[h3ndrix]

Hey,

Can you tell me your opinion on this card Al, thx in advance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=42895

H3ndrix

[Al_The_Man]

h3ndrix, Hey yourself, NO there's no way you want to be bidding on that, it just might start a bidding war
Seriously, That is a card I have used to retro-fit an Excello Mill and also some Flame/Plasma gantrys.
It is a Legacy card, one of the first produced by Acroloop (taken over by Parker-Hannefin). This will either stand-alone or sits in a PC ISA card.
Acroloop originally brought out this card together with many ways of writing your own software, they subsequently released Acrocut s/w for flame/plasma gantry software (DOS based). which was adopted by some of the major Plasma table manuf.
They later put out a mill package, Acromill, again DOS based, I believe they have a win NT package for the mill also.
The DOS based packages are about $1000.00 last time I checked, but you can use them on more than one machine.
They do not have a Lathe package, unfortunately.
The thing I like about the Acroloop line is the on-board PLC and the Opto-Isolated I/O which makes for a very compact system.
I had a questions in to the seller of this card as some sellers look at the web description without knowing wether it is truly an 8 axis card or wether it is stepper or servo, as unlike Galil which are jumper selectable , the Acroloop cards are ordered as stepper or servo. Hopefully they are correct if they say it was removed working.
The bottom line is it is a very good card. The latest Acromill has just about all the G codes including macro programing, and the M codes are customizable, and alarm/message screens can be writen.
It includes a on screen 'scope for servo tuning, and a library of shapes, including the ability to write your own, as well as on screen cut path trace.
Programming is done with standard G & M codes as well as DXF import.
So there.
Al

[h3ndrix]

So, you are saying you would actually recommend this card, or you think it is legacy and therefore its obsolete and you dont think I should look into it?

Thank you,

H3ndrix

[Al_The_Man]

h3ndrix, It's still a good card, although obsolete and I have found them to be very reliable, I had an answer back from the lister and he claims it is true 8 axis and is a stepper card. I do not use steppers so it would be no good for my application.
There is virtually no third party s/w so you would need either the Acromill or Acrocut s/w.
They also at one point had something called Acrogen, which resembled the Acrocut, but was for general applications. The manuals can be found at http://www.compumotor.com/manuals/Acroloop/ACR.htm Parker still have some of the Acroloop engineers on staff, but I don't know how long that will last.
Al