On 4/20/2010 4:46 PM, Viesturs La-cis wrote: > 2010/4/20 Dave<e...@dc9.tzo.com>: > >> Interesting discussion but the economics of this discussion are escaping >> me .... >> >> I work with a manufacturer that runs a large waterjet system 1-2 shifts >> per day at least 5 days per week. >> >> Their biggest costs related to the waterjet are water and electricity. >> The amount of water they use and the sewage charges they pay to dispose >> of it are significant. >> Electicity costs are at least $1000 per month. >> >> It isn't difficult to pay $50,000 for a decent water jet pump.... I >> believe the waterjet system that they have (gantry, conveyor, pump, >> water handling system, and controls installed ) was about $250K when it >> was new 10 years ago. >> >> Waterjet swivel joints are expensive, but they are incidental to the >> cost of operating the machine. >> >> Sheetcam is very inexpensive compared to anything related to waterjet >> cutting. It does cost more than EMC2 but not that much. ;-) >> >> Dave >> >> > Yes, i can only agree that cost of machine itself (i paid ~100.000 USD > for it 1,5 years ago) makes all the previously mentioned cost > positions look ridiculously small, but my business is doing so bad, > that available cash flows are almost non-existent, so i am stuck with > looking for creative solutions, not those that are provided by > industrial manufacturers. That is why i have chosen EMC instead of new > controlling system from MEFI (creator of previous DOS-based system) or > any-one else. > > Another reason is that I have come to conclusion that building by > myself is better from terms of maintenance and support. My machine was > produced in Czech Republic. Both - hardware and software (controlling > system). I have been trying to contact those companies with different > questions on how to solve some problems - machine is not new and > different issues sometimes come up. > My experience - there is no such thing as customer service in that > country. When i contacted manufacturer of servo drives and asked for > specific settings, their guy promised "to do it tomorrow". When i > called a week later to ask for the reason of delay, it turned out, > that my guy is on holiday and his colleague explained that my guy > [quote] "probably had more important things to do". Very similar is > situation with PTV - manufacturer of the machine. There is no way to > get some support from them, I have tried to contact them several times > with questions about spare parts and how to do certain things in > mechanics to improve accuracy. I have come to conclusion that some > kind of retards are working there. > > So, returning to the essence of this discussion - how can i implement > in EMC tangential tool control for tilting the head? Prefferably with > A and B rotary axis :) > > Viesturs > >
>>economics of this discussion are escaping me .... OK, now I understand. $100 for anything "waterjet" is very inexpensive, let alone a system. I'm sorry your business is not doing well. Business has been very slow for many people in the US also, so I can relate. EMC2 should work fine for what you are doing. Going back to your original question when you quoted Jon Elson... Jon was referring to a filter program. The term "filter program" in EMC2 jargon is a program that creates or processes G code. The wiki references a couple of examples: http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl Look for: * Simple EMC G-Code Generators <http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Simple_EMC_G-Code_Generators> - Facing, Pockets, Drill Patterns Etc. * GWiz - A Gcode Wizard Framework <http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?GWiz_-_A_Gcode_Wizard_Framework> On that page. The simple G code generators output code based on a menu driven input, sometimes directly into the EMC2 Axis interface. GWiz is a fairly complex concept that was done by Ken Lerman to allow non programmers to create a G code creation "filter" program without programming. Pretty clever IMO. If you know Python (or are willing to learn it) these examples should give you a start on how to program a filter program to process X,Y,Z Gcode into XYZAB Gcode that you can use with a tilting head. This setup uses a filter program also that you might be able to use for example code ... http://objects.reprap.org/wiki/EMCRepStrap#GCode_Decoding Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
