[Titaniumboy]

If the BOB in your Torus is the same as the BOB in our Pulsar's you should be able to use the INI, HAL and BIT file for the pulsar with only minor changes for steps and travels. You would need to purchase the USB stick from Tormach, a Mesa card (5i25 PCI or 6i25 PCIE) from Mesa along with a SSD drive for installation. You do not need the original PathPilot software as the USB Stick with v2.0 is a complete fresh install.

That is great news that the PathPilot USB Stick with V2.0 is a fresh install. That seems like quite a bargain for only $24.99.

My BOB is labeled "Novakon.net Pulsar BOB R0". My computer motherboard, installed by Novakon at the factory, is a Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV.

Take a look at your BOB and Computer Main Board. Going with PP and a Mesa card allows you to use PathPilot or LinuxCNC. Take a look the ProbeBasic GUI for LinuxCNC. It is very slick. I ordered a new SSD drive to install ProbeBasic on for testing on my Pulsar.

So it looks like I would need a Mesa 5i25 as the Gigabyte motherboard has PCI slots. Mesa has this listed for $89, which also seems like a very reasonable price.

Having a Mesa 5i25 would allow either installing either LinuxCNC or PathPilot. Any idea how hard it would be to start with a LinuxCNC install and then do a PathPilot upgrade later?

So Probe Basic is much like PathPilot in that both are fancy GUI's for LinuxCNC? Probe Basic V0.2.6 (and V0.2.7 and V0.2.8) was released on March 11, 2020. With such a low version release number, is it ready for prime time? So you have a SSD for PathPilot and a SSD for Probe Basic?

My NM200 has an external box with all the electronics. The PC connected to the BoB with a short 23? pin cable. For PP I had configured a low cost PC that could accept a Mesa card. This low profile box sits on top of the old box and uses the same cable to connect it to the BoB. To run the mill I power on both boxes. If for some reason the PP box were to fail I could reconnect the cable and the mouse/monitor/keyboard and run Mach3 again. Whether this is possible with the Torus electronics cabinet I can't say.

I haven't upgraded PP from 1.9 as it does everything I need.

If I bought a new SSD and installed PathPilot on it, I think I could switch back and forth between Mach3 and PathPilot like you do just by plugging and unplugging SSD's.

Looks like PathPilot is up to Version 2.4.3. I'm not sure I'm going to have any choices to run older versions of PathPilot like you are if I start down this road.

[Steve303]

That is great news that the PathPilot USB Stick with V2.0 is a fresh install. That seems like quite a bargain for only $24.99.

My BOB is labeled "Novakon.net Pulsar BOB R0". My computer motherboard, installed by Novakon at the factory, is a Gigabyte GA-H61M-S2PV.



So it looks like I would need a Mesa 5i25 as the Gigabyte motherboard has PCI slots. Mesa has this listed for $89, which also seems like a very reasonable price.

Having a Mesa 5i25 would allow either installing either LinuxCNC or PathPilot. Any idea how hard it would be to start with a LinuxCNC install and then do a PathPilot upgrade later?

So Probe Basic is much like PathPilot in that both are fancy GUI's for LinuxCNC? Probe Basic V0.2.6 (and V0.2.7 and V0.2.8) was released on March 11, 2020. With such a low version release number, is it ready for prime time? So you have a SSD for PathPilot and a SSD for Probe Basic?




If I bought a new SSD and installed PathPilot on it, I think I could switch back and forth between Mach3 and PathPilot like you do just by plugging and unplugging SSD's.

Looks like PathPilot is up to Version 2.4.3. I'm not sure I'm going to have any choices to run older versions of PathPilot like you are if I start down this road.

My BOB is "Novakon Pulsar BOB R1" with the small Arduino on it. I do not know what the differences between R0 vs R1 might be. I will be doing a fresh install of ProbeBasic soon. I'll let you know how it works out. The INI and HAL files from PathPilot should work fine with only minor changes.

I am currently running version 2.1.2 of PathPilot. I've had issues with getting newer versions of PP to work correctly.

[upnorth]

My BOB is "Novakon Pulsar BOB R1" with the small Arduino on it. I do not know what the differences between R0 vs R1 might be. I will be doing a fresh install of ProbeBasic soon. I'll let you know how it works out. The INI and HAL files from PathPilot should work fine with only minor changes.

I am currently running version 2.1.2 of PathPilot. I've had issues with getting newer versions of PP to work correctly.

If there are any issues with the Novakon breakout board I have a version 5.2 for sale. I replaced it when I switched to an acorn.

[Titaniumboy]

My BOB is "Novakon Pulsar BOB R1" with the small Arduino on it. I do not know what the differences between R0 vs R1 might be. I will be doing a fresh install of ProbeBasic soon. I'll let you know how it works out. The INI and HAL files from PathPilot should work fine with only minor changes.

Here is my breakout board. It doesn't appear to have an Arduino chip on it.

Attachment 442418 Attachment 442420

I'll be interested to hear how ProbeBasic works out for you.

I am currently running version 2.1.2 of PathPilot. I've had issues with getting newer versions of PP to work correctly.

Now this summarizes exactly why I'm leery of PathPilot. If someone like you who has experience installing PathPilot is having trouble making the latest version work, then what chance do I have? Plus I won't have an earlier version to fall back.on like you do.

If there are any issues with the Novakon breakout board I have a version 5.2 for sale. I replaced it when I switched to an acorn.

Thanks for the offer. I think I'm good for now. Which mill and year did this BOB come out of?