[samco]

BTW - mach 4 only works in demo mode unless you have a licence. The licence is tied to the PCID. So yes - if newfangled solutions did disappear - your mach 4 install will only run as long as your pcid doesn't change.

BTW. This is the default desktop environment on the linuxcnc livecd. (And you could install others like cinnamon if you wanted)

https://youtu.be/JrWlA78FSZE

[cyclestart]

I have nothing against cncdrive nor was I predicting their imminent demise, sorry if that impression was left. It's a good thing they're around, more choice for everyone. The point (however poorly worded) was that an open source project is different than a commercial project. No person or group can decide to end development of an open source project, it's different from closed source in that way. If it goes dormant it happens but there's no signs of that happening. For cncdrive and their customers I hope it's a long and happy ride.

[samco]

I have nothing against cncdrive nor was I predicting their imminent demise, sorry if that impression was left. It's a good thing they're around, more choice for everyone. The point (however poorly worded) was that an open source project is different than a commercial project. No person or group can decide to end development of an open source project, it's different from closed source in that way. If it goes dormant it happens but there's no signs of that happening. For cncdrive and their customers I hope it's a long and happy ride.

Plus the source code is spread all over the place. Heck - even I have a clone of linuxcnc on my GitHub account even though I haven't really used it for anything yet. - not to mention the local repositories..

[routalot]

Just moving away from the LinuxCNC FOSSdebate for a moment, I grabbed a 4/5 axis BoB for my UC400-ETH off eBay. Something like this one: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/302960358514. I wasn't sure how well it would last so, at that price, I bought three. When it arrived it turned out to use decent opto-isolators etc and I haven't had even a sniff of a problem with it.

The connectors to run out to the stepper drivers which you'll also need if you don't have any yet are available at RS Components, IIRC they're the JST XH type.

Can be run with either UCCNC or Mach3.

At that price,the OP might like to revisit his feelings about using a parallel port.You could buy a dinosaur computer or two and several boards for less than the cost of a Mesa board.Having bought the Arduino bits and pieces,but never used them,I have no idea about whether one of the Arduino solutions would allow such things as feed rate adjustments on the fly as I sometimes find this useful when my router sounds like it is struggling.This thread has been informative as I hadn't realised that LinuxCNC would be transitioning to Debian Stretch.I will have to dig around and see if the usual apt-get update command will do the job,or if I have to re-install.I suppose in an ideal world,the new solution would allow Freecad to be installed as that is the program I use for generating toolpaths and at present I have the choice of rebooting the workshop computer (its dual boot) or returning to the house to use my Linux Mint system.

[OlfCNC]

And when he start breaking expensive tools due to the dinasour computer then the price point quickly changes.

[rodw]

It seems to me a lot of crap has been written on this thread by those that have a vested interest in commercial CNC offerings and little understanding of LinuxCNC. But lets step back from the CNC wars for a moment.

The reality is that operating systems are disappearing and being overtaken by cloud based systems. I encourage you guys to become OS agnostic. Geez, my most used device is the Chromebook I'm writing this on. I don't care what OS I run my business on as 90% of what I do is done in a browser. The other 10% might be photo processing (becasue I have a photo studio for my ecommerce site) or CNC. Sure once I was an ardent Windows supporter but I had a Mac in the corner with $25k of software attached to a $25k output device. These days, I hate Windows 10 with a passion and the fact it rendered useless a $5k high end scanner is partly behind my hatred. Having said that, I still use Windows becasue it is the correct OS for some tools I use. I have to say Linux Mint is one smooth operating system and would be my choice of the Linux Distros and taking the time to install the PREEMPT_RT kernal so I had support for a Mesa ethernet card distilled to a 10 line script. Compiling LinuxCNC from source is pretty easy once all of the dependencies are installed. Its just 3 lines or so typed at the command prompt. But today why bother? Why not just use the LinuxCNC provided ISO for Debian Stretch? you want to run a machine, not a business so you won't be in the OS much at all!

Yes parallel ports are hard to find but they are still available and you can install them on a motherboard (or buy a parallel port equipped motherboard) that is not a dinosaur but I'm at a loss to understand why you would bother. Its seems perfectly OK to some to buy a license to some antiquated obsolete program like Mach3 and attach to it an ethernet based smooth stepper or similar. But then you say you would not consider buying a Mesa card and use an open source system like LinuxCNC which has been around and originally sponsored by government for decades! For example the Mesa 7i76e runs rings around the smooth stepper and is almost infinitely expandablefor around $50 more. But its not the only hardware solution out there that give you solid industrial class 24 volt control systems under LinuxCNC without the need for multiple relay boards and the like required with some other systems. Plus 24 volts eliminates many of the noise related functions I see creating problems for many using lower voltage systems.

So before you bag LinuxCNC, forget what you are familiar with, do an environmental scan, establish your user requirements and evaluate alternatives with an open mind remembering the OS is an incidental decision that will be determined by the eventual system selection. If you follow this process, you might be surprised what system ripples to the top. LinuxCNC became my choice based on this process despite having a Mach3 expert available to help me all the way. My only regret I have is that I chose to build a plasma machine as my first machine. These are much more complex than a simple lathe or milling machine and with hindsight are not a beginner project. But now I've got this far, there is no way I regret my decision to adopt LinuxCNC and not purchase a commercial $1k+ torch height control black box system when LinuxCNC has the ability to do it with a $69 torch voltage board...

[routalot]

And when he start breaking expensive tools due to the dinasour computer then the price point quickly changes.

You clearly have an intense disliking for LinuxCNC.Perhaps it has prevented you making good use of a very stable and reliable piece of software. I used to operate a 5 axis machine that was controlled by a Pentium 2 machine with a CPU speed of 450 MHz and it worked admirably under the resource hog that is Windows and my longest job contained well over 100 million lines of code. I have no doubt that a 2.3GHz machine with a parallel port will run LinuxCNC flawlessly and I do know that my 2.7GHz machine hasn't broken a tool yet-even down to 1mm diameter.

[rodw]

Hi,
but unless I'm mistaken MINT doesn't come with RTE. Without the real-time extensions Linux is no good for CNC.
Craig

You are mistaken. Real time kernels are managed and released by the Linux team, not at the distro level. So anybody can install a real time kernel (like PREEMPT_RT) on any Linux Distro. It takes a few hours to compile it but its easy to script it so you can do the heavy lifting overnight. I I run LinuxCNC on Linux Mint with the PREEMPT_RT kernel

[vectorsc]

I’m very happy LinuxCNC is out there. It prevents price bullying on the part of the groups that sell control software to hobbyists. The second the price gets out of hand, LinuxCNC shows up to save the day!

That said, I was a Linux kernel developer...and i still bought UCCNC to not have to mess too much with things that weren’t mechanical in my G0704.

The next machine may be LinuxCNC based.

It is true that the LinuxCNC iso download is running a Debian version a few years old, but you can install LinuxCNC on Mint if you absolutely want to.

https://forum.linuxcnc.org/9-install...install-or-deb

Definitely not as easy as just installing the debian version from the live iso file, but can be done. It also looks like one of those dreaded open source linuxCNC developers is trying to accommodate those that want to use Mint:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=272185

[109jb]

And when he start breaking expensive tools due to the dinasour computer then the price point quickly changes.

Another bogus and ridiculous claim!!

[109jb]

Having bought the Arduino bits and pieces,but never used them,I have no idea about whether one of the Arduino solutions would allow such things as feed rate adjustments on the fly as I sometimes find this useful when my router sounds like it is struggling.

Yes this is possible on Grbl V1.1. It has realtime feedrate, spindle and rapid overrides.

[OlfCNC]

Originally Posted by OlfCNCAnd when he start breaking expensive tools due to the dinasour computer then the price point quickly changes.



Another bogus and ridiculous claim!!

You telling me that computers never die, right?
Old computers have no higher percentage for possible problems and failures, correct?
This is funny.

[OlfCNC]

Originally Posted by OlfCNCAnd when he start breaking expensive tools due to the dinasour computer then the price point quickly changes.



You clearly have an intense disliking for LinuxCNC.Perhaps it has prevented you making good use of a very stable and reliable piece of software. I used to operate a 5 axis machine that was controlled by a Pentium 2 machine with a CPU speed of 450 MHz and it worked admirably under the resource hog that is Windows and my longest job contained well over 100 million lines of code. I have no doubt that a 2.3GHz machine with a parallel port will run LinuxCNC flawlessly and I do know that my 2.7GHz machine hasn't broken a tool yet-even down to 1mm diameter.

I have nothing against Linux or LinuxCNC or anything, but old computers once starts to fail and finally die, that is a fact that if he starts with an old computer then this will come faster and more likely to happen, nothing has eternal life.

[cyclestart]

The reality is that operating systems are disappearing and being overtaken by cloud based systems.

I have mixed feelings about that but it is the future. If Onshape offered free CAM it might be my go to, Fusion360 requires Windows or Mac. There's a video posted where Fusion360 looks like it's running in emulation.

I encourage you guys to become OS agnostic.

I understand the misgivings to an extent, at work it's Windows and it's not my comfort zone. If asked what an old Mazak uses for software I couldn't say, you could transfer files in DOS so maybe that's it, it ran well and that's what mattered. It's interesting to read here Haas has made a move to Linux, it could be cost or performance or a mix of both.

Wondering if most give any thought to the variety of operating systems they interact with daily.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,

It's interesting to read here Haas has made a move to Linux, it could be cost or performance or a mix of both.

I think its more that Hass can take a working software solution and then modify it to their expectation.
When you stand at a Hass machine it is by no means obvious that the software is based on LinuxCNC. It has been customized to the extent it
looks and feels like Hass and nothing else.

LinuxCNC is open source and a company like Hass can well afford to have a team of programmers to make their controller 'their own'
Its somewhat harder for individuals or small organisations to achieve the same distinctiveness because of the work involved.

Mach4 is very customizable, not restricted to machine behavior, but the GUI as well, and comparatively easily. OEMs can therefore
with modest effort produce a distinct and brand specific look and feel to their controller.

LinuxCNC and Mach4 are to my knowledge the stand-out performers for this ability.

Craig

[OlfCNC]

Mach4 is very customizable, not restricted to machine behavior, but the GUI as well, and comparatively easily. OEMs can therefore
with modest effort produce a distinct and brand specific look and feel to their controller.

LinuxCNC and Mach4 are to my knowledge the stand-out performers for this ability.

With UCCNC you can do the same. Custom macros can be changed and run on the fly, built-in screen editor, plugin-ability.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DQ9RO2FN1A

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
kool, my experience with UCNC is fairly limited, a friend has it but I have not tried to customize it at all.

For a software solution to be attractive to a volume buyer like an OEM that software must be able to create a unique look and feel
for the OEMs machines.

Craig

[samco]

I know it is hard to believe when all you have to go by is microsoft windows... Linux + realtime + Linuxcnc = rock solid. I think as much good work mach3 has given us - it has given a bad name to pc based controls...

I have never had linuxcnc do something odd that wasn't explained by user error.. (And I user error a lot...)

Our big mill has 8 tons of cutting force at 200 ipm.. I don't want it to do something unexpected...

[OlfCNC]

I know it is hard to believe when all you have to go by is microsoft windows... Linux + realtime + Linuxcnc = rock solid.

We beleive you, we just don't care because we are Windows guys and we don't know Linux and I'm old as dirt I'm too old to learn a full operating system which is new to me.

[109jb]

We beleive you, we just don't care because we are Windows guys and we don't know Linux and I'm old as dirt I'm too old to learn a full operating system which is new to me.

You apparently do care because you keep making posts about how its hard to use, impossible to set up the OS, impossible to set up LinuxCNC, Linux and LinuxCNC are not mystical things that you need a computer science degree to use. That is not true and to use LinuxCNC you don't need to learn the OS.

Want to start a program like LinuxCNC, double click the icon, just like windows
Want to transfer files from a USB stick, Insert it and it shows up on the desktop.
Want to open a file, Click File-Open, just like windows.
Want to start an internet browser, Click it.

I had zero Linux experience when I first started using LinuxCNC and I had absolutely no problem. It is a window type system that operates very much like Microsoft windows does. I really don't understand what the mystery is.