the machines i work with only have tape drives and serial ports, so all cam files are sent over serial lines as text (ascii i think). failed controller component replacement is a problem because the hardware platform does not have long term stability. it seems that is an essential quality of the pc realm - it is goverened by fashion and fleeting lust for market fads.
who knows, maybe cartesian coordinates will eventually go out of style. --- On Thu, 3/8/12, Viesturs Lācis <viesturs.la...@gmail.com> wrote: > From: Viesturs Lācis <viesturs.la...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: [Emc-users] EMC2/Ubuntu updates - safe to install? > To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> > Date: Thursday, March 8, 2012, 5:08 AM > 2012/3/8 charles green <xxzzb...@yahoo.com>: > > > > the disposal liabilty pcs of a decade vintage have > plenty of capacity to function as machine controllers, so > why not repurpose them to that task rather than a dumpsite? > > Ok, I totally agree with the point on nature-responsible > (hopefully I > spelled the term correctly) attitude. I just have several > notes: > 1) it is becoming pretty expensive to get a HDD with > non-sata (meaning > IDE) interface, which partially eliminates the "save cost by > using > existing equipment" idea: brand new mini-ITX mainboard with > CPU costs > less than 100 USD; > The DOS-based control PC in my waterjet machine had a HDD > interface > that was not even IDE, but something even older, no idea, > how to > replace it, if it failed (I still have the backup of the > contents of > that HDD); > 2) using 5+ years old equipment (I am sure that newer PCs > are LinuxCNC > capable) in industrial environment, poses increased failure > risk, > which is unacceptable for a CNC machine controller, safety > comes > first, a possible save of 100 USD should come afterwards. > The failure > of the control PC (PSU burned down and damaged something > else) in my > waterjet machine was one of the reasons I was forced to > retrofit that > machine to something else (meaning - LinuxCNC), because > there was no > way to replace those parts at a reasonable cost, but the old > system > did not work, when I managed to copy all the contents of DOS > HDD to > another PC and swapped the servo motion control card (it was > not an > easy task to find a working PC with ISA slot); > 3) using legacy OS also hurts the efficiency (which also > hurts > environment in a way) - for me transfering files to the > DOS-controlled > waterjet machine was real PIA due to lack of support to > modern > technologies: > a) my CAM application was working only on win_xp, I could > not use any > other CAM application as the machine did not accept g-code, > the code > was written in a specific, human non-readable form; > b) I found out that only Virtual PC application allowed > shared folders > for DOS guest OS, even more - I found out that Virtual PC > application > had to run on Windows 2000 or earlier to support shared > folders for > DOS as guest OS; > c) so the usual path to create a file for machine was: > -- start PC in win_xp, create file and save; > -- restart to win 2000, start virtual machine with DOS; > -- restart waterjet machine to create telnet connection with > the PC; > -- copy the file; > -- restart the waterjet machine so that it runs the CNC > control application; > > Now guess what happened if I discovered a small mistake in > the code > (like starting point not set correctly)? > Going through all of those steps took more than 5 minutes > instead of > simply editing a file and changing 2 or 3 numbers... > > Just as Mark wrote, even win95/win98 is out of use these > days because > there are no drivers for the hardware that is less than 10 > years old. > > I have 3 PCs in my room waiting for a day to run LinuxCNC in > my own > machines, because they are not even close to be capable of > running > SolidEdge, but having 2+ GHz CPU gives them enough power to > handle > Ubuntu and LinuxCNC. > For my clients' machines I will use only brand-new > components (and I > hope that I do not have to explain, why). > > Viesturs > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity > Planning > Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud > computing > also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a > service. > http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Virtualization & Cloud Management Using Capacity Planning Cloud computing makes use of virtualization - but cloud computing also focuses on allowing computing to be delivered as a service. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfnl/114/51521223/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
