RE: regarding future plans for EMC

["Pete Cook" <pete.cook-at-alltracorp.com>]

As far as other hardware - I have thought about building a servo interface
(actually similar to STG, though I was looking into some of those devices
before I saw STG's info) using the USDigital encoder chips - a couple 2 axis
encoder chips and then figure out what D2A converter along with a 8255 or 2
for I/O. The only thing I haven't worked out is the necesary safety timeout
(heartbeat monitor) so things could be shut down gracefully in a system
crash. I would rather kill the drives rather than have things run off on
their own...

I have a Cleveland Motion Controls 3 axis ServoPak 150 and some old encoders
that I would like to be able to control.

The encoder chips are approx $25 apiece for 2 axis, probably $10 apiece for
A2D Converters, the 8255's from the junkbox, I think I can still get an ISA
building card for under $30. another $50 for the remaining pieces parts. So
maybe some time and less $200 I could have something to play with. I would
like to find someone who would just love to donate a STG card... The price
of the STG seems to be fair, but I think I could manage to come up  with a
couple hundred to play where $800 is a little harder to justify around the
house...

Probably the STG card is more cost effective, but how would you convince
your wife that it was money well spent?

Pete
>
> Hello Pete,
>
> > Could someone give a clear description of the pieces parts of EMC?
> > The reason I ask this is because I am curious as to how
> much of of EMC
> > I would need to rebuild to make another module for
> different physical
> > hardware. I understand that there is the realtime part of
> EMC and the
> > non-realtime portion. How tightly or loosely are they coupled?
>
> It so happens I am also looking for a detailed description of
> EMC parts, so
> if anyone can add anything to the list, I'm all ears:
>
> - There is the snippet in Keith Rumley's post earlier in the thread.
> - There is also a partial list of what file does what in the
> documents cvs
>   module, in documents/temp_html/part3/sourcefiles.html
> - ???
>
> Also, could you describe in a bit more detail what you mean
> by 'different
> physical hardware'. Unsupported (homebrew?) controller
> hardware perhaps?
> If so, what kind, and how is it connected to the pc. Parallel port?
> If the controller has a simple 2-write input
> (step+direction), or perhaps a
> phase drive interface, then this can easily be made to work. But quite
> possibly you mean something else...
>
> Fred
>