fryer et18

Hey has anyone tried linuxcnc on a Fryer et18 cnc lathe? My client has one that "someone" (not me) installed windows ME on and Fryer refuses to support with anything other than windows 95. I have reinstalled 95 on another hdd but I am not holding my breath. It seems to have an upgraded motherboard with a pentium 3 but may be stock. There is an isa pmac (motor control board?)

I'm not a cnc profesional, I am a IT profesional so please explain any industry jargon you may use.

thanks.

Pictures ?
What is "pmac" ?
How is the computer connected to drives ?

I have a Fryer ET18 also and have been kicking around converting it to LCNC.

Mine has the Touch 2000i control based on Windows 95. I was able to "update" it to Win98 and take advantage of better USB support (to allow using thumb drives to transfer files), but the interface is still old and clunky. I think mine has a Delta-Tau motion card.

Anyway, the good news is that it uses all Yaskawa drives (X, Z and Spindle). They are the older Sigma 1 drives (torque or velocity only), but a Mesa 7i77 should work well with them.

I'm still using the lathe as is with the factory control, but hopefully I'll get to retrofitting it in the coming year. Good luck with yours!

the pmac is the Delta-Tau motion card. The Delta-Tau motion card is how the computer is connected to the drives it has a couple of 24pin com ports and a 60ish pin port.

If the motors have separate drivers, as hinted above, then LinuxCNC would fit in the same place as the existing delta-tau board.

It might even be possible to set it up so that you can swap between the two controllers, which would take some of the risk out of the retrofit.
(Assuming that the machine is currently usable, and it isn't clear if it is)

you shoudt test eatch acis n a simple parport testup as the Drives run on StepDir