Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
WhoaThat's a body blow to the Mach3 camp. The article they wanted: Migrating from Mach3 to Mach4 :-) The article they got: Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC...:-( Dave On 10/18/2014 8:52 PM, Jack Coats wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). In case someone wants to check it out. I haven't read it yet. Just thought someone might be interested. ... Jack Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23 Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people. - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. - Ben Franklin -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
I'm always trying to nudge my friends and YouTube garage machining buddies to adopt LinuxCNC. It's good natured, but I am serious. I notice reluctance on their part, but I try to reassure them by telling them, at this point, I really don't see how Mach could be any easier to install and configure. Other than sending a free technician to do it for you, it's about as easy as it gets. But there still seems to be some hesitation. They seem to regard me as the siren of Greek mythology, trying to entice their ship onto the rocks. Last week, a friend's hard drive crashed on his mill and he spent most of the week getting it running again, and most of that of course was Windows and Mach. I told him that I routinely backup the small LinuxCNC folder by dragging it to a USB thumb drive. That contains all of my machine configuration files and all of my G code. If my hard drive died, I'd plug in a new one, pop in the Ubuntu/LinuxCNC thumb drive and reinstall everything in a few minutes, then drag the old LinuxCNC folder to the new hard drive and Bob's your uncle. I'm making chips. Tell me again how Linux is too geeky complicated and Mach and Windows is so easy? There are plenty of people who genuinely like Mach and do a lot of free advertising for them, including hardware manufacturers who say things like, No matter what you start with, you'll end up using Mach. But for each of these Mach cheerleaders, there seem to be a person on the serious side of hobby machining, typically people who started with CNC as a hobby who are now doing KickStarter manufacturing, opening small town machine shops, etc., and they started with Mach but seem unhappy with it. They're the Mach captives. They use Mach, including the more advanced features, but they make disparaging comments. I watch their YouTube videos and they say, Well, I went back out to the shop and Mach had crashed again. Big surprise. But these captives seem to be suffering from the CNC version of Stockholm Syndrome. They're sympathizing with their captors. When I suggest how easy it'd be to swap hard drives and install LinuxCNC and use the same hardware, (and I've even volunteered to do it for them) and if they didn't like it they could put the old hard drive back in and not miss a thing, they mumble a bit and change the subject. Typically, their little CNC machine shipped with Mach and they're afraid to wander off the reservation. Here's a partial summary of the issue of Digital Machinist that Jack mentioned: http://www.digitalmachinist.net/comingsoon/contents/view There's an article in there (that I haven't read) about using LED ring lights for spindle mounted workpiece lighting. I bought a very nice Aluminator 2.0 LED ring light on eBay on August 30th that's made to magnetically attach to the spindle. It's very nice and well worth the US$125 on my milling machine. My old eyes need all the light I can get. www.ebay.com/itm/400759473641 On October 7th, I bought an 80mm Angel Eyes LED ring light on eBay for US$11 that's marketed as accent lighting to surround an automotive headlight. It requires half an amp at 12 volts and it will require a bit of redneck engineering (I'm thinking 3M VHB double sided foam tape, or I may machine a PVC housing) to attach to the 80mm water cooled spindle motor on my CNC router. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281435821348 On 10/19/2014 09:00 AM, Dave Cole wrote: WhoaThat's a body blow to the Mach3 camp. The article they wanted: Migrating from Mach3 to Mach4 :-) The article they got: Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC...:-( Dave On 10/18/2014 8:52 PM, Jack Coats wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). In case someone wants to check it out. I haven't read it yet. Just thought someone might be interested. ... Jack Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23 Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people. - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. - Ben Franklin -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
I would say the migration has started. I went to the UK Midlands Model Engineer Show on Friday. instead of a few users showing Mach there was only one and he was dual booting to linuxcnc to show threading. Another had a small gantry with linuxcnc An improvement on previous years. Dave Caroline On 19/10/2014, Bruce Layne linux...@thinkingdevices.com wrote: I'm always trying to nudge my friends and YouTube garage machining buddies to adopt LinuxCNC. It's good natured, but I am serious. I notice reluctance on their part, but I try to reassure them by telling them, at this point, I really don't see how Mach could be any easier to install and configure. Other than sending a free technician to do it for you, it's about as easy as it gets. But there still seems to be some hesitation. They seem to regard me as the siren of Greek mythology, trying to entice their ship onto the rocks. Last week, a friend's hard drive crashed on his mill and he spent most of the week getting it running again, and most of that of course was Windows and Mach. I told him that I routinely backup the small LinuxCNC folder by dragging it to a USB thumb drive. That contains all of my machine configuration files and all of my G code. If my hard drive died, I'd plug in a new one, pop in the Ubuntu/LinuxCNC thumb drive and reinstall everything in a few minutes, then drag the old LinuxCNC folder to the new hard drive and Bob's your uncle. I'm making chips. Tell me again how Linux is too geeky complicated and Mach and Windows is so easy? There are plenty of people who genuinely like Mach and do a lot of free advertising for them, including hardware manufacturers who say things like, No matter what you start with, you'll end up using Mach. But for each of these Mach cheerleaders, there seem to be a person on the serious side of hobby machining, typically people who started with CNC as a hobby who are now doing KickStarter manufacturing, opening small town machine shops, etc., and they started with Mach but seem unhappy with it. They're the Mach captives. They use Mach, including the more advanced features, but they make disparaging comments. I watch their YouTube videos and they say, Well, I went back out to the shop and Mach had crashed again. Big surprise. But these captives seem to be suffering from the CNC version of Stockholm Syndrome. They're sympathizing with their captors. When I suggest how easy it'd be to swap hard drives and install LinuxCNC and use the same hardware, (and I've even volunteered to do it for them) and if they didn't like it they could put the old hard drive back in and not miss a thing, they mumble a bit and change the subject. Typically, their little CNC machine shipped with Mach and they're afraid to wander off the reservation. Here's a partial summary of the issue of Digital Machinist that Jack mentioned: http://www.digitalmachinist.net/comingsoon/contents/view There's an article in there (that I haven't read) about using LED ring lights for spindle mounted workpiece lighting. I bought a very nice Aluminator 2.0 LED ring light on eBay on August 30th that's made to magnetically attach to the spindle. It's very nice and well worth the US$125 on my milling machine. My old eyes need all the light I can get. www.ebay.com/itm/400759473641 On October 7th, I bought an 80mm Angel Eyes LED ring light on eBay for US$11 that's marketed as accent lighting to surround an automotive headlight. It requires half an amp at 12 volts and it will require a bit of redneck engineering (I'm thinking 3M VHB double sided foam tape, or I may machine a PVC housing) to attach to the 80mm water cooled spindle motor on my CNC router. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281435821348 On 10/19/2014 09:00 AM, Dave Cole wrote: WhoaThat's a body blow to the Mach3 camp. The article they wanted: Migrating from Mach3 to Mach4 :-) The article they got: Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC...:-( Dave On 10/18/2014 8:52 PM, Jack Coats wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). In case someone wants to check it out. I haven't read it yet. Just thought someone might be interested. ... Jack Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23 Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people. - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. - Ben Franklin -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
Ah! But, was the author successful? (have to wait for my copy to arrive so that I can find out!) You (meaning, all of us) must remember that many people are either 1) low on the computer knowledge scale, or 2) reluctant to change. I think most/all of us here are able to think out of the box, but others are not. Windows still has a strangle hold on desktop computing, even though Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in the mobile field. For the first time since 1996, I'm getting a windows desktop at work; Microsoft still has a stranglehold on corporate/government offices. JohnS -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
Way back when I started in on home CNC, I did a trial between Mach3 and EMC (pre-EMC2/LinuxCNC days), and Mach3 won resoundingly for it's vastly better fit and finish and useabiliy. Today I'm starting in with LinuxCNC again on a lathe conversion and eventually a conversion on a CNC mill with a proper commercial control. While I'm finding LinuxCN vastly improved from the EMC days, it is still behind Mach3 in terms of fit and finish as well as documentation (terrible documentation seems to be the bane of all things Linux). I think there will be two drivers to a shift from Mach3 to LinuxCNC if one does occur, and those will be: 1. General hate for Win8. Win XP, 2K and 7 were fine, 8 is an absolute POS. 2. Better hardware available to work with LinuxCNC, notably the Mesa boards. We still need to get away from reliance on ever changing system slots and to USB or Ethernet linked motion controllers though. What will not be a driver of any switch is fit and finish as LinuxCNC still lags Mach3 in this area. Indeed I have read posts in the LinuxCNC world with people extolling how they don't want LinuxCNC to look like a commercial CNC control which is mind boggling since the commercial controls have evolved far longer than LinuxCNC and set the standard in UI for machinists. -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
On 19/10/14 16:14, John Alexander Stewart wrote: Windows still has a strangle hold on desktop computing, even though Microsoft is nowhere to be seen in the mobile field. For the first time since 1996, I'm getting a windows desktop at work; Microsoft still has a stranglehold on corporate/government offices. My laptop with the CAD/CAM on is still W7, but for the last couple of months it has had a problem with 'updates' and while some are now getting through, I can't run update manually. As a result I've been looking at the Linux alternatives, and things like FreeCAD, LibreCAD and since I'm also on PCB layout, KiCAD are pushing to be usable replacements. Since the rest of my desktop has been Linux for many years it's a refreshing change! Started to document the change http://medw.co.uk/wiki/Living+with+CAD-CAM+today -- Lester Caine - G8HFL - Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
On Sunday 19 October 2014 10:22:07 Bruce Layne did opine And Gene did reply: I'm always trying to nudge my friends and YouTube garage machining buddies to adopt LinuxCNC. It's good natured, but I am serious. I notice reluctance on their part, but I try to reassure them by telling them, at this point, I really don't see how Mach could be any easier to install and configure. Other than sending a free technician to do it for you, it's about as easy as it gets. But there still seems to be some hesitation. They seem to regard me as the siren of Greek mythology, trying to entice their ship onto the rocks. Last week, a friend's hard drive crashed on his mill and he spent most of the week getting it running again, and most of that of course was Windows and Mach. I told him that I routinely backup the small LinuxCNC folder by dragging it to a USB thumb drive. That contains all of my machine configuration files and all of my G code. If my hard drive died, I'd plug in a new one, pop in the Ubuntu/LinuxCNC thumb drive and reinstall everything in a few minutes, then drag the old LinuxCNC folder to the new hard drive and Bob's your uncle. I'm making chips. Tell me again how Linux is too geeky complicated and Mach and Windows is so easy? There are plenty of people who genuinely like Mach and do a lot of free advertising for them, including hardware manufacturers who say things like, No matter what you start with, you'll end up using Mach. But for each of these Mach cheerleaders, there seem to be a person on the serious side of hobby machining, typically people who started with CNC as a hobby who are now doing KickStarter manufacturing, opening small town machine shops, etc., and they started with Mach but seem unhappy with it. They're the Mach captives. They use Mach, including the more advanced features, but they make disparaging comments. I watch their YouTube videos and they say, Well, I went back out to the shop and Mach had crashed again. Big surprise. But these captives seem to be suffering from the CNC version of Stockholm Syndrome. They're sympathizing with their captors. When I suggest how easy it'd be to swap hard drives and install LinuxCNC and use the same hardware, (and I've even volunteered to do it for them) and if they didn't like it they could put the old hard drive back in and not miss a thing, they mumble a bit and change the subject. Typically, their little CNC machine shipped with Mach and they're afraid to wander off the reservation. Here's a partial summary of the issue of Digital Machinist that Jack mentioned: http://www.digitalmachinist.net/comingsoon/contents/view There's an article in there (that I haven't read) about using LED ring lights for spindle mounted workpiece lighting. I bought a very nice Aluminator 2.0 LED ring light on eBay on August 30th that's made to magnetically attach to the spindle. It's very nice and well worth the US$125 on my milling machine. My old eyes need all the light I can get. www.ebay.com/itm/400759473641 On October 7th, I bought an 80mm Angel Eyes LED ring light on eBay for US$11 that's marketed as accent lighting to surround an automotive headlight. It requires half an amp at 12 volts and it will require a bit of redneck engineering (I'm thinking 3M VHB double sided foam tape, or I may machine a PVC housing) to attach to the 80mm water cooled spindle motor on my CNC router. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281435821348 I went to his store but the smallest was a 60mm, still too big, need about 40mm maximum on my toy mill. But 2 of them for 18.95 USD seems like a heck of a deal. Available either in the exaggerated warm white, or in blue heavy white. In my case, a 20mm would be better than the leds in the endoscopy camera I have on the mill. That would get the light farther off axis and reduce the specular reflections that rather effectively blind it when searching for a target scratch. The leds in it are on about a 5mm circle surrounding the camera lens. That is effectively the same as holding the flashlight rear end on your nose when surveying your real estate for eyes looking back at you in the bush after dark. If the reflection is red, only 2 candidates, a Siamese cat, or a human. Act accordingly if its human doesn't belong there. [...] 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 US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___
Re: [Emc-users] Emc-users Digest, Vol 102, Issue 54
sympathizing with their captors. When I suggest how easy it'd be to swap hard drives and install LinuxCNC and use the same hardware, I need to violently disagree with this. On my setup, swapping drives has been pure hell. With lava and everything. First HDD (80GB IDE) had a DMA bug that caused 10ms latency jitter. - Unfixable because newer libata doesn't work with hdparm anymore ! Second HDD (4GB IDE): tried copying setup from first HDD, but got tangled in a mess of UUID mismatch and root not found errors. - Had to reinstall from scratch. Third HDD (2TB SATA), brand new, isn't detected by all 3.x linux kernels I've tried (thanks, libata). To add insult to injury, winXP detects it just fine. So I'm back to HDD #2. I'm not going to try to see how much time I've wasted on this. I'm not even done yet. When I recommend linuxCNC (I do), I never, ever mention swapping HDDs. What I do mention is: - incredibly excellent docs compared to Mach - very coherent config (.ini, .hal, .xml : one directory) CSB -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Emc-users Digest, Vol 102, Issue 54
On Sunday 19 October 2014 13:35:15 C. SB did opine And Gene did reply: sympathizing with their captors. When I suggest how easy it'd be to swap hard drives and install LinuxCNC and use the same hardware, I need to violently disagree with this. On my setup, swapping drives has been pure hell. With lava and everything. First HDD (80GB IDE) had a DMA bug that caused 10ms latency jitter. - Unfixable because newer libata doesn't work with hdparm anymore ! Second HDD (4GB IDE): tried copying setup from first HDD, but got tangled in a mess of UUID mismatch and root not found errors. - Had to reinstall from scratch. Third HDD (2TB SATA), brand new, isn't detected by all 3.x linux kernels I've tried (thanks, libata). To add insult to injury, winXP detects it just fine. So I'm back to HDD #2. I'm not going to try to see how much time I've wasted on this. I'm not even done yet. I can tell a different story. I bought a 3 drive sata cage from an online vendor 2 or 3 years back, $70 at the time, and actually have 4 1Tb drives in this machine. I use one for vtapes backups with amanda, a second has a new install of 12.04 LTS on it, the third one had the last pre-ubuntu (pcLOS) install on it, basically so I can maintain continuity, currently booted to 10.04.4 LTS, but a quick shut down, and an interchange of the upper 2 drives in that cage, accomplished by opening the doors and swapping their positions, and I can reboot to 12.04 LTS. That 2Tb sata is more than likely a 4kb sector drive, and the kernel you are using doesn't have that extension enabled, or your mobo hardware is too old. But 4k drive hardware has been available for quite a while, my now elderly ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe I bought as soon as the AMD Phenoms came out, (2007?) works just fine because one of my 1Tb drives is a 4k sector drive. Its so transparent I wasn't even aware of it till I noticed it said so on the white drive label one day while swapping them around. The IDE interface can wreck your latency figures, mine got immediately better with the switch to sata. When I recommend linuxCNC (I do), I never, ever mention swapping HDDs. What I do mention is: - incredibly excellent docs compared to Mach - very coherent config (.ini, .hal, .xml : one directory) CSB --- --- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users 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 US V Castleman, SCOTUS, Mar 2014 is grounds for Impeaching SCOTUS -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
On 10/19/2014 11:39 AM, p...@wpnet.us wrote: What will not be a driver of any switch is fit and finish as LinuxCNC still lags Mach3 in this area. Like all matters of aesthetics, user interface appearance is very subjective. However, I consider the LinuxCNC user interface to be vastly superior to Mach 3. Whenever I see Mach 3, the graphical interface looks clunky with very jaggy edges on the buttons and a very low-res look. I also think the bright primary colors lack a professional appearance although I suppose the colorful screen looks friendly to many Mach users, in much the same way that DON'T PANIC boldly emblazoned on the cover of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy increases its consumer appeal. To me, the colorful low resolution interface looks like educational software for pre-school children, circa 1986. Mach is a very successful product, and I'm too much of a defender of free market capitalism to begrudge them their success. They are clearly satisfying a significant portion of the hobbyist and low-end professional CNC market, and more power to them. I don't get it, but I don't need to get it. LinuxCNC doesn't look the same as many of the modern commercial CNC controllers from the big name machine manufacturers, but it looks similar to me. I love the graphical representation of the tool path. It does everything I need, and if I need anything else, I'm free to roll up my sleeves and start coding. With the ready availability of very low cost small commercial milling machines on the used market in this down economy (at least in the US) and the ease of installing and configuring LinuxCNC, I'm not sure how some of the manufacturers of $10,000 to $20,000 Mach based stepper motor driven machines are selling their products. I know people just starting out want a turn key solution with that new machine smell, but it looks like the market would spontaneously generate a few businesses that specialized in buying used machines in good mechanical condition with outdated or blown controls, cleaning them up, giving them a new coat of epoxy paint, installing LinuxCNC with readily available interface and drive electronics, and selling these much more capable machines for less than a new hobby machine... complete with delivery, setup, and two hours of training. -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
On 19 October 2014 01:52, Jack Coats j...@coats.org wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). I wonder why anyone would want to? By which I mean, if you have a working, paid for Mach3 installation running a machine and making parts, why would you throw it all up in the air to change to some different (and approximately equivalent) software? -- atp If you can't fix it, you don't own it. http://www.ifixit.com/Manifesto -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
On 10/19/2014 3:19 PM, andy pugh wrote: On 19 October 2014 01:52, Jack Coats j...@coats.org wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). I wonder why anyone would want to? By which I mean, if you have a working, paid for Mach3 installation running a machine and making parts, why would you throw it all up in the air to change to some different (and approximately equivalent) software? I would assume that he ran into some issues with Mach3 and decided to move to LinuxCNC. It is not difficult to find issues with Mach3 that are hard or impossibile to resolve. I was starting to feel bad for the Mach3 camp, then I saw that there are two other articles in the magazine that are about Mach3. Dave --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
I agree. If you have problems with Mach, for whatever reasons, LinuxCNC is a great, low cost, experiment before tossing more money at it. If you are an experimenter at heart, having BOTH is a good idea. Most of us are not in that position. LinuxCNC seems to scale from big hardware to small desktop (or smaller, or larger depending on your needs). G/M-code support can be done on minimal machines to anything bigger. (There are DOS, RaspberryPi, and arduino implementations of interpreters.) Once you get to desktop size machines or larger it takes to run LinuxCNC or Mach much more can be done in the way of trajectory planning, etc. For the cost for most of our machines, the incremental price of Mach with Windows is real but not 'significant' compared to what it takes for us to build and run our machines. Still, I would rather spend the money elsewhere if possible. I do see WHY some go to Mach. They don't know or trust 'free software'. An irrational fear, but real. So they would rather buy a solution they 'can get support for' rather than having to get involved in a community to know how to obtain real good, fast support. So if they feel their time is better spent by spending money rather than investing in themselves, their education and giving back, it is their choice to make. There are many that do. They vote that way with their pocket book. Full disclosure: Growing up in the computing industry, I started as an anti-M$ geek from Bill Gates 'Open Letter to Hobbyists' days ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Letter_to_Hobbyists ). That is not a good reason not to use it if M$ based tools are the best for the job, but that is where my attitude / perspective started and has only been supported by M$ adversarial actions toward their customer base ever since. Realistically, I use M$ products, mainly because my wife (and her employer) has a warm and fuzzy about using them, and from the 'if mamma ain't happy, nobody is happy' camp, it isn't worth the battle. Even if non-M$ is a better technical solution, IMHO. -- BTW, I have been using Linux since kernel 0.97, so I have stuck with it for a while. On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 2:37 PM, Dave Cole linuxcncro...@gmail.com wrote: On 10/19/2014 3:19 PM, andy pugh wrote: On 19 October 2014 01:52, Jack Coats j...@coats.org wrote: There is an article in Digital Machinist, Vol 9 No 3, Fall 2014 with the title Migrating from Mach3 to LinuxCNC by Thomas Allsup (page 24). I wonder why anyone would want to? By which I mean, if you have a working, paid for Mach3 installation running a machine and making parts, why would you throw it all up in the air to change to some different (and approximately equivalent) software? I would assume that he ran into some issues with Mach3 and decided to move to LinuxCNC. It is not difficult to find issues with Mach3 that are hard or impossibile to resolve. I was starting to feel bad for the Mach3 camp, then I saw that there are two other articles in the magazine that are about Mach3. Dave --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- ... Jack Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23 Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new. - Albert Einstein You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people. - Admiral Grace Hopper, USN Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. - Ben Franklin -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] How to Migrate from Mach3 to LinuxCNC
I'm about to start my 3 or 4 attempt to get LinuxCNC running. So far over the past 5 years I have spent several 100 hours trying to get things to work with little success. Bear in mind that it's not just LinuxCNC, it is all of Linux you have to learn etc, Git Gedit repository Sudo etc. I must say that with steppers (which we have had running) is quite simple. Now using Mesa bits and servo drives was a complete headache. I suppose 2 kw motors are a different beast. I have put time aside in Nov and Dec this year to try and get it going again. Wish me luck. Thanking you Wallace Weideman Marshland Engineering 704 Marshland Road Styx Christchurch 03 3237449 www.marshland.co.nz -- Comprehensive Server Monitoring with Site24x7. Monitor 10 servers for $9/Month. Get alerted through email, SMS, voice calls or mobile push notifications. Take corrective actions from your mobile device. http://p.sf.net/sfu/Zoho ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
