Want to start with EMC, Mach3 user

[DennisCNC]

Been reading about EMC now and then, now what to set up a computer with it and start experimenting. I've been running Mach for about 3 years on a mill and router. Were is a good place to start? I'm interested in the PCL functions with EMC to run tool changers and gear changes.

Thanks

[acondit]

Either your mill or your router would be a reasonable place to start. I was running Emc2 on my router that I just tore apart to build a new one.

So, download a copy of LiveCD (an ISO file), burn it to a CD as an image, and either run from the LiveCD or set up a machine and install from the LiveCD to the machine. Then you can run the latency check on the machine and see how it is going to work.

Are you running steppers or servos?

Alan

[DennisCNC]

The router has steppers the mill has servos with step direction drives and the next mill will probably have analogue servos.
Thanks for the Help.

[acondit]

I would suggest starting with the router. Steppers are a little easier to configure (but step/dir servos aren't much harder). After you know the latency of your computer, you can use stepconf to configure emc2 for your setup.

When I started stepconf hadn't been written yet. So I had to learn all about ".ini" files and ".hal" files and write them based on a few samples. If you are going to set up an analog servo machine, you are going to want to learn the intricacies of the configuration files anyway.

Alan

[jbcj]

On the servo machine I would recomend the Mesa board set. I am in the middle of seting up mine. And they are great....

Jim