Mark Wrathall wrote:

Paul wrote> So the Gecko is both motion card and servo amp?

It inputs a step rate and outputs the analog voltage for the servo
motors?

Sounds like DOS would be the best OS to use as it comes closest to
to being real time OS.

Correct on both counts. Although EMC also does a great job on Linux RT
Kernal. The Australian Rutex servo drivers are functionally the same as

the

Gecks, but at higher power.

Regards,
Mark
www.wankel.org

What do these things cost?

BTW does the DOS software available emulate the typical manual controls
found on a Funuc or Bandit?

Paul Lamar

Geckos:
80V (max) 20A
Gecko G320 $114 / axis (1/10 mpuls multiplier)

Gecko G 340 $148 / Axis (selectable 1 1/2 1/5 or 1/10 puls multiplier)
http://www.geckodrive.com/products.htbml

Rutex:
100V 20A
R990H $148 /axis

200V 20A
R990H2 $188 /axis

200V 40A
R90 H $220 /axis
http://www.rutex.com/us/cart.php?target=category&action=view&category_id=5

They normally use the arrow key pad to jog axis one and two and I think the
brackets for axis three (I only run a two axis lathe). On turboCNC you
toggle between jog increments with "J". A few people have rigged up jogging
wheels through the game port or second parallel port.

The $20 registration fee for turboCNC gets you the source code ( in
Turbopascal), so it's pretty easy to change the key assignments etc The set
up menu allows to you choose the pins for various I/O (spindle, coolant,
etc). EMC is written in C or C+ and is also open source.

They all support homing, coolant, air blast, etc.

All these PC controllers also have MDI mode for commanding the machine  line
by line. In TurboCNC the input lines write to a file (you specify name each
time) so you can run the file again. I find that for the lathe this mode is
the one I use most.

Seeing as you are a linux user, you really should look at EMC through the
Brain dead install. This is a very powerful controller (it even has the
algorythms for controlling a hexapod in there somewhere), with constant
velocity conturing. Being open source there a couple of inperfections (no
electonic gearing for single point lathe threadng, and clunky feedrate
handling on mixed linear/rotary axis moves are the most important).

Download TurboCNC and have a play. It is only 187KB installed.
www.dakeng.com

If this is taking up too much Wankel bandwidth, you we can carry this
discussion (with Harrison ) in private.
Regards,
Mark

Not much else going on and there are some other people on here interested.
I would like to encourage more people to make the off the shelf bits and pieces we
need for more quickly installing rotary engines. 

Paul Lamar
 
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