anilam dead, linux emc2 running now

[steve10778]

hi guys, long time no see
I got my mill running again using linux emc-2, with all my old drives and anilam scales. very cool. Does anyone else run emc-2 here? I was interested in knowing how they handle toolchanges and offsets during a long program. (knee type mill, manual toolchanges)

steve

[MTNGUN]

TurboCNC here, but keep us posted on your progress because if I ever upgrade, a linux program would appeal to me since linux is free and relatively stable and I'm playing with Ubuntu on my shop PC. Offset handling would be one of my main concerns, too.

TurboCNC handles offsets very well, and my only complaint is that there is no longer any support or bug fixes, and the program does crash once in a while.

If I need to re-calibrate a tool offset in the middle of an operation, which is very common, then I break the program into several smaller programs. Run a short program to do a first pass, measure, and adjust the offset for that tool. Then a second calibration program for a second tool. After the cals are done, the final program is run to finish the part, using M06's to pause for manual tool changes.

At first glance that sounds like a complicated way to do things, and it does require planning, but several small programs are easier to manage than one big program.

[Dawai]

I have my bridgy running with tcnc, mach3, and EMC.

My favorite is Mach3. It has all the wizards I have written but better incorporated into the software. Windows XP has had tears in my eyes a few times on that machine.

You seen my polar code generator? or gcode editor.. both run in windows thou. All are unfinished but work.

[steve10778]

i would like to thank jon elson for the help during the commisioning phase of the emc-2 conversion. I utilized his pico systems interface cards and card rack. He was always willing to let me bounce my thoughts off of him, very nice gentleman and good boards too, not an ad, just my opinion. I had problems with positioning error and was stumped as to whether it was hardware or software related. I found after going back to basics that i was only experiencing my problem when the servos were on, and discovered that i was picking up noise from the pulsewidth modulation on the drives. This noise was radiating into the encoder wiring and causing false pulses to be counted. Simple fix by moving the shield connections of the encoder cabling to a more suitable ground location. Cleared it right up!