John,
I agree the Beagle bone made a very good system, well the first images
from a few years ago. I was using mine to control my mill with a custom
cape.
What turned my to Linuxcnc was just the general support infrastructure.
On 19/2/20 10:26 am, John Dammeyer wrote:
Hi Wallace,
I've been way more successful although also taken a number of stabs at it
compared to how easy it was to get MACH2 and then MACH3 working.
Even the BeagleBone was easy because the install came with the hal and ini
files for the Xylotex. So in many ways it was just like installing MACH3.
Very turnkey. I probably would have stayed with that config except the Xylotex
cape was set up for NO switches. And the enable signal internally on the board
was the wrong polarity so ultimately that project was shelved. Perhaps to be
used with the lathe since limits aren't as big an issue with it.
So I went the route of the dual boot PC and I have used LinuxCNC to mill some
parts.
Support from both forums has been good. Given that my hardware is somewhat
non-standard and has some odd issues, I'm finding that LinuxCNC with respect to
ENABLE and ESTOP is a bit easier for my system. I have to much around with the
big red RESET button and the ONLINE button in MACH to get it to work after a
fault.
Also all things being equal if it's a simple system with say open loop
steppers, vfd for spindle I think MACH4 is probably worlds easier to set up and
the Wizards would be that tipping point for the WOW factor. I was also able
to easily add the Z probe function to my MACH3 setup on the CNC router and at
the moment I haven't a clue where to begin on that for the mill.
If your existing mill has a BoB with the standard Parallel Port interface I'd
suggest you find a PC with a parallel port and start simple. ESTOP, Home/Limit
switches and XYZ step/dir. Don't bother about spindle speed or direction. Use
one of the predefined configs if possible.
But if you are used to being able to automatically find the X and Y edges and
have the 0 set after subtracting half the diameter of your probe you won't find
that in the standard distribution of Linux and the AXIS user interface.
If things go well then by this summer I may well have an installation manual
written that helps someone migrate from a PC WINDOWS MACH3 system to a LinuxCNC
system. But there's still a lot to do.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Marshland Engineering [mailto:marshl...@marshland.co.nz]
Sent: February-18-20 12:18 PM
To: emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [Emc-users] RPI4 is pretty close to a decent machine
Les - Valuable comments, however, some facts.
I'm and BSc electrical engineer and worked as an industrial control engineer
with PLC, servos etc for a number of years.
I have 2 complete PC with Mesa servo drives, wiring, machines retrofitted
etc.
I been following LinuxCNC for a long time, even years before when it was
EMC2.
I have tried 4+ times over the years to get it all to work. I have yet to get
a one system up and running !!!!!!
I do understand that my Linux is limited and that is probably the biggest
factor.
I can buy stuff off the shelf from China and get it working, even Mach3 is
easy.
The only reason I went LinuxCNC is that I can retain the handwheels and use
servo drives.
I am going to make space in my calender this year to try again as I can see
that having it running would be a nice compliment to my SouthWestern
Indistries mill. Thread milling would be great.
PS I forgot, spent 15 years as a commercial programmer.
Cheers Wallace
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