planning: bostomatic

["dennis pantazis" <dennis-at-pantazis.org>]

greetings all:

have been playing with my bdi install. mostly playing with trying to write
some g-code and using the backplotter. have realized how little i thought i
knew.

i borrow time after hours at a friend's machine shop with fanuc contolled
lathes and mills.

in the back they have a bostomatic that has a fubared factory controller on
it. they got a quote for like $25k to upgrade the controller. power supplies
appear to be ok. machine has us dynamics servo motors, and i think that the
pinouts are findable. cat-50 tools, dual spindles and dual tool changers,
one table, coolant. spindles work together, making parts 2-up on a jig. like
i said, the machine has an existing controller, so i would think that it has
all the parts and pieces needed like collant solenoids, etc...

how viable is it to convert it emc? any hidden pitfalls? i think that will
we need a servo-to-go board.
i have not yet figured out if/how emc handles tool changers. is it in there?
docs? where should i be looking?
realistically, how much functionality can we expect to wring out of emc? it
would be really sweet to be able to get the tool changer to work too.

anyone know of anyone who has converted a bostomatic machine? pointers or
referal would be great.

eagerly awiating your replies-

dennis