[GuitarBrad]

I'm a retired programmer (Unix/Linux). I recently reconnected with my FIRST boss from 40 years ago. Long story short we are building CNC machines using used Delta Tau PMAC. We take a Raspberry Pi and connect it to the serial port of the PMAC to create a 'control head'. I've written a GUI program so my former boss can better control his CNC machines driven by PMACs. To complete the programming, I will need to actually build a CNC machine of some sort, so I can test features (like showing the GCODE as it executes).

Is this even remotely interesting to anybody? What's a good home CNC machine to build?

https://youtu.be/kMWh-8qO1HM

[iwaskevin]

Pretty cool I will be watching for this

[mactec54]

I'm a retired programmer (Unix/Linux). I recently reconnected with my FIRST boss from 40 years ago. Long story short we are building CNC machines using used Delta Tau PMAC. We take a Raspberry Pi and connect it to the serial port of the PMAC to create a 'control head'. I've written a GUI program so my former boss can better control his CNC machines driven by PMACs. To complete the programming, I will need to actually build a CNC machine of some sort, so I can test features (like showing the GCODE as it executes).

Is this even remotely interesting to anybody? What's a good home CNC machine to build?

https://youtu.be/kMWh-8qO1HM

Yes it is, Delta Tau make a great product, expensive but may be this will change that, and make it affordable for the Hobby market

[GuitarBrad]

expensive but may be this will change that,

My friend worked at Delta Tau, he has many PMAC boards , some old, some newer. We are striving to be backwards compatible by about 20 years!

He scours the internet for used PMACs, sometime they can be had for $300, that's what he sent me to test. That picture is a 4 axis PMAC with ISA bus.

I think a new Delta Tau PMAC Turbo Clipper is $1,000 new, The Turbo CLipper has NO bus at all, only serial IO, RS232, USB, ???

I'll keep ya all posted.

[Al_The_Man]

I once considered Delta Tau years ago when looking for a controller, I settled on Galil Motion which also sell a very nice comparable product, also played with Acroloop before they sold out to Parker.
I much prefer the ±10vdc torque mode loop controllers like these.
Al..

[GuitarBrad]

I once considered Delta Tau years ago when looking for a controller, I settled on Galil Motion which also sell a very nice comparable product, also played with Acroloop before they sold out to Parker.
I much prefer the ±10vdc torque mode loop controllers like these.
Al..

My friend worked at Delta Tau, and that is what he knows. I don't know anything really, I'm slowly learning from him.

From what I understand, one of the advantages of the PMAC is that it can be configured for any kind of motor/amp. That is also it's downfall, as the secret knowledge of configuration is kept within a close knit community of system integration houses. My friend was the liaison between Delta Tau's system integration clients and Delta Tau engineering. He worked mostly on packaging.

Delta Tau was sold to a Japanese firm, the old regime is gone, and no one knows the future of PMAC. But there are hundreds of thousands of PMACs out there, waiting to be retired into the clutches of guys like us.

[Al_The_Man]

I remember seeing a company that had built a commercial machine around the Delta Tau at the IMTS show many years ago.
The one thing I like about Galil is the company support which at the time didn't seem to be that great for D.T.
There are quite a few drives with ±10vdc control out there because the majority look for step dir,
Likewise with motors, both brushed DC and BLDC.
Al.

[GuitarBrad]

company support which at the time didn't seem to be that great for D.T.

Can confirm, their support was never very good apparently. Their documentation on the other hand is excellent.

Thankfully my friend can still call the guys that designed the PMAC, a strangely large percentage of the key engineers that started the PMAC are still employed at D.T, even after their acquisition.

Even with the excellent documentation, configuring a PMAC to a specific set of motors/screws/tools takes a real intimate knowledge of like 100 controlling variables per motor. My friend does it, but with lots of trial and error.

I'll have to do it soon, I think it will be fun, we'll see...

[omniserv]

Hello, I have a Delta Tau PMAC Lite board in our Flow waterjet. They had it in a old HP PC that the hard drive crashed in. Managed to rebuild the PC and got the PMAC to work with the PEWIN program from Delta Tau, but can't get the Flow software to run it. Flow hasn't been any help saying all that software is obsolete and we need to replace the control.

Can anyone recommend a software package to run the PMAC? We Only have 2 axis plus 2 outputs. I do have the a backup of all the PMAC settings and have been able to upload them to the control. For some reason the flowcut software isn't seeing the PMAC and the new flow guys at tech support don't know what to do.

Thanks

Chris

[GuitarBrad]

Hello, I have a Delta Tau PMAC Lite board in our Flow waterjet. They had it in a old HP PC that the hard drive crashed in. Managed to rebuild the PC and got the PMAC to work with the PEWIN program from Delta Tau, but can't get the Flow software to run it. Flow hasn't been any help saying all that software is obsolete and we need to replace the control.

Can anyone recommend a software package to run the PMAC? We Only have 2 axis plus 2 outputs. I do have the a backup of all the PMAC settings and have been able to upload them to the control. For some reason the flowcut software isn't seeing the PMAC and the new flow guys at tech support don't know what to do.

Thanks

Chris

I have a similar situation. I have a friend who has multiple machines controlled by PMACs. He has to use them via old PC based programs from Delta Tau. He hates the PC based stuff so much he asked me to replace it.

So we got a Raspberry Pi. ($35)

We added an RS-232 interface ($9.95 on the Internet)

We connected the RPi to the PMAC, RS232, with hardware flow control (RTS/CTS), five wires, ($15 in cables, connectors)

I installed Ruby on the RPi.

I downloaded a series of Ruby gems on the RPi, here is the ruby source that references these gems, the name of the gem is within the single quotes.

require 'gtk2' # the graphical user interface (GUI) GNOME 2.0 ruby bindings
require 'serialport' # for direct serial interface to PMAC
require 'net/telnet' # for telnet protocol when using telnet->serial interface to talk to PMAC
require 'ipaddress' # minor stuff needed for validating IP addresses

Then I built a ruby program that talks to PMAC.

It works in two modes, TELNET or DIRECT SERIAL

If the mode is telnet, it assumes you're PMAC has it's serial port connected to a (IP<->serial) device, like a Lantronics. You just supply an IP address and the program will connect and converse.

If the mode is DIRECT SERIAL, it connects to the on board serial device on the RPi.

Then you can do whatever you want to interface, my program allows you to enter a file load dialog so you can send GCODE to the PMAC.

It also has a simple terminal interface, so you can set IVARS, save, etc.

Let me know if this helps