>around to putting a 4th axis on that machine.
>
>

Well, I don't think I will convert over to Mach2, as long as there is
hope of the
major flaws in EMC being fixed. I'm pretty sure the G92 offsets going
away can either be worked around or fixed without much effort (at
least compared to getting tapping cycles working, for instance.)
I was able to run programs repeatedly at NAMES by just changing what
I had at the end of the program, so my work offset was not going away
there.

I just like the idea of having ALL the source code there, so I can fix
a problem if I need to badly enough. Also, I trust Linux a lot farther
than any Microsoft OS.

Jon

Jon