My New Controller

A few threads are around detailing how people replaced their controller with new one, usually ditching the parallel port for ethernet and a mesa 7i92 interface card, however the mini PC they used are no longer available.

I trod this path and my initial attempt using a mini PC from AWOW failed as detailed elsewhere.

I have since bought an Intel NUC10i3FNK and installed 4GB ram and 120GB M.2 SSD. PathPilot2 installed without a problem but it failed to connect to the mill (series 1) over ethernet.

Hold the left shift and alt keys during the splash screen to get to the desktop and a terminal.

The NUC is a 10th Gen CPU and is Intel's first with an integrated ethernet controller so the likely cause was no suitable drivers in the PP2 install and a quick bit of searching confirmed this was the problem.

But how to get some drivers installed when you have no network connection - either through ethernet or WIFI? I never looked into the WIFI side of things - maybe this also needed new drivers - but it would only be a stepping stone to getting ethernet working in any case.

I bought a USB3 to ethernet adapter (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and plugged it in, rebooted and was able to access the internet.

The driver we need to install is called e1000e and the script here: https://gist.github.com/tonybruess/8249889519abd93dfba9 looked just the job to do the install.

Unfortunately the script has a few problems:
1. The driver version is an old one.
2. Accessing the can.oc.tc website was giving certificate errors.

The latest drivers are available from Intel's website https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/15817 and at the time of writing is 3.8.4

Edit the script to set the DRV_PKG_NAME to be "e10003-3.8.4".
Delete or comment out the first wget line.
Download the driver from Intel and put in the same place as the script.
Run: tar zfx e10003-3.8.4.tar.gz
Finally run the script: bash upgrade.sh

This will give an error towards the end because it tries to restart a second ethernet interface but there isn't one.

Remove the USB ethernet connection and plug in the ethernet cable from the NUC to the 7i92 mesa card, reboot and complete the PP2 configuration.

I have now been running this configuration for a few weeks without any problems. I have set things up to boot into a desktop and manually start PP2. The time to boot into the desktop and launch PP2 are impressively fast.

Dave.

Where did you got your NUC and what was the cost? Looking on Amazon, a NUC10i3FNK is an eye watering cdn$779 with 8GB and a 256GB SSD (https://www.amazon.ca/Intel-NUC10i3F.../dp/B087D4Q11L) and cdn$411 from NewEgg without RAM or SSD.

Sounds like the kind of horror stories I want to avoid. Being that all I know about Linux is how to turn it on (IF it has a power button) I gotta stay within my knowledge base. Awesome you found a workaround...I'm hoping to learn here by osmosis.

If anybody need a controller, I sold my series III after a move and still have the controller with path pilot card.

I bought my NUC from https://www.icubes.co.uk/intel-nuc-1...uc10i3fnk.html

I went with them because they were prepared to try and get the AWOW system working and if that failed (it did) try installing PP2 on the NUC before I bought it. They were close to where I live so was able to drop PP2 and AWOW on Monday and pick up the NUC on Tuesday. Not so convenient if you are in Canada! I didn't shop around as I was more interested in 'try before you buy' service.

Dave.

I'm still problem free with the DH-110 computer I selected from Shuttle Computers as posted here: New Controller For MY PCNC 1100.

As indicated I installed an Intel I3-600 CPU which you can pickup used on eBay pretty cheap. Sometimes you can find the DH-110 pretty cheap too. Make sure to get the DH-110 and NOT the DH-110SE.

After selling my Tormach controllers I had money left over plus a much better controller.

Thanks! It is great to be able to try-before-you-buy plus their VAT out prices are lower than I've seen in North America.