Emco control panel X9A000 retrofit

Anyone had a success connect Control Panel X9A000 to linuxcnc retrofit machine? 

I find one thread on groups.io emcocncusers that was trying to do this but thrad is dead 2019.

Here is one post from that thread.
It seems that there is too many lines of communication to hack
thats a litle bit too much to bite


"I did learn that the board has two processors on it, an 80c196 and an 8088-2 (that part isnt terribly hard to figure out). What is new though, is that it appears to use the 80c196 for communication ( the ISA card, Axis controller and optional external keyboard all have one). The 8088-2 runs the actual axis positioning, and the 80c196 drip feeds it commands. The volume of comm traffic on the RS-485 link between the PC and Axis controller (AC) is downright bewildering- the below program:

G90
M1
G54
M06 T02 G43 H02
X0
X1
M30

Yields approximately 500 lines of communication on the PC<-->AC RS485 link . There is also a data link between the 80C196 and 8088, and that yields a much more logical 100ish lines. I have been trying to decode this traffic, and have had some success -I believe I have identified the startup sequence the control sends to the machine when WinNC first starts for example. What I dont know yet (but want to) is how that sequence is shaped by the MSD file and others.

Additionally, I realized the machine uses a heartbeat signal ( a pattern of 00's) every 58-59 seconds when idle. This is not logged with the debug options in WinConfig. I found this using a cheap Ebay ($8) USB to RS485 converter-hooked up in parallel to the pins on the comm cable between PC and AC, it has no trouble logging traffic on the RS485 line."

[Necro-posting on this old thread in case anyone is searching for info on the Emco simulator panel.]

I just bought one for the replaceable button panels as I have an Emco 325-II and need them if I want to switch controls from Fanuc to Siemens.  Note that the one I got is an rs232/485 model.  I believe later simulators used USB and may be different internally.

After harvesting the panels I broke the simulator down to see what was what and if there was anything worth harvesting. 

In short, not really.  The simulator is too huge and heavy to try to reuse as-is.  It's about 10-15lbs and 2 feet wide.

The buttons on the main panel are not relegendable, nor are they connected to the PCB-mounted tactile switches inside the panel.  Just free-floating and would require precision panel cut-outs to repurpose them.

Switches are all metal-dome tac switches with a fairly mushy feel.  Switches are arranged in a matrix circuit with diodes on all switches.  Switch panels are connected to the comms board with a IDC26p cable.

Upper PCB is a 9x11 matrix, so not directly compatible with a 7i73.  Lower is also a matrix, but I'd lost interest counting at that point.

FRO/Mode switches are not selectors.  Turns out they are dumb potentiometers with a ball-detent sector wheel. I'm guessing the comms board just looks for a specific voltage.

The knobs & sector wheels are very high quality and suitable for 1/4" shafts.  Pretty much the only parts worth keeping on the whole simulator.

None of the components are interchangable with the actual Emco lathe controls.  Sad for me as I thought I could keep them as spares for my 325... no dice.  The 'real' lathe control panel uses selectors and different switches & buttons.

If you stumbled across a free one you could harvest the switches off the PCBs and keep the knobs & pots.  Otherwise, the amount of work to reuse anything would be significant.

I'm keeping the knobs & pots, and the rest is going in the bin.