Linux CNC

[RayStoner]

The restore disk installs linuxCNC and path pilot. Some hacking involved in making it work on machines other than Tormach, but the effort seems pretty worth it.

It would be really nice to have the big mill controlled with LinuxCNC/Path Pilot, but some additional research is required. I believe the feedback on that mill is tachometer based, rather than encoder based. I don't know the implications of that at this point. I know that such a conversion is possible, but I'm not very aware of the exact requirements. I'll have to look around on the forums and internets to find out what others have done. I don't know if there are any local resources.

Drip feed does make this less critical. I still don't trust it very much though. There isn't any sort of check to ensure that there aren't errors in the code, that could end in ruined parts when it comes to a malformed line of code. It seems like there are dropped bits sometimes, Slowing the communication down may fix that...I'll keep experimenting.

I called BobCAD yesterday about registering the software. They said there would be a "technician" calling me back to figure out the details of how to get it registered...I haven't heard back from them. I did find some stuff that may solve the problem for us though, I'll try it out Saturday.