I'm looking for something like that which can run MS-DOS and has a contiguous
64K upper memory region free or four 16K regions free to work with LIM EMS 4.0.
The problem I run into with newer hardware is the UMA is so chunked up with
areas reserved for all the built in peripherals, and disabling them in BIOS
usually doesn't free up space in the UMA.
My old ProLight 2000 mill uses old DOS software that only works with EMS as a
place to load gcode. The software must predate the 80386 and they didn't want
to be one of the few programs using the extended memory capabilities of the
80286, or use something like DOS4GW or another 3rd party "DOS Extender" to
access additional RAM. I've run it off a laptop booted from a USB 1.44M floppy.
Have to use the gcode file splitter utility that's with the mill software to
chunk it into pieces that fit into low memory after DOS and the PLM2000
software take their parts. The splitter puts a command at the end of each chunk
to load the next chunk.
I have all the technical info and some setup/configuration software for the
Animatics servo controller but nobody is interested in adding support to LCNC.
Basically it streams gcode out by serial and listens for ack and things like
hitting an end stop, monitoring the position encoders, and things that will
cause it to stop the machine such as detecting too much torque on the spindle
or servos. Curiously it is not equipped with spindle RPM sense, it just assumes
it's running at the commanded RPM.
What would be very nice is to be able to dump gcode into however much onboard
RAM is in the Animatics controller then connect a repeat cycle button to the
mill. Wouldn't be able to do very complicated things but it would be ideal for
simpler jobs like drilling a few holes in a lot of identical parts.
The controller can do it but the feature was never utilized by ProLight and
Intellitek completely ignored the model 2000, apparently just sold them until
running out of inventory. Windows software was made for the stepper motor model
1000 but not the servo motor 2000.
On Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 7:09:06 AM MDT, Les Newell
<les.new...@fastmail.co.uk> wrote:
I'm a big fan of the Dell Wyse thin clients. They are available in large
quantities on the second hand market. They are fanless, low power and
bulletproof. I've killed several PCs in machines over the years, mainly
due to the fact that my workshop is a bit damp. I've never killed a
Wyse. The 5020 (AKA Dx0Q) works well. Try to make sure you get the SSD
when you buy one. They use an odd sized short bare board SATA SSD. Older
Sandisk 64GB SSDs use this board inside a standard sized housing. It's
easy enough to open the housing and pull the board out. Some come with
built in wifi.
If you want a bit more grunt the 5070 is now hitting the second hand
market. They use a SATA M.2 drive.
I have the Dx0D model in my lathe and router. They work but are a little
under powered. My network server is a Dx0Q borged out with 3x2TB NVME,
1x6TB SATA hard drive and 1x6TB USB hard drive. It easily saturates it's
1Gb Ethernet but the whole setup including a VDSL router only pulls 25W
at idle (drives spun down).
The only down side I find is that they only have one Ethernet port. I
generally use a USB wifi dongle to access my network. On later versions
of Debian/Ubuntu you also need to partition the drive manually.
Automatic partitioning installs a UEFI partition and locks the drive to
the computer. It then won't boot if you move the drive to another machine.
Les
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