EMC and existing hardware/electronics

[beege]

I have a CNC router that was built, but never much good. There were issues with the software and interface, and the motors couldn't be tuned. I'm contemplating a switch to EMC2. Just how easy is the setup? The wires are all connected for estop, tool clamp, coolant, spindle etc, and the PLC side is working ok. It's running on a Win2000 PC, the drives communicate via firewire. Am I looking at some new electronics, or can I make do with what I have?I might need some hand-holding here, especially if I have to redo the ladder, since I've never delved into that before...

[Big John T]

A little more information would help you to get a good answer.

Is it a stepper system or servo?

What kind of drives is it?

etc.

For a normal stepper setup using the parallel port the setup can't be any easier with EMC2. You just run the latency test to find your computers speed that it can process and then run the step configuration wizard.

John

[beege]

John,

Its servo.
Drives are made by ORMEC, firewire communication
There's aboard that I think handles all I/O including spindle function (a Yaskawa drive)
made be SoftServo of Waltham (who hasn't been much help to me at this point) number on it says IM200, and I think its a VersioBus FP-95

Is that any help?

[Big John T]

I am only familiar with steppers but it should help someone who is familiar with servos.

Also, post your question on the EMC mailing list or ask it on the #EMC IRC. There are lots of folks that are good with servos.

John

[fenn]

EMC2 does not support firewire at present, but there has been a tiny bit of interest in it, and I think it would work well if a driver were developed. But, firewire is just a networking technology, and so you would have to write another set of drivers for the servo drives on the other end of the cable.

You should investigate the drives in detail to see if there are more interface options, otherwise you will be starting from scratch. Look up chip datasheets, dont just believe what it says in the drive manufacturer's docs. But first you gotta get a model number from the drive. If the drives do PID internally, tben they would not be a good match for EMC.

The FP-95 card looks like more trouble than it's worth.

Here's an overview of the system?
http://www.softservo.com/Mechatrolin...atID=2&subID=7