On Sun, 2007-09-02 at 18:34 +0200, Roland Jollivet wrote: > thanks Paul and others. > > At this stage I can barely spell Linux, let alone Debian:) > I was hoping for an easier route to getting EMC running than a full > blown Linux version.
I am still learning about EMC, but my experience so far is, it can be _very_ easy to install the software and even put together a machine, if you _copy_ an existing system. In fact, I think Sherline sells a complete turn-key mini mill and lathe with a PC and EMC pre-installed (there may be others). The problem comes about when a piece of the system doesn't play well with Ubuntu or you need a feature that isn't set up out of the box. > At the moment I'm still working with the dos cam packages. > > ramble ramble.... > At an industrial show the other day I came across Hust (chinese) > machine controllers. Shoe-box size, it's got all the bits, LCD, > keypad, and ALL the I/O required at the back to implement a 3-axis > servo(closed loop) system, starting at about $350. If this controller does what you want, that's great, but you may be locked into their configuration and support. If you don't mind the technical challenge, or are willing to offer the right people incentives, EMC seems to be almost infinitely configurable. EMC offers freedom and choice ... and responsibility. > I'm sure it's possible, but I was hoping that EMC would take the route > of separating the machine control from that cad side. This way you can > have a controller inside the machine, on a PC104 type card, and > dribble it G-code. I still an aversion to requiring a 2GHz machine to > drive steppers. > I'll probably be told that HAL can do do all that, but it's still not > an 'install and run', as cncpro is, for example. (on a 400MHz machine) ... and EMC can do that. I have only done a brief study of EMC's NML (Neutral Machine Language?), but there is a configuration file which allows you to route machine control messages to network locations. The default is to route all messages to the local net, but you can route messages to, and run tasks on, other computers. When I learn more, I would like to set up my system to have a headless PC mounted in the machine control box that runs the realtime EMC stuff, and then a separate PC mounted on a movable arm that handles the non-realtime and human interface tasks, with a wifi link so that any networked computer can monitor the machine. > end of ramble ramble.... > > Regards > Roland Jollivet EMC can be anything from a casual hobby to solid system for making a living. If you can digest what you _really_ need down to one or two hardware and software neutral ideas, I, or even better someone else here, can try give you an idea how to get what you want. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
