Newbie- TorCAM conversion to EMC2

[zang]

Is it possible to get an older TORCAM cnc machine to operate using EMC2?
Has anyone done this converstion?
Any information would be greatly appreciated this is very new to me.
Trying to get a Torcam CNC lathe and a Torcam CNC machine to operate without the original software.

[DonnieET]

EMC2 will control almost anything using an old PC as a controller. I done a quick search for a TORCAM and could find nothing.

Is this for a business or hobby?

For business use look for a commercial retrofitter.

For hobby use got to www.linuxcnc.org read up on EMC2. Go to the mailing list ask question there be specific with the questions.

Would you have the electrical schematics for the machine? Without this you would need to find out what type of motors you have most are either steppers or servos.

GE Fanuc red cap motors are hard to work with as the use proprietary feedback system.

Donnie

[zang]

Thank you for the reply. The machines are in a local high school, they said they were not using them any more because they couldn't afford the software for them. I don't know much about them yet but from what I've read on the EMC2 site it looks like I could always just tear out the MCU of the machine and use EMC2 connected directly to the motor controls. Don't know enough yet about the machines but I thought I would start asking here to see if anyone any had experience with these. Like you said Google garnered very little info and the manuals that were with them were specific to the software that had originally came with them.

[jmelson]

Originally Posted by zang Thank you for the reply. The machines are in a local high school, they said they were not using them any more because they couldn't afford the software for them. I don't know much about them yet but from what I've read on the EMC2 site it looks like I could always just tear out the MCU of the machine and use EMC2 connected directly to the motor controls. Don't know enough yet about the machines but I thought I would start asking here to see if anyone any had experience with these. Like you said Google garnered very little info and the manuals that were with them were specific to the software that had originally came with them.

Could these actually be Tormach? They use Gecko drives or their Chinese clones, generic
step/direction inputs. There are machines sold by Tormach with the EMC2 program. If you
followed their setup files for the connection to the drives, you wouldn't have to do much to get it
running except run wires from the computer's parallel port to the drives. (Might need a "break
out board" if the PC's parallel port doesn't have enough drive.

Jon

[zang]

No the machines are from a company called TOR Computerized Systems Inc. out of Concord Ontario Canada. Not alot of relevant stuff about them online.