Newbie- What is EMC?

[RP Designs]

Ok, I have no experience with this so please forgive my ignorance. Other than being a control software, what exactly is EMC? How is it different than Mach software? What will it do, and what won't it do?

I am trying to decide on a retrofit of an older CNC and am trying to decide on the best path while keeping the learning curve as flat as possible. I am looking to pick up a servo based CNC machine and reuse as much of the hardware as possible.
Thanks

[flash319]

EMC is Open source (FREE) machine control software. It does the same type of thing that Mach can do but more. Since EMC is open source you can modify how it runs to suit your needs. Mach is a canned program with settings that can be changed but only what the author programmed into it. Mach is easier for a standard machine but EMC has more possible configurations and you can change it to what you want.
The biggest advantage of EMC is that it runs on Linux (FREE) and NOT Windows. Windows isn't stable with word processing let alone machine control.....

[RP Designs]

Originally Posted by flash319 EMC is Open source (FREE) machine control software. It does the same type of thing that Mach can do but more. Since EMC is open source you can modify how it runs to suit your needs. Mach is a canned program with settings that can be changed but only what the author programmed into it. Mach is easier for a standard machine but EMC has more possible configurations and you can change it to what you want. The biggest advantage of EMC is that it runs on Linux (FREE) and NOT Windows. Windows isn't stable with word processing let alone machine control.....

I don't know anything about linux. How hard is EMC to use. Mostly I will be doing most of the G-code with a CAM program. I will need to integrate the software to the retrofit, is there some documentation anywhere?

[acondit]

Go to this link to find the documentation.

http://www.linuxcnc.org/content/view/5/5/lang,en/

I think that EMC2 is very easy to use. I am using it on a CNC router that I built and a lathe that I converted to CNC.

Alan

[BMG]

Perhaps the better question is what do you need your machine to do and will the software your comfortable with do that?

EMC requires you to learn linux (if you have no experience) and more importantly - it requires you to have a better understanding of your actual machine. No fudging allowed (well - maybe a little).

In the end, if you pursue EMC - you will learn EMC, linux and how your machine functions better

[linuxstep1]

hi,

I have not much experience with EMC (just started), a little with linux.
Of course its helpful to understand linux, but for me it seems not necessary to become a Linux expert to use EMC.
My first impressions of EMC:
- easy to install (on top of an existing ubuntu hardy)
- very flexible to configure
- documentation a little fuzzy (as usual with linux sw)

Gerd

[vlmarshall]

I switched to Linux and EMC (from Mach) at the beginning of this year. Ubuntu is easy to use, and EMC has many more options, so I'm sticking with it.
My biggest reason for switching was EMC's ability to use Macro programming, nesting conditional loops of Gcode. I'm used to programming this way at work, and didn't want to lose it at home.

[Andre' B]

The single greatest difference is programs like Mach are not motion controllers they just send out a stream of position commands and assume that the hardware will follow.
EMC, at least when not being used in step/direction mode is a motion control making possible much high performance systems with more predictable results.

[guru_florida]

Download the EMC2 Live CD. I evaluated EMC2 without even installing it on my hard drive. Use a flash drive to store the emc2 config files until you decide to do a full hard drive install. Emc2 was 10 times better than the windows controller I tried (it wasnt mach3 though). After learning a lot of emc2's internals, it's very robust and it's gcode interpreter is very good and fully functional with it's control loops, variables, etc.

You won't have to learn much linux to run and operate EMC2, it won't be that dissimilar to using windows. However, after a while you may prefer Linux over Windows...I definitely do! (In some spare time, use the "Synaptics Package Manager" program to search and install from thousands of free applications with the click of a button. Uninstallation is just as easy.)

Generate your config with stepconf wizard if you end up using steppers or servo amps with step/dir interface. If you use servos then you will have quite a learning curve setting emc2 up to control them.

If you are new to CNC you should start with Stepper Control. Unless you are doing some *real* heavy cutting, you are really better off with steppers anyway. Servos are the fastest and are powerful, but often require tuning and more understanding of your machine than steppers and the control theory is more complicated.

I also configured emc2 to use an xbox style joystick as a CNC control pendant, very handy!

Colin

[RP Designs]

Originally Posted by guru_florida Download the EMC2 Live CD. I evaluated EMC2 without even installing it on my hard drive. Use a flash drive to store the emc2 config files until you decide to do a full hard drive install. Emc2 was 10 times better than the windows controller I tried (it wasnt mach3 though). After learning a lot of emc2's internals, it's very robust and it's gcode interpreter is very good and fully functional with it's control loops, variables, etc. You won't have to learn much linux to run and operate EMC2, it won't be that dissimilar to using windows. However, after a while you may prefer Linux over Windows...I definitely do! (In some spare time, use the "Synaptics Package Manager" program to search and install from thousands of free applications with the click of a button. Uninstallation is just as easy.) Generate your config with stepconf wizard if you end up using steppers or servo amps with step/dir interface. If you use servos then you will have quite a learning curve setting emc2 up to control them. If you are new to CNC you should start with Stepper Control. Unless you are doing some *real* heavy cutting, you are really better off with steppers anyway. Servos are the fastest and are powerful, but often require tuning and more understanding of your machine than steppers and the control theory is more complicated. I also configured emc2 to use an xbox style joystick as a CNC control pendant, very handy! Colin

Can you run EMC2 Live on windows, or do you need to install Linux first? Do you have a link for the CD download?
I am not as worried about learning servo's, while I am very new to it I do have a bit of control theory from school and have been researching the tuning aspects, but hopefully If I need assistance I can find it here. There certainly are a lot of people with a lot more knowledge and experience than I have. I am still really in the planning stage and have not made a 100% decision on anything yet.

[cyclestart]

Originally Posted by RP Designs Can you run EMC2 Live on windows, or do you need to install Linux first?

No need to install anything. It runs off the cd using ram and won't harm your windows install in any way. Very cool stuff. Just boot up the machine with the cd in the drawer.

Do you have a link for the CD download?

http://www.linuxcnc.org/
and read, or go directly here
http://www.linuxcnc.org/content/view/21/4/lang,en/
Go for 8.04. unless your computer is more than a few years old.

Anything less than 512 ram is a guaranteed miserable experience.
Burn the cd as an image. Burning software has different terminology for this and some won't do it at all (notably the last windows built in software I tried). If you see only one large file on the disk after burning you did it wrong.
Make sure your BIOS is set to boot the optical drive before the hard drive.
Have fun

[chester88]

reading the wiki would be good too- the manual is there in HTML and PDF...
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emc...cKnowledgeBase