On Thursday 23 April 2015 12:52:10 Bruce Layne wrote: > I wanted the convenience of WiFi at every machine, but I quickly gave > up on that. It was just too much hassle. A wired network connection > works every time. I hate fishing Cat5 cable to each machine when I > already have a perfectly good WiFi router in the shop, but it's the > path of least resistance. My WiFi router is in the basement shop and > it has ports that I can use for wired network connections, so it takes > the place of the switch/hub that Jack recommended. Dropping an > ethernet cable from the basement rafters down to each machine is a > PIA, but I only need to do it once, and it's easier than trying to get > WiFi working on a LinuxCNC machine, and long term, it's WAY easier > than needing to do the WiFi job again every time I upgrade LinuxCNC > (Ubuntu to Debian the last time). I go with common generic PC > hardware known to work well with LinuxCNC and upgrades are easy. I > copy the LinuxCNC folder and that's usually all I need to copy over > for a new installation. For major LinuxCNC upgrades, I need to > reconfigure the machine using the configuration wizard, but I have > screen shots of the various pages of the configuration saved in my > backed up LinuxCNC directory that makes reconfigurations fairly > painless. I try to avoid mucking around in HAL and INI files, but as > I start to make more complex machines, that'll probably be inevitable. > > Now that I finally gave up on WiFi for my LinuxCNC machines, it'll > finally become as plug-n-play reliable as a wired network connection. > > I found a flat network cable that's easier to get into an electrical > panel. > > http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F3ID2NQ > And thats not to shabby a price for a 25 footer.
> I have two LinuxCNC machines in my shop currently, but I'm finally on > a CNC conversion and machine building roll. I should have five > machines by the end of the summer. I don't want to consider the > hassle of trying to keep wireless networking running on them all, > through various upgrades. Even though I standardized on PC hardware > as much as possible, it'd be too much trouble. > > If you have a strong preference for WiFi for some reason, consider > getting a WiFi internet adapter and taking the WiFi job away from > Linux. I bought a Netgear WNCE2001. It plugs into an AC wall outlet > and a Cat5 cable plugs into your machine. As far as Linux knows, it > has a wired internet connection. The adapter is easily configured via > WiFi when it's installed to set the WiFi password for your network. > It will then use WiFi to make a wired network connection to your > machine. I used it for an old HP color laser printer that isn't WiFi > enabled, because it was easier than getting Cat5 into my office. I > may use an internet adapter for the LinuxCNC laser that I'll be > building in an addition off my basement shop, where it'll be easier to > vent the laser smoke outside, but more difficult to run Cat5. > > http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007CO5DZ4 > > I tried a couple of versions of the power line networking modules, but > they were problematic. I could get them to work, but I had a hard > time keeping them working. They don't work if the transmitter and > receiver are on different 120V legs from the breaker box, and even > though it's a 50% probability, that happened 100% of the time and I > always had to use outlets that were inconvenient to get on the same > 120V leg. After that, I'd still need to cycle power to them every few > weeks to reestablish communications. Ain't nobody got time for that. > > Gene - Consider getting some Ethernet cable that's direct burial rated > for underground use and burying it a few inches for the run to your > shop. It'll not only be resistant to sun fading and high winds, but > also nearby lightning strikes. I redid my service on 2008, bringing all the ground rods up to NEC code, and the AC run to the shop is buried, with an 8 footer sunk and connected to the static bus there also. In the now 7 years since, we've had some real noisy weather, including me seeing the transformer pole take a direct hit. Zero damages. Same theory here in this room, there is a UPS between me and all the power in this room except for one audio amp, and now the color laser printer whose turnon inrush trips a 1500WA UPS off instantly, all on one wall socket with hard soldered connections divided by several surge arresting power strips, and includes the line cord for the cable modem. Back in v42.bis modem days, I could figure on losing a modem about 2x a year. I figure if something comes in on the cable, it will first hit the lightning arrestor, then it will hit the third pin on the modems power cord, and once that happens I don't really care if the rest of the place bounces 100 kilovolts on a nearby strike, its all bouncing in unison so there is relatively little differential voltage between them to blow stuff. But I did switch to wireless keyboards and mice because I've been dry rug and doorknob zapped while sitting here when it gets noisy. So now I have an additional 4 or 5" of air between me and anything that might bounce. When I put up my rooftop antenna and sent dish's crap back, I ran down the local VZ wire girl and snagged a couple of those telco lightning arrestors, which are tied to another 8 footer at the opposite corner of the house, and the antenna fed is on coax, so there are two coax lightning arrestors well grounded there, located at the bottom of the drip loop, one for the antenna & one for the cable that gets me telephone and net. The antenna rotators 4 wire conductors are passing by the two telco arrestors. So, generally speaking, it has quite a gauntlet to get by to get to me. Damages since were a cmos lockup in a $50 USB extension cable to a color computer in the basement, whose power is not so protected. Unplugged the cable from both ends for a few minutes, plugged it back in and its been fine for about a year now. I figured that cable across the backyard, blowing in the wind, would make a good emp antenna, but the only loss was the switch port it was plugged into, and now my lappy is plugged into that port on the switch and is running fine. That may, on reflection, have been a cmos lockup, in which case removing the power to the switch so the substrate scr could turn off is/was the cure. > http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYGQ31E > http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001B6DM52 > > On 04/23/2015 11:55 AM, Jack Coats wrote: > > I know wireless is convenient, but if you can, consider running hard > > wired connection to your machine(s). If you have multiple machines, > > run one hard wire run to the shop, and put a wired hub (aka switch - > > yes there is a technical difference, but that distinction is > > unimportant here) in the shop to allow connecting more than one > > device. I agree, hard wired Just Works(TM). Put a radio in the circuit, and Murphy will take up residence and drink all your beer too. :) Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BPM Camp - Free Virtual Workshop May 6th at 10am PDT/1PM EDT Develop your own process in accordance with the BPMN 2 standard Learn Process modeling best practices with Bonita BPM through live exercises http://www.bonitasoft.com/be-part-of-it/events/bpm-camp-virtual- event?utm_ source=Sourceforge_BPM_Camp_5_6_15&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=VA_SF _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
