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Almost done converting a Bridgeport Interact CNC mill to Linux/EMC (VIDEO)

ichudov

ichudov

Hot Rolled
Joined
Feb 1, 2008
Location
Illinois
The mill was in good shape, but had a bad control. I ripped it out and sold control parts with proper disclosure. That paid for the mill itself. I Installed AMC servo drives, PPMC controller and various trinkets. Now the mill homes itself, executes G codes etc. It all works. What I still need to do is wire the original control buttons.

The video is here:

_________________ YouTube - Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 CNC mill, LINUX EMC EMC2 _______
 
i,

That looks great!!!! I looked for the retrofit info that I had on a CD but never could find it. It must have disappeared.:(

Looks like you didn't need any help anyway. That was quick.:)

Keep us posted on updates.

JAckal:cheers:
 
Guys, thanks. It was not simple since it was my first time,but in retrospect, it was straightforward, just buy the right pieces and connect them with the right wires.

The only repair that I had to do to the mill's hardware, was to weld one cast iron bracket that was broken. No biggie.

Where it would have been difficult, would be if the mill itself was broken. Fortunately, it was not, only the Heidenhain control was bad.

I thought initially to just fix the control, but freaked out when Heidenhain quoted me $3,000-5,000 for the repair. As of now, I have $1,700 in the mill, including cost of purchase but excluding the control stuff that I sold.

I could not be happier with the decision to install EMC, it is such a fine software and I get a general purpose computer on the mill too. So I can edit G codes with XEmacs, use a browser, etc.

A few things are still left to do, such as making the mill's buttons to work, wiring spindle and coolant control to the controller, etc.
 
I am not getting the mayo thing either.

The BP Series 2 is the best knee mill iron that BP ever made.
I have one myself that is nearing conversion completion.
I will be running mach instead of EMC.
 
Polar,

Could you tell me more about it? I don't want to Hi-jack this thread. You can PM me with a little of the info.;)

Maybe some pics, too.:drool5::popcorn:


JAckal:cheers:
 
Mach vs EMC -- what difference?

Nice work!

I read that EMC required the user to have some knowledge of programming (I mean C++) but it is free to download. Whereas Mach is for sale (something like $150) but is basically plug & play with the hardware.

I may be wrong on both of those points, but I wonder what is the difference between them, and if somebody wanted to retrofit a machine, or similar project, which would be the best choice?

Any thoughts?
 
From my vantage point in this thread it looks to me that what this guy is using is on Linux. I ass_u_me that means no Winders. ???

The Mach as I understand it runs in Winders.

I have one machine that runs in QNiX - which I believe is similar to Linux? It runs very well! The jury is still out on my Winders based machine.


NOT having Winders involved would be a big plus IMO.


------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
feedback....?

Windows for mach, and linux for emc -- I'll go with that, even though I don't really understand the finer points. (Something about windows interupting the data flow?)

Is it possible to have a closed loop with either of the two systems?

And the mayo?
 
Ok EMC can close loop control to some degree but i have never explored that fully yet. I know nothing about editing code but am generaly pc literate. If you can install software fix problems on a pc you can install and get emc running with out difficulty.

EMC and mach originaly long ago were the same base code. Just gone to diffrent platforms.

The realy significant advantages i can think of for emc apart from being free is that a linux os is generaly incredably stable. Equaly it needs only a fraction of computing horse power a windows machine does. Chances are a older home pc thats slow on windows will run ubuntu and EMC a treat.
 
pppaul1 said:
Nice work!

I read that EMC required the user to have some knowledge of programming (I mean C++) but it is free to download. Whereas Mach is for sale (something like $150) but is basically plug & play with the hardware.

I may be wrong on both of those points, but I wonder what is the difference between them, and if somebody wanted to retrofit a machine, or similar project, which would be the best choice?

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

EMC itself does not require any programming. I am using it and have not written a single line in C.

I am a computer programmer, however, and I started writing programs that generate G codes.
 
Ox said:
From my vantage point in this thread it looks to me that what this guy is using is on Linux. I ass_u_me that means no Winders. ???

The Mach as I understand it runs in Winders.

I have one machine that runs in QNiX - which I believe is similar to Linux? It runs very well! The jury is still out on my Winders based machine.


NOT having Winders involved would be a big plus IMO.

Ox
Click to expand...


I am not running Windows, EMC is a Linux only product and that is a big plus as far as I am concerned.
 
adama said:
Ok EMC can close loop control to some degree but i have never explored that fully yet. I know nothing about editing code but am generaly pc literate. If you can install software fix problems on a pc you can install and get emc running with out difficulty.

EMC and mach originaly long ago were the same base code. Just gone to diffrent platforms.

The realy significant advantages i can think of for emc apart from being free is that a linux os is generaly incredably stable. Equaly it needs only a fraction of computing horse power a windows machine does. Chances are a older home pc thats slow on windows will run ubuntu and EMC a treat.
Click to expand...

I run EMC on a 8 year old PC. The PC is slow, but EMC runs fine. I think that I will upgrade the PC just because I do not feel good about a 8 year old power supply on the PC running the mill.

All CNC always closes the loop, that is the point of CNC.
 
Polaraligned said:
I am not getting the mayo thing either.

The BP Series 2 is the best knee mill iron that BP ever made.
I have one myself that is nearing conversion completion.
I will be running mach instead of EMC.
Click to expand...

Agree about the iron. Ran one of these for years. The downside was the BOSS control and being open-loop.

If I run across one of these, I'd definately consider doing what you guys have done.

For one of our more unusual jobs years ago, we adapted a BP right-angle drive to cut some angled grooves in a cutting knife. It wasn't all that difficult to do, just took some time to alter the R8 drive to a QwikSwitch 200. Moved the limit switch inside the head to a new position so that Z down position accomodated the necessary shortened stroke.

Gatz
 
gatz said:
Agree about the iron. Ran one of these for years. The downside was the BOSS control and being open-loop.

If I run across one of these, I'd definately consider doing what you guys have done.

For one of our more unusual jobs years ago, we adapted a BP right-angle drive to cut some angled grooves in a cutting knife. It wasn't all that difficult to do, just took some time to alter the R8 drive to a QwikSwitch 200. Moved the limit switch inside the head to a new position so that Z down position accomodated the necessary shortened stroke.

Gatz
Click to expand...

This is not a BOSS machine (where CNC is an afterthought and a bolt-on to the non-CNC iron). This is a servo driven, closed loop CNC machine with a lot of CNC features. Made in UK.
 
my bad...shoulda read closer.
I recall the Heidenhain controlled BP now that I re-read the post.
Another shop in our city had one of those.
A far better match-up than the BOSS
 
Guys, just a little update if anyone cares.

I found a way to add an encoder on the spindle.

With that encoder in place, I could go rigid tapping on this machine using spindle angular position as a "master" and Z axis position would be a slave of spindle.
 
The quandary is:

EMC is closed loop back to the PC

MACH is closed loop back to the drives.

EMC has not much in the way of canned cycles or programming help / conversational Am I right on that?

MACH has all those cool wizards and probing functions.

Which one to pick :confused: :confused: :confused:
 
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