Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Rotary indexer drive

You could always use EMC2, it's free/open source and runs on realtime Linux.
You can get a bootable live CD at
<http://www.linuxcnc.org/iso/emc2.2.2-1-ubuntu6.06-desktop-i386.iso>

The Hardware Abstraction Layer is very flexible, and as an electrical
engineer, you'll probably like the components/pins/signals paradigm used
for configuring it :)

You may also appreciate the ability to write loops and other control
functions in the g-code (an indexer could easily be a subroutine that
you pass the number of teeth to).

- Steve

zs6bxi wrote:

>Hi all,
> Having been lurking on this group for a while I am now at the
>point of needing advice.
>
>I want to cut a 127 tooth gear. I have the dividing equip with a 72
>teeth worm wheel setup. I have a suitable stepper motor with a gecko
>drive for it and I have an 'old' 1Gig laptop with parallel and serial
>port. I'm an electrical engineer so playing interfaces is no problem.
>
>What I'm looking for is advice on what software to get to drive the
>stepper motor. I've looked at the Mach3 and I think that this could be
>made to do the job. But I think that this would be total overkill for
>what I want to do. Is there not something out there ( preferably
>shareware or something). I don't mind paying the 160 dollars or so but
>for what is basically a one off job this is a bit much.
>
>Regards Bob
>
>