G'day Awall,
I had no intention of running an "nc" program and then flicking over to the other poota .... I'm not that brave:o
Michael
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Just to echo what samco said, Testing our Ethernet motion hardware, I have been running Linuxcnc under Ubuntu 14.04
for about a year now 24/7 on my main desktop at home and under Debian Wheezy on a test machine at work. I regulary watch
youtube videos, view PDFs, do kernel compiles, have many many windows open and have never seen an issue
with real time delays (and hence motion problems). I expect most peoples prior experience with Mach running on a
non-realtime OS (and parallel port interface so no hardware stepgen) has made them wary of multitasking on the controller,
but its really not an issue with a properly setup Linuxcnc/Machinekit/Pathpilot real time configuration.
However, It may not be a good idea to be distracted or lose Pathpilot control panel focus when running a job...
Aus members you have amazon Aus
I'm researching PathPilot at the moment. I've "discovered" :^) that:
* holding down [Left-Shift]+[Left-Alt] as PathPilot is coming up, takes you to the default user's Desktop
* the default user name is 'operator' (pwd 'operator')
* the default user's home folder is '/home/operator/'
* the script, '/home/operator/operator_login', which is text/readable, starts PathPilot when launched in a terminal ([Ctrl]+[Alt]+T opens a terminal)
* EXITing PathPilot returns to the Desktop instead of shutting down the machine, as happens when booting straight-to PP
* user 'operator' is a member of 'sudoers' (i.e., in a terminal, can do things as 'root' (Windows translation: 'administrator')), and thus can break things very badly
Still, I have to say that I'm not sure you'll be able to "minimize PP and do other things" or toggle back to the Desktop, because it depends on how Tormach, the Company has configured the underlying Linux to respond to the keystrokes you'd normally use to do that while PP is running. It is possible to open "virtual consoles" by pressing [Ctrl]+[Alt]+F[1-7] but note that even here PP is running in [Ctrl]+[Alt]+F8 (which is what you press to get back to it), but even that is different from the norm, +F7, suggesting customization.
As I've considered how to "match/adapt" the PathPilot GUI to a non-Tormach machine, I see two approaches:
1. Let PathPilot and the Mesa card it requires (flashed to one of the Tormach machine offerings) remain as-standard-as-possible) and re-configure and re-wire the non-Tm machine to respond to and send Tormach-style signals, or
2. Let PathPilot and the non-Tm machine stay as-standard-as-possible, and "do it all in middleware" by re-flashing/re-configuring the Mesa-card-in-the-middle.
Have you seen this forum? : https://forum.linuxcnc.org/pathpilot
From a user perspective PathPilot behaves like any other application. It can be minimized or you can just open a browser or read a pdf with PP in the background. My developer machine runs PP on one monitor while I modify the code using a second. One very important point to remember is that PathPilot also behaves like any other application with regard to key strokes. They are always sent to the application that has focus. If PathPilot is running but does not have focus the key strokes (notably space and escape) will have no effect on the machine. I therefore NEVER do anything else on my machine controller while the machine is running a program. This is probably the main reason Tormach has configured full screen operation as standard.
Step
What am I missing here...... PathPilot and the computer at the mill is an appliance in my view. I don't try and figure out how to get on the internet with my refrigerator just because it has a computer. To me, it seems like doing other task with the PP computer is just asking for issues especially if you are trying to do this while the machine is running parts. In my 20' x 20' shop I'm running two 1100Ms and one Slant Pro - I have a main work station computer in the middle of it all where I access Fusion 360 and do my PDF reading and internet surfing. I imagine HAAS would laugh if you ask them to allow you to check your email and post on Instagram from your HAAS controller. Then again, I'm just a dude in his garage living the dream!!!
I agree .
Its part of a normal set of tools. These days I use a simple MS Surface tablet in the shop. Perfect size and made or designed for mixed media! Easy to view photos of tool setup pictures and drawings, read pdf manuals, watch videos, ask it questions using speech, listen to music, surf net and with a compact projector mounted in shop you can even broadcast tablet to a wall screen with a flick of a finger. It even Bluetooth connects to my jeep with a cool program for tuning and diagnostic codes. Kind of like a pdb or Hamier probe, one of those got to have it tools.
Until recently I ran my 1100 using LinuxCNC on a little Intel Atom box right from the parallel port—no Mesa card. It was connected to the Net, ran Dropbox, I’d open browser windows to look things up while running parts, not one hiccup in five years. The PathPilot UI is just another application that talks to the kernel, a browser window is no different and will have no more effect on motion control. Tormach won’t recommend it because providing support to the general public is costly and they can’t test every possible combination.
Also, I’m fairly sure some of the “real” controllers out there now do in fact allow you to access the web or run other applications on the control.
people are too gun shy after years of mach... Linuxcnc will run perfectly while doing other things..
sam