Skipper_steam... So sorry for the delay in replying to your question... like two years late! But have only just this moment seen this reply while revisiting qdenford.kbd stuff.
You have probably solved the questions you posted by now
but I stick this down just in case anyone else may find it useful.
But EMC2 runs entirely on a real-time Linux distro.
Currently there is a live cd available that can also install it to your hard drive if required.
I purchased some cheap bipolar micro stepper drivers and upgraded the steppers to nema 23 double stacked motors which allow for greater torque and speed.
EMC2 out of the box runs from the pc para port but there are drivers for various setups.
For example I was using the standard paraport set up for the three axis starmill but decided to upgrade it to use the Messa 7i43 fpga card this allows for more i/o's and also produces a much greater number and smoother pulses to the stepper drives.
I could also use the same card for servo based closed loop control if i wished too.
EMC2 now also includes ladder setup for tool changing etc but I have not had a great deal of use for this feature as yet.
My current setup is as follows:
Starmill converted to larger steppers with micro step controllers via EMC2 and Messa 7i43 FPGA I/O card with home made 4th Axis.
Starturn LSB with auto tool changer, standard setup, running FANUCSLD on the same Linux EMC2 PC via DOSBOX.
I'm a little loathed to retrofit the lathe partially due to the tool changer which I believe uses a grey code for indexing (not 100% sure about that though!)
You will probably be able to get away without modifying hardware and still use EMC2.
In fact this is how I ran the Starmill for sometime before upgrading the steppers.
The LSB Starmill set-up had three cards in the controller these cards used the L297 IC for Full Step / Half Step.
I basically used a logic probe on the card inputs to determine the step and direction pins.
Once this was established I then hooked to the step/dir pins to the relevant pins on the PC paraport determined by the EMC2 configuration file. ( hal.ini) and that was that. I then employed opto isolators to protect the PC port.
The only real reason for upgrading the motors and the controllers was due to the Nema 34 motor failing on the Z-axis. I replaced this with a Nema 23 (had one them at hand) and fabbed a support bracket from some box section to support it.
I was also told that Mach3 uses the underlying source code from rtai (realtime linux) and a lot of the original code that EMC1 was built with via NIST. EMC2 was completely redesigned and coded from the ground up which allows one to create complex logic structure's and internal wiring of the program. This adds a great deal of power to what EMC2 can achieve.
Just to point out it's called EMC2 not CNC2 but I am sure this was just a typo on your part
Kind Regards,
Paragon.
