<fr...@...> writes: snip...
> The reason Id like to change the soft CNC is that Mach 3 slows down the > machine dramatically on complex fine cuts with a large number of short G1 > movements. Can I expect an improvement of the cutting speed by utilizing > EMC? I think it depends on how good the tool path look ahead is. What can > I expect from EMC running on a standard PC (3 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 2 > PCI LPT cards)? > > I hope you can comment on my quite unspecific questions. > > Greetings > Flo Hi Flo, I just finished converting a 3 ton knee mill to emc2 using the Mesa 5i20/7i33 cards and new Advanced Motion servo amps. I kept the original brush servos and converted them to optical (encoders 2000 ppr). I have been generating complex toolpaths in CAM and I saw the speeds slow a bit when I hit lots of little line segments, but I was still getting max 30 ipm. So I started to use the G64 command (example: G64 P0.0015) and I immediately got a huge jump in attainable cutting speeds; as much as 100 ipm, which is a lot more than I need. I have not yet experimented with adjusting the segment tolerance settings in CAM yet, but I can turn on arcs in my CAM package which helps with the cutting speed, but the output ngc file seems to have a mix arcs and line segments in a way that I cannot control (as far I know...). Still, I have more speed than I can use, and very good accuracy. After reading and evaluating Mach3 vs. Emc2 for a year, I decided to go with Emc2 mainly because with encoders, Emc2 always knows where the joints are and displays there positions, even when you turn off or estop the servo amps. This allows you to pause or estop the machine if I don't like what its doing, and then correct the issue (even re-load the edited toolpath) - and resume where I left off without losing position or accuracy. I am very happy with it. Tom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
