>JIQ,
Welcome to the board/thread, as I said on the other thread,I wanted to keep everything here for convenience. As you can tell from the posting I have a PC Mill 50 and it is operational. I am using the Emco WinCAM software as both a CAM package and a machine controller. So I will try to answer your question for you now.
>Could this be an optional spot for something else? Perhaps you can answer this questions first!
From the sounds of it you Mill had a SPS 2000 card installed. This card controlled an optional programmable door and/or an optional spindle blow out device. The system will function fine without them. Mine also came less this card but with some of the wiring and a blank space but without any of the physical hardware.
>I am starting to think that to get this machine to work with the original material is just not worth it. I am seriously considering to use my own bipolar stepper motors and discard the 5 phase steppers which are going to be hard like hell to get a driver for.
I would take a little time and see if you can acquire the Emco RS485 board. This was the only piece missing on mine and ended up costing me around $500 on EBay. New ones are around $2000 if Emco still has them. I have also seen them go for less. The original WinCAM software costs $250 and that is about what a different controller interface also costs. You can set the 50 up with WinCAM or an emulator for a number of industry standard controllers which would then be able to download g-code from you favorite CAM package or editor. The other hurdle is acquiring an old enough PC with win98 to run the software. I suspect there is a way to emulate the RS485 card and use a standard serial port for output but I have not taken the time yet to find a serial analyzer and record the port communication between the PC and the card and the card and the mill. Another option soon to be announced by Emco is an upgraded ACC unit for the mill that can communicate over ethernet. This will be a $3200 upgrade and more than I care to spend at the present time. Along with that I would upgrade to the newer and more user friendly CAM Concept software which is $1700 or $525 to upgrade from WinCAM. BTW all this software is available from EMCO as are all the manuals.
Support is available as well from EMCO USA at:
http://www.emcomaier-usa.com
As to a conversion to another controller, the interface between the PC Mill 50 controller board and the stepper drive board appears to be logic level step and direction signals. I believe, but do not know for sure, that you should be able to take a program like EMC on a PC with a parallel port and directly drive this board. I have not had the need to find out.
For electronics, I have a few designs that are working well, so I will use those as well. I am thinking that 5A should be more than plenty for this machine.
>But before I go there, is it possible to get a copy of the manual? I have read most of the posts and it is clear the manual is somewhere out there. I would truly appreciate it if somebody could share it with me. Thanks!
I would be happy to send you a copy of the EMCO PC Mill 50 Electrical Documentation in pdf format if you contact me directly at lanb at pobox dot com This is also available from Emco in electronic format or you can still buy the manual in hard copy if you wish. (because of that I will not post it anywhere)
I hope this answers your question and gets you started.
Best regards and good luck,
Lan
>Best regards,
>JIQ