Re: 5 axis controller

[Jon Elson <jmelson-at-artsci.wustl.edu>]

john s finnila wrote:

> I am forging ahead on my 5-axis milling machine project.  I have some
> additional
> questions.  Does the emc controller have soft limits to prevent to
> prevent the machine
> from crashing into the mechanical travel limitations of the machine?

Yes.

>  Some basic PC questions for this
> control.  How fast
> should the PC be?

I'm using a 100 MHz Pentium Classic with a 3-axis servo system.  That
works fine.  The software stepper version needs more CPU cycles, so
maybe 200-300 MHz Pentium II would be a good place to start.

>  How much ram is recommended?

32 MB is adequate.

>  How large should the
> hard drive be?

I have not been able to install a full Red Hat Linux system on less that 1
GB.
If you can live without a bunch of extra stuff, you can do with less.

> Which emc files would I need to install for this system?

All of them would save you about a month of trouble.

> What  would be the recommended linux files to install?

The general workstation install is a good place to start, then add the
software
development stuff, X development stuff (I think that's needed), Tk/TCL
for the new GUI, and the help/man files.

Jon