Re: First time EMC user (introduction)

["Richard Everett" <rick-at-skyko.com>]

<snip>
> Many commercial machines today use much higher resolution encoders than
> the positioning accuracy requires.  They do this to compensate for the
> fact of no tach velocity feedback for the servo drive rather than for the
> positioning.
>
> I take it that the existing drive amps were removed before you got the
> machine?
>

Oh, I missed that last part.  No, the machine came with a Fanuc 6MB
controller and servo drive amps in a 6 foot tall cabinet.  The motherboard
is missing a Y axis control chip (42 pin proprietary or obsolete
microcontroller) and also does not seem to boot correctly (not sure if it is
because of this chip (doubtfull, since I think the 6T only has two chips
anyway) or some other unknown problem.  The servo amps probably work, but I
am not exactly sure what type of interface they use.  I didn't spend much
time trying to figure that out since I had the two gecko drives...I figured
I would just put the fanuc stuff up on ebay after I get the machine up and
running with EMC.  It is not that the Fanuc stuff is bad...right now a 6MB
probably has way more functionality (other than memory and drip feed) than
EMC, but I don't like the fact that you have to spend 4K for a new
motherboard, or $2K for a servo amp.  Fanuc will not give you any schematics
or rom images or anything.  So rather than support that philosophy, I would
rather contribute to the improvement of something like EMC.  Maybe it sounds
dumb, but...


Richard