Which controller card?

[jcolley]

I am in the stages of a 5-axis mill and I'm to the point of picking a controller for EMC.

Here's the specs:
- X,Y,Z,A, and C axes
- Parker Compumotor SM232B servos on all five axes
- Parker Compumotor TQ10 servo drivers for all servos
- NC generated by Pro/NC
- Class 3 or better ballscrews on X,Y, and Z
- Dual worm anti-backlash drive on A and C

As I am using more than four axes, I have narrowed my choices down to two cards so far:

- Vital Sytems MOTENC
- Servo2Go Model 2 card

I would eventually like to add linear encoders (possibly absolute) on the X,Y, and Z and additional rotary encoders on the A and C coupled directly to the driven axis.

Does anyone know if dual loop encoding (encoder fusion) has been used with EMC thus far?

What recommendation do any of you have for the cards? Other thoughts?

[unterhaus]

I'm almost positive that encoder fusion has not been encorporated into EMC. I would think that if you use the cards you mentioned, you could incorporate it into the driver for the card. Are you going to run out of encoder channels on the cards? The problem is that you probably would have to write the code yourself or arrange for it to be written.

I'm disappointed with Servo to Go. I talked to the owner 4 years ago, and he said they were coming out with a PCI version soon, which hasn't happened yet. I would only buy an ISA card nowadays if real-time was not an issue, and even then it would have to be fairly special or cheap. S2G does not meet my criteria. So I think that your best bet is the motenc card. The developer of that card actively monitors the progress of EMC.

[jcolley]

I think the MOTENC is going to be the way I end up going. I will not have enough encoder inputs with that card alone. Someone from CCED recommended using a pair of MOTENCS (gasp!) for all the control needs, but I'm not sure that's a cost effective route.

Encoder fusion is definately not supported through any current driver for anyones board with EMC. Yet... I know jack about writing device drivers, but the next time I deploy on a ship again, I may just have all the time I need to figure out how to do it. That would be a nice addition down the road.

I'm kind of looking at the Vigilant cards now too...they have great expandibility.