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Pictures of the "current state" of my EMC2 retrofit of Bridgeport Interact CNC mill

ichudov

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Pictures of the "current state" of my EMC2 retrofit of Bridgeport Interact CNC mill

Here are some pictures of the "state of the union" of my Bridgeport Interact CNC mill. It had a bad Heidenhain control, so I refitted it with EMC2 and Linux.

Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 CNC Mill ==> September

Right now I am trying to finish up the conversion, tidy the wires, and make sure that all remaining buttons are properly wired.
 

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I like your pendant.

So ... on long running jobs can you play CS or BF2 while it's making parts? ;)

Thanks. I play music on this machine often.

One CPU on my control is fully dedicated to EMC2/CNC tasks and cannot be disturbed by other processes. So no matter how overloaded is the other CPU, the CNC tasks continue uninterrupted.
 
I have a supermax ycm40 knee mill with an anilam crusader m control. It has servos and glass scales. What would I need to convert mine to run on emc2? And is there a rough guess on what it would cost if I do all the work? Thanks. I can also be emailed at [email protected].
 
I have a supermax ycm40 knee mill with an anilam crusader m control. It has servos and glass scales. What would I need to convert mine to run on emc2? And is there a rough guess on what it would cost if I do all the work? Thanks. I can also be emailed at [email protected].

If you can reuse servos, but need encoders, interface box etc, I would say $1,500 plus the cost of a PC (which you can get in used condition).

You may be able to do it cheaper.

I keep a spreadsheet of the cost of my conversion. It does not include literally everything, like terminals etc, but I keep track of the cost. I could have done a bit better on price, at the cost of a lot more time wasted, but I value my time too.

i
 
Ok well i started with a anilam retrofitted bridgeport. The original anilliam glass scales got replaced with a mutiyo dro setup for other reasons though (i still do a lot of manual type work - the cost of the dro was very very minimal secound hand)

Ballscrews were all great in my case. Even the belts were good - all servo mounts - guards were reused. The motors on mine were british SEM servos with 10V tach feedback. I removed the tach and replaced it with a Hp 500 line encoder. Its the cheepest encoder, the one with the seperate wheel - reader head. Was a fiddly bit to get right but there nicely sealed - protected in the motor. Due to interface issues - 2 dead original drives they were replaced by geko 320 drives - a near dead match to the motors! The drive power supply - transformer - bridge rectifier - collosal capacitor was kept to power the gekos. A interface board was a easy little project - just took a while to meter out all 20+ lines on a parrelel cable! From there it was test controled by a dos capable laptop running turbo cnc. Big disapointment, programming - performance "BAD" but it proved the hardware. So after a few weeks that was ditched and a old 2ghz pc was reformatted and had EMC2 and its linux enviroment installed. Thats a lot sweeter option, need to tune it a bit more but its good! Oh and EMC is free too :-) With 9 axis movment i could machine my own silent nuclear sub prop if i wished ;-)

Travel limit switches were just reworked from the anilam pile of bits. The spindle still runs through the aniliam relay, so could be cnced if i wished. Currently thats manual, as i just ran out of tinker time. Hopefully some point it will get swapped to a inverter with a speed input option. Problem is how far do you go on a mchine with out a tool changer? Personaly whilst i could add tapping capabilities and such im going to soon get to the point all i then do is become a human tool changer. Hence currently im contemplating not going much further capabilities wise on the bridgeport, starting again with a older VMC and redoing that to get things like tool change and a more rigid setup.

All told due to scavanging - reuse i probaly have less than £500 in it. Most of thats the drives and new encoders. Most of the wiring needs were salvaged anilliam stuff, a handfull of cable ties and just every day electrical spares. All the drives are housed in the original aniliam drive enclosure. The Pc stands on top of that and monitor - keyboard are on the wall opposite in the garrage (single car garrage so its tight any rate) It has easly paid for its self. Basicaly any type of machine work that would see you slapping a rotory table on it can now just be done in a vice using the circular movments. Cutting - making custome sprockets, well thats more a cad exercise than a milling one! Equaly i oftern make custom bronze nuts for the local boat yard. Just grip it upright in the vice, clock it in and run around it whilst im messing with something else. Key ways are quick to programme - you only need a few cutters to cut any width they want! Even nasty stainless and silly over hangs are easy. Last month i was using a 1/8" cutter hanging out just over 1". Taking tiny cuts and gental - smooth cnc feeds got the job done with ease. Im almost certain i would have snapped it feeding by hand.
 
I just retroed a 4 ax with Mach3. I'm not real happy with the operating system. In the manual it says that it doesn't do well with BACKLASH COMPENSATION, and should be avoided if possible !!??????
Does EMC2 have the function and USE it? I'm running window xp, would that be a problem? How much does EMC2 cost?
thanks
i_r_machinist
 
EMC2 is free. It is supported on the mailing list and a chat channel and all my questions were always answered. EMC2 has a optional BACKLASH setting for every axis. EMC2 does not run under Windows XP and requires Linux to run.
 
Yets get one thing clear though, none of the controllers will like haveing backlash to deal with! So long as its only a small amount then it can be eliminated. Start trying to use realy sloppy bits of kit and your fighting a fight that can't realy be won.

Emc2 is great as far as im concerned. Equaly it gets away from windows. I forget what version of Ubuntu it runs on but its a lot more like a "vista" - mac style enviroment.

Personaly i looked at mach, apart from cost, i just saw no advantages.

Xp will sit there running on a mediocor machine with about 500Mb held in ram.

Ubuntu will be circa 100mb.

Ruffly speaking i run xp on a 3Ghz machine and it does not run as quick - smooth as ubuntu does on a old 2ghz machine. Equaly theres no viruses and its stable.

Only thing it won't do is shut the machine down when you tell it to turn off. But that could just be me not getting it set right yet.
 
The newest emc2 livecd uses Lucid Lynx (10.04). It also uses a SMP rtai kernel (multi proccessor). This version has shut down enabled. :)

I have tested it on a few machines and it is what I have been using to setup our VMC - I love it. (boots really really fast)

Only thing it won't do is shut the machine down when you tell it to turn off. But that could just be me not getting it set right yet.
 
I_R_ machinist,

I wonder if it might be better for me to use that whole AJAX cnc package?

Scott @ Ajax has now increased the price to $1495 + $500 for their software & wizards. It seems that the file size is limited and it won't take a DNC drip feed. You have to buy an expansion package to use unlimited size files.

Do you still like the Viper drives? I was impressed with Larry, and the way he helps everyone. The volts/amps of the Viper seem right for me, and a spare one on my shelf would be nice.

I will never use Geckos. All of threads and help forums I have read tell me this.

One of the M's is a great guy ( Mariss or Marcus), the other is a horses a$$.

He was giving advice on a forum and said " You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think".

Bob Warfield made a good comment back to him, but "M" didn't get it.

He pretty much insinuated "All of the info is in the instruction manual. If you can't comprehend it, F*** Y**. "

After reading many of his other comments, that attitude won't get my business.



On Linux:

It seems too difficult right now. I have used an Ubuntu disk before on a dual boot computer. It appeared just like Windows for gaming, surfing Google, and e-mails.
When it comes to the keyboard commands: <whatever/you are supposed/to put> I am lost:(. Linux really looks good/reliable/etc., but it is too intimidating for me. Sort of a DOS on steroids.


igor,

Is Linux really that much of a problem to set up on a machine with the EMC2 ? The EMC site say to use whatever Ubuntu they send with the install. If you upgrade on your own it will mess up the EMC. They will send you upgrades if needed.

I'll bet it is pretty easy for you, igor. I know you have a lot of electronics knowledge.:)

Any advice appreciated,

JAckal:cheers:
 
Jackal, I am a computer guy by nature and I know Linux much better than I know Windows. So I was very happy to use EMC and Linux.

For EMC, all you need is a fresh install of EMC 10.04 live disk and you aer good to go. You do, of course, need to set EMC up correctly, and that is a challenge. The community is good though and people are always happy to assist.

i
 
Yeah and upgradeing the os means reinstalling emc - full on reconfigureing. Big pain in the butt! I have done it twice. I installed 6. something. A month latter it became 8 something. Now it looks like its 10 something. Think i will just leave it at 8 for now.

I wanted it to play MP3 and internet video. Thats anouther 2 hours or so of patches - upgrades to be installed!

That said its still nice being able to upgrade your controller + software for free. Unlike practicaly any other machin controller out there!

As to operating linux. You don't have to use the comand line for anything. The few times i have its been settings, even then i have got them straight of the web as to what to type into it. Everything else is more or less similar to a windows - mac enviroment.
 
If it runs fine of version A1, why would you update to Z10?

This should be a stand-alone system eh? You guys are finding need to surf the net on the same control that is supposed to be paying attention to running parts?

Is another tower THAT much extra $?


-----------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
My Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 mill is for hobby work, I do not yet make money on it (though I would like to eventually). I see no reason why I cannot also browse the web or play music.

Actually adding music players and such is very easy and Ubuntu comes with a default music player.
 
The computer I am going to use for the controller will be stripped down and just a controller.

I would think that another program might take over all of the processor usage and cause it to lockup/crash the machine.

There is a laptop in my shop for surfing, Auto cad drawing, Mastercam programming, etc. It will send the programs to the controller on the machine.:)


JAckal:cheers:
 
Ok lets just clarify this. Part of emc setup is running a tool that records system useage. Its surprising how much other stuff you can do with minimal impact. Running a cnc is a pritty lame requirment computer power wise. Equaly its alot quicker to be able to look at tool paths and modify them on the control - browse Pm once the cuts proven. Oftern i will be putting qoutes together or doing my accounts - invoicing whilst the mills working. Haveing only the one keyboard covered in greasey finger prints is far more bareable.

The upgrades are more for othere features i use on the same box. At least compared to the last version, version 8 supports a lot more usb bassed gizmos. 6 was far more lacking in that department. Its not strictly needed, but theres no point living in the stone age either. Personaly im probaly not going to upgrade to 10.04 for a while yet. Practicaly i don't have to ever, but i probaly will. Certainly if the current pc controling it died then the new one would be installed with the latest and greatest.
 
I can certainly applaud you guys that can run multiple applications, and not have problems. It has just been my experience that sometimes multi-programs try to fight for the CPU's attention.

Then again I'm speaking from Windows experience. I haven't ran Linux. That would probably solve a lot.


JAckal:cheers:

"Everything is bio-degradable if you run over it enough with the lawnmower."
 
Jackal, in Linux, if I run many programs, they compete for CPU as well. But if I have at least two CPU cores, I can designate one CPU core as dedicated to CNC work, and it will be undisturbed by other programs. This is what I did on my CNC PC. It has two cores and one is exclusively reserved for CNC.
 








 
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