Re: How to choose?; was "parallel port finally obsolete?"

Jon

Many respondents have assumed that because I was a Mac aficionado that I was determined to use a Mac to control a cnc machine. That would be pleasing, but I am reconciled that presently it is not practical, and never meant to impose that restriction on this discussion.

There are two sides to the MacUser coin: one is the pleasure of concentrating on the driving without having to do much fussing under the hood, or worrying much about potholes such as malware. The other is distaste for anything Microsoft, which in my case is pretty severe,

Your path of LinuxCNC saves me the displeasure of running Windoze for motion control, but - I think - demands that I spend a fair bit of time under the hood until everything is running properly. Assuming that OSX has allowed my brain to atrophy, do you assert that EMC has evolved to the point where it can really be used by the "brain dead"? If so, that's great, and you've got me half convinced - but what then about CAM? There's a host of CAM applications listed on the linuxcnc site, but no way to tell whether any of them would compare in capability to popular Windows apps, like, say, SheetCam. Do you remain in Linux for your CAM work, or revert to Windows for that? And BTW, what do you use for 3D CAD?

Perhaps I should mention that my first machine to convert is an 80"s vintage BOSS Bridgeport; there is very little mechanical work other than replacing the steppers.

Thanks for your responses, and hoping that you will reply to this one also.

Steve

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Jon Elson <elson@...> wrote:
>
> scyvt wrote:
> >
> > There are 5 or 6 machines here awaiting CNC conversion. Every time I think that I may have a handle on product selection, some new offering comes along, muddies the waters, and I postpone the project, supposing that clarity will surely come along when I discover the elusive key.
> >
> Well, I have been using EMC since 1998. I started a Bridgeport mill
> retrofit
> with an Allen-Bradley CNC control from the late '70s, but it was unreliable.
> I learned the elements of CNC on that system, though.
>
> I was the 2nd user outside NIST of EMC, and made connectors so I could
> go back and forth between EMC and the A-B control. After bugging NIST
> a couple times to fix some rough spots in usability, I disconnected the A-B
> for the last time. I used a Servo-to-Go ISA plug in card, and it had a
> number
> of smaller problems, but generally worked OK. EMC was great.
>
> I brought out a number of products to interface analog servos, steppers and
> digital servos through the parallel port, using that port as a
> real-time, non-buffered
> communication channel to the external hardware. Communication is direct
> this way, there is less than a 1 us delay between the CPU and the external
> hardware. The total servo cycle process is usually completed in under
> 100 us on a typical PC.
>
> Just like buying a new computer, there will always be a new model coming
> out every week. DON'T buy the newest offering in computers or cars,
> let them mature and let others find the inevitable bugs.
>
> I've been using EMC since 1998, and using EMC2 since about 2007, as the
> Axis GUI was too great an improvement to miss. I've never had a crash
> or major malfunction of of EMC in all that time!
>
> So, your choice of either waiting, perhaps forever, for a CNC system to
> come out
> using your favorite computer and communications channel, or pick one of the
> available packages and obtain the computer and motor drives to use it.
> A very limited computer to run LinuxCNC can be had for a bit over $100,
> or a used machine on eBay for even less. Cast-off computers might be
> found in the dump.
>
> Jon
>