which commercial linear scale for EMC?

[Doug Fortune <pentam-at-home.com>]

I'm sure this has been answered before (ie before
I joined the list), but it looks like I will be needing
to get direct linear feedback into EMC.    A separate
digital display head (such as in Dan Mauches' kit) is
obviously redundant and so I'd like to avoid the DRO's.

How is this done?  Serial port(s)?  I would obviously
like to go for a more inexpensive homebrew arrangement
if it is immediately available and debugged, however
time constraints may shortly be critical.  Anything
1 thou or better is sufficient.

In that case, which commercial systems are known
to be compatable with Linux/EMC?  The XYZ travels
are 52"x15"x20" (on a Heckert FU-400V).

Future expandability to a 4th and 5axis would be nice too.

Doug Fortune