On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, Viesturs Lācis wrote:
2012/1/3 <kqt4a...@gmail.com>:
On Tue, 3 Jan 2012, Viesturs Lācis wrote:
2012/1/3 gene heskett <ghesk...@wdtv.com>:
I do not currently have a machine that can boot from either usb or
network,
and that includes this $300 Asus mobo with a quad core phenom on it. So
ATM, the only universal boot to install method I have is to maintain a
working internal optical drive in every box.
I am sure that there is even more universal method, which fits also
size-limited situations - You can have one dvd drive for all machines
and attach it to particular PC, when necessary. That way You will save
on dvd drive cost, space in the case (and case size, if space limit is
an issue) and, important for DIY cases, also effort of fitting it
nicely in the case.
I just would like to warn You about using D525 and LPT-based I/O card
that requires EPP mode - Intel has screwed it up, I had a very bad
experience with 3 D525 boards, other users can report success, so be
careful.
I followed that discussion rather closely, but for steppers it doesn't
appear that fully working EPP is required.
I mean those I/O cards that do hardware step generation and provide
more I/O bits than there are LPT pins, like Mesa 7i43 or PicoSystems
PPMC.
Usual LPT breakout boards that require software step generation do not
require EPP, so would work fine.
As usual I am still quite confused
If the Mesa hardware will do the critical work, step generation, why does it
matter so much about the motherboard
It does not matter really much.
It just happened that there is limited space for motherboard in the
cases of machines I have built, so that is why I like using mini-ITX
board. And I find D510/525 to be only viable option, because it comes
with dual-core CPU and onboard video for incredible price. It requires
only 3 additional things:
1) RAM (I use 2GB, so that I can live without swap partition);
2) HDD; 2 machines have SSDs, another 2 have pseudo-SSD drives -
compactflash cards in SATA adapter. Both of these things will
appreciate as little writes to the drive as possible, so I have no
swap partition and also disabled access time writes to hdd;
3) PSU;
As calculated by previous posters, the total cost of the PC is very low.
Actually I find D525 to be the most cost-efficient way to build _new_
PC for EMC2.
And it takes up so little space.
In one of machines I managed to use standard ATX case and squeeze in it:
1) D525 board + PSU + CF card in SATA adapter;
2) Mesa 7i43 (to be replaced by 5i23) + 2x 7i39 servo drives
3) DIY optoisolator card
4) 3x Gecko drives
5) 2x 400W AC transformers
6) 2x rectifier bridges with capacitors
If I had a chance to fit a VFD in there, I could say that _all_
controls and electronics of the machine are in the usual ATX PC case.
What I wanted to say with all this - PC mainboard does not matter that
much, but D525 has a lot of advantages, when compared to other
options.
If I were wanting to build a new pc I would agree but I would like to improve the
reliability of a "decent" machine
I occasionally get rtai errors
Will the Mesa hardware do this
I have only stepper motors
Richard
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Write once. Port to many.
Get the SDK and tools to simplify cross-platform app development. Create
new or port existing apps to sell to consumers worldwide. Explore the
Intel AppUpSM program developer opportunity. appdeveloper.intel.com/join
http://p.sf.net/sfu/intel-appdev
_______________________________________________
Emc-users mailing list
Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
