[neilw20]

I am running Xp on a HP VL400 (hard rubbish collection. Added a Hard disk and RAM) with 384Meg RAM. It is a 600MHZ machine.
Running Mach3 at 25KHZ. About 10% loading so that's OK most of the time.
Every so often XP goes off in the weeds, for about half a second, and the queue gets emptied. This causes a momentary pause, so I slowed the maximum feed speeds so that the instant stop does not loose steps on rapid feeds.
Limited speed to 1000mm/min (40IPM) and it never looses steps.
I am sure a 1GHZ machine would fix it, or do I just need more RAM?
Machine runs for hours and does a perfect job.
The HP is very reliable.
No cards plugged in.
Everything is on the mother board.
Networked. (That's not what steals the time)
CPU/Power supply automatic fan spends most of it's time stopped.

[dewme5]

If you are just putting together stuff, and you don't know one version from another right now, and you are going to have a separate computer that runs your CNC. Then I highly suggest EMC2 for several reasons. One, if you download and burn the cd from the link below, you can start with running the program exclusively off of the CD. You don't have to install anything, just boot the computer from CD, and don't touch anything. In just a couple minutes, the computer will be running Linux, and it will be optimized for this setup. There is a seperate config program that will help you get all your adjustments for your machine setup. Then, just start EMC2, and run your g-code. Doesn't matter what machine you use to get your g-code ( I transfer on a thumb drive).
http://www.linuxcnc.org/content/view/2/4/lang,en/

I know some people are intimidated by Linux, (to geeky, don't understand, not willing to learn) whatever the reason, if you haven't tried, it's free, and like I said, it runs off of CD (your settings will not be saved, because you are running off of the CD). You can install later if you want to, but for the test run, you can have a perfectly running WinXP install with Mach3 running on it. Running EMC2 off of the cd will not affect this in anyway. Just reboot without the CD, and Windows will be back just like before. Also, Linux runs well on the older machines, turning something unusable as a windows machine, into a perfect dedicated CNC computer.

Oh yeah, it's Free (as in free beer, and free speech).

[sbalder]

EMC on Linux or Turbocnc on DOS can make a junk computer into a good controller. The machines I am building have simple motherboards with turbocnc loaded on a usb flash thumb drive. They boot right to the application in about 15 seconds and I pull the usb drive out and take it over to my design pc to transfer files. Windows is great for what it is, but you don't need a windows interface to run your microwave oven. Simple cheap and very effective.

[CROSSHATCH]

dewme5- Ok, I'm really excited to get this Linux running, but I have downloaded the file, burned it to a CD, but when I do that! All it does it re-open it in my "Record Now", even though I already burnt it the disc. Very annoying! lol

Any Help?

-Jason

[Switcher]

EMC on Linux or Turbocnc on DOS can make a junk computer into a good controller. The machines I am building have simple motherboards with turbocnc loaded on a usb flash thumb drive. They boot right to the application in about 15 seconds and I pull the usb drive out and take it over to my design pc to transfer files. Windows is great for what it is, but you don't need a windows interface to run your microwave oven. Simple cheap and very effective.

That might be true, you'll still need MS for your coffemaker !


.

[ger21]

dewme5- Ok, I'm really excited to get this Linux running, but I have downloaded the file, burned it to a CD, but when I do that! All it does it re-open it in my "Record Now", even though I already burnt it the disc. Very annoying! lol

Any Help?

-Jason

Did you burn the Live CD iso?
http://www.linuxcnc.org/iso/emc2.2.1...sktop-i386.iso

[juzwuz]

Did you reboot the pc with the linux cd in the cd drive? Linux should boot up and you can play around with it, without changing anything on your harddrive. When you're ready to install it, you'll have to select the install to harddrive icon.

[wholepair]

dewme5- Ok, I'm really excited to get this Linux running, but I have downloaded the file, burned it to a CD, but when I do that! All it does it re-open it in my "Record Now", even though I already burnt it the disc. Very annoying! lol

Any Help?

-Jason

What CD burning software did you use to burn your iso image? Did you burn the ISO file as data? Have you ever burned an iso image before? I only ask because I was very confused by the whole 'bootable-CD-iso-burning' thing back in the day, and the information at: http://www.linuxcnc.org/content/view/21/4/lang,en/ can be a little confusing to the newest of the newbie... I run EMC2 on ubuntu and love it! I would like to help you if you have any questions.

here are two links that might be helpfull, unless you already know this stuff.

http://www.google.com/search?q=burning+an+iso+image

http://www.google.com/search?q=boot+from+CD+drive

[Prosper]

Hi Jason,
If you burn the image successfully, it should boot from CD. You have to set your computer BIOS to boot from CD as the first preference. Let me know if you need help..
Did you burn the file as an image? If the file has the *.iso, then when you open the file for burning, you need to use "burn image to disk" part of the burning program (such as Nero) Of course the file you are going to burn should have the "*.iso" extension.
Try again and you will succeed!

[CROSSHATCH]

I did burn the image to the Cd, but when I put into this comp it just doesn't boot through the CD. I may have to change my Bios like Prosper said, but not sure how on a Windows 200 based system...



Edit- I can access my Bios, just don't know what too change...(nuts)


-Speed

[wholepair]

NJIT: If you have figured out how to access your BIOS you are very close. There should be a boot sequence somewhere in the BIOS menus. Methods for navigating through BIOS menus and changing parameters vary from machine to machine, sometimes you use function keys, sometimes pgup/pgdwn, I think I saw a BIOS with a mouse once. I would suggest experimenting with it. Don't get frustrated, everything you learn now will come in handy in the future.

There is also the small possibility that the CD drive is not bootable, or the BIOS does not support CD booting. That would suck! If you can see the name and version of the bios on bootup write it down and then google it to see if it supports CD booting.

As a last resort there is a way around this by making a floppy disk that boots with CD support. But then you need a floppy drive...

OK - I found the information you will need if this is the case: (I hope it's not)
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SmartBootManagerHowto

Sorry I can't be more helpfull

Cheers

[Prosper]

Hi NJIT,
If you can tell me what brand you computer is, or some information about the type of BIOS it has, eg. AMI or PHEONIX or perhaps AWARD (bought by pheonix). I can try to give you a rundown of how to get it to boot from CD. First things first, can the CD that you just burnt the image boot in another computer, maybe your friends or collegue's?
If you have a P III motherboard of whatever speed, I am quite sure the BIOS will boot from CD.

[CROSSHATCH]

It's Booting It's Booting on my other system! So excited, this is a break though!

I'll keep you posted!

-jason

[CROSSHATCH]

OMG, I just got it working on the Hp system, about to install it. All I have to say is I love the simplicity of it. (Not technically speaking because i'm good with computers) but how it's set-up!

More toooooo come!

-Jason

[Prosper]

Congratulations, success for the future, Jason!!

[CROSSHATCH]

Thank you for all who helped me!

I do have one last thing, this may sound so dumb...But this seems almost too good too be true. With the EMC, I will actually be able too run my Taig CNC off this correct? I'm messing with the program and it seems much easier too use then Mach3. Please tell me i'm right!


-Jason

[acondit]

Thank you for all who helped me!

I do have one last thing, this may sound so dumb...But this seems almost too good too be true. With the EMC, I will actually be able too run my Taig CNC off this correct? I'm messing with the program and it seems much easier too use then Mach3. Please tell me i'm right!


-Jason

You should be able to run your Taig with emc2 (others are doing it already). It is basically a question of getting your initialization parameters set correctly.

Alan

[CROSSHATCH]

Yea, Like setting in my Zeros right This is so cool, I can just import files on my Flash Drive.!

-Speed

[wolfdagon]

What would be the minimal requirements in an older computer running emc2 to control a cnc machine? I can get my hands on an older computer with 133Mhz for free. Can't remember how much memory it has. I don't think it has usb though. If I istall Linux and emc2 to the hard drive wouldn't I be able to use the cd drive to get my gcode into it?

[SORCHEROR]

XP is the only way to go in my opinion,stable and no problems for years now,vista has to many problems and bug to work out so that out,ME dont work with mach1 or 2