Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Revitalising a Hurco BNC30 3 axis CNC Mill

Wayne Weedon wrote:

>Jon Elson wrote:
>
>
>>Polaraligned wrote:
>>
>>cept EMC, of course. We have a 10 ton Mazak at Roland Friestad's shop
>>with a tool carousel and a very intricate tool change sequence running
>>under EMC. Hell of a machine, but it won't fit in my basement, that's for
>>sure.
>>
>>
>Saw that machine Jon, and glad to say the EMC guys have obviously been
>busy. I'll take back anything I may have said or indeed thought about
>it LOL...
>
>I recently downloaded the Live CD ISO, but nowhere I could find the
>minimum pc requirements to run EMC2? Only spare machine I had here was
>probably too low on memory for the live demo. Tried installing it but
>gave up when the partition manager had not started 1 hour after that
>stage. No text based installer on the disk?
>
>

Unfortunately, there isn't a text-based installer for the LiveCD. It is
Live, after all :)

Since it's a live OS, using Ramdisk for some things that would otherwise
come off the CD, the memory footprint is pretty high. Just about any
computer can run Ubuntu once it's installed, but getting there can be a
problem. As a suggestion, use at least a P3 (or celeron) of 400 MHz or
higher. There are a couple of things you can do to install on "low
memory" computers. Option 1 is to add some RAM while installing, then
take it out once the install is done. You shuold be able to install
with 256M in the machine, but 512M may be better. Once installed, you
should be able to go down to 128M (though 256M is more comfortable).
Option 2 is to make a swap partition on the hard disk, then boot the
LiveCD and install - it should use a swap partition if it finds one.

>What I do like is the attempt to well define methods for adding extra
>functions and the inclusion of classic ladder athough I have not
>studiedit in too much depth yet.
>
>As much as I like Mach, and I use it daily to run a Leadwell VMC, adding
>stuff like atc's is not easy or maybe even possible to achieve in the
>original form without jumping through hoops, or cludging in some way.
>
>I have many machines here to retrofit, and will be looking more closely
>into emc as I get time.
>
>Wayne...
>
>

Another thing to note, which a lot of people seem to forget here, is
that EMC can let you use more of the old hardware that's on a machine
like the OP mentioned. You can run analog servos (with any combination
of 4 or so interface cards), and you can do it with full feedback / PID
control. You should find (though I haven't had the chance to do testing
on my own) that you get better finishes with analog servo drives than
you will with step/dir drives.

- Steve