On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 21:47 +0200, Ahmed Elghamrawi wrote: ... snip > Since we are getting financial support from a local factory to build > this for them, it has to work.. and work with a reasonable accuracy.
EMC2 can give you what you need. It's more up to your effort and budget. > > So.. blah blah.. how i am what i do.. the point is: were to begin? > We have a fair idea what programming should be, studied that but we > have never did it for real. EMC2 takes g-code as input and turns it into motion controlled I/O. So allot of the intelligence can be done by EMC2. You will be left with turning small signals into real world I/O signals or power signals to drive motors and solenoids. The programming you will need to know is g-code and if you have a complex machine beginning C, Python and/or Classic Ladder. You can start learning g-code with running one of the simulated machine configurations. The other programming usually comes later after you get your axes and spindle working. We can help you when that time comes. > We don't have an actual machine in our hands yet, but > we have stepper motors and some drive schemes. Please give us more information on what "drive scheme" means. Typically, EMC2 will provide the control signals to an amplifier or driver which just boosts the signal to something that can drive a motor. There is usually not allot of motion control magic in amps and drives. > > 1. What is the best way to communicate with the computer, and EMC? the > parallel port seems (from reading the HAL manual) to be easy enough? The parallel port can be a little slow for motion control. It works fine for my Shizuoka: http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/Shizuoka/ which isn't exactly a toy, but you will most likely want to use an interface that uses the parallel port or a PCI slot for communication with an FPGA card. Examples would be, Mesanet.com 5i20 or Pico Systems PWM card: http://mesanet.com/motioncardinfo.html http://pico-systems.com/motion.html Check the hardware list for more: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?EMC2_Supported_Hardware > 2. What else do we need to know or start reading about to do it? Along with reading the manual: http://linuxcnc.org/docview/html/ I think it might help to print out a set of config files for a simple machine and go through each line and study each step. Such as in: http://cvs.linuxcnc.org/lxr/source/configs/stepper/stepper_mm.ini from: http://cvs.linuxcnc.org/lxr/source/configs/stepper/ http://cvs.linuxcnc.org/lxr/source/configs/common/core_stepper.hal from: http://cvs.linuxcnc.org/lxr/source/configs/common/ you can see the .ini file call other .hal files that add more information to the configuration: ... ############################################################################### # Hardware Abstraction Layer section ############################################################################### [HAL] # The run script first uses halcmd to execute any HALFILE # files, and then to execute any individual HALCMD commands. # # list of hal config files to run through halcmd #+ files are executed in the order in which they appear HALFILE = core_stepper.hal #HALFILE = xylotex_pinout.hal HALFILE = standard_pinout.hal ... (Lines with # are comments only) > 3. Does EMC have a method of generating pulses and recieving inputs, > in a customized way? (as we are essentially building a driver and > control circuit, how can we send/receive from it?) Most of the functions needed for a CNC machine are controlled by EMC2 in the form of HAL "pins" in the configuration files. For instance, to connect the spindle ON signal to a real parallel port pin: ... # connect "spindle on" motion controller pin to a physical pin net spindle-on motion.spindle-on => parport.0.pin-09-out ... > 4. Is there anyone on this list in Egypt, or know of someone in the > country? > > This is just the first month of this project, we have not progressed > that long.. any suggestions or advice will be greatly appreciated. We > seem have a lack of that here, thank you all. > Peace, > Ahmed Allot of issues will be determined by what machine you end up getting. Converting a old CNC with a worn out controller, is by far the easier, cheaper way to go. Much of the busy work will be done, leaving you the more interesting tasks. Good luck. Kirk http://www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
