April 2006 - Bdi4emc-help - lists.ourproject.org

Announcing the AXIS 1.3a1 source release
by Jeff Epler 25 Apr '06

25 Apr '06

I'm pleased to announce the first alpha release of AXIS 1.3. AXIS is a modern user-interface for emc2 and bdi4emc. Please visit http://axis.unpy.net/downloads/01145931630 to download AXIS 1.3a1. Jeff ------------------------------------------------------------------------ AXIS 1.3 will contain some important new features. It will support emc2 (tested on HEAD) and bdi4emc (tested on BDI 4.38). It may run on emc1, but this is untested. There's not a firm schedule for the release of AXIS 1.3. However, if you are a translator, please work on updating the .po file for your language. The string table will not be frozen before AXIS 1.3rc1, but I hope that there will be few or no string changes between now and then. Changes since 1.2 ================= When "Open" hangs because of a file with an O-code infinite loop in it, it can be interrupted by pressing ESC. The backplot is now updated every 10ms even when the redraw rate is lower. The colors used in the the plot area can be modified by the X Resource Database. For an example light-background configuration, execute xrdb -merge doc/axis_light_background before starting emc. For the preview plot, arcs are now split into a number of segments that depends on the angle the arc covers. This gives a better match between the preview and backplot for "long" arcs, and uses fewer segments for "short" arcs. The pull-down menus have been reorganized in a more logical fashion For EMC2 "run in place", all files are now installed under the emc2/ top directory, and "setup.py install" can be performed as a user. When appropriate, feed rates are displayed as decimal fractions (e.g., F1.5). The incremental jog distances available can be specified in the inifile [DISPLAY]INCREMENTS. These can be decimal numbers (e.g., 10, 0.1) or fractions (e.g., 1/16). Certain arcs were interpreted by AXIS as being nearly 0 degrees, while EMC treated them as being nearly 360 degrees. This has been corrected for the specific case observed, but it's not impossible that there are still differences (EMC uses a hard-coded "fudge-factor" to determine the angle contained by these degenerate arcs, and it's hard to prove that the behavior of emc and axis will be the same in all cases) An additional effort has been made to make the preview and backplot match for files that don't specify G20 or G21 explicitly. However, the AXIS developers still considers the meaning of such files to be undefined. For the "Open" dialog, the list of extensions and their descriptions are read from the .ini [EMC]PROGRAM_EXTENSION lines. This is intended to allow third parties to write "loaders" (e.g. image or dxf to gcode) which will be called by a flexible [EMC]PROGRAM_FILTER which has not yet been written. This version contains all bugfixes from the 1.2.x series of releases.

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bdi-4.4.2: bad sources.list entries
by Kent A. Reed 20 Apr '06

20 Apr '06

Paul: Check the sources.list file in bdi-4.4.2 My copy includes entries like "deb http://dbi4emc.ourproject/debian/ sarge extras non-free" which cause synaptic to barf. Seems wrong on two counts: dbi versus bdi (the classic two-finger keying error) and missing the domain .org? Regards, Kent

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Re: BDI-4.4.2 released. (Paull)
by Kent A. Reed 17 Apr '06

17 Apr '06

Paul wrote: > > After receiving a report that a clean install of BDI-4.40 failed to boot, I > had to pull the image while the problem was investigated. During the course > of testing, a different and totally new bug was discovered in the > partitioning stage that required extensive upgrades in the install program. I > still have an issue to resolve with the text modes, but most people use the > graphical installer so I'll leave it until the next release. In the meantime, > new images are available from ftp://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/pub/bdi4emc/ and > http://www.cncgear.com/EMC/BDI/ > > > Regards, Paul. > Thanks, Paul. I downloaded the iso from cncgear yesterday evening and installed it as a guest operating system in VMware last night using the graphical installer with no problems. Regards, Kent

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BDI-4.42 released.
by Paul 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

After receiving a report that a clean install of BDI-4.40 failed to boot, I had to pull the image while the problem was investigated. During the course of testing, a different and totally new bug was discovered in the partitioning stage that required extensive upgrades in the install program. I still have an issue to resolve with the text modes, but most people use the graphical installer so I'll leave it until the next release. In the meantime, new images are available from ftp://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/pub/bdi4emc/ and http://www.cncgear.com/EMC/BDI/ Regards, Paul.

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RE: Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 5, Issue 4
by Craigg Gadd 15 Apr '06

15 Apr '06

*Message: 4 *Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 10:16:43 +0100 *From: Paul <bdi4emc(a)bulldoghome.com> *Subject: Re: [Bdi4emc-help] RE: Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 5, Issue 2 *To: "Help and advice for BDI-4 users." * <bdi4emc-help(a)lists.ourproject.org> *Message-ID: <200604051016.43246.bdi4emc(a)bulldoghome.com> *Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" * * *Hi Gene * *On Wednesday 05 April 2006 04:41, Gene Heskett wrote: *> When I goto circuit city around *> here, its the AGP cards that are only stocked in onesies. Almost *> everything is pci, and I'm talking about the $300 gamer cards none of *> use can even waste time drooling over. * *Be very carefull when looking at video cards, there is a new kid on the *block *to replace AGP - It is called PCI Express (PCIe for short). With a *projected *bandwidth of 8GB/s, it is much, much faster than AGP and makes the old PCI *bus look like a snail in comparison. Of course, it goes without saying that *PCIe is totally incompatable with PCI slots just as AGP is with ISA. * * *Regards, Paul. Well, I was hoping to install a video card but unfortunately my computer chassis only had one slot in the back which the Vital card is occupying. Since taking that out wasn't and option, I went ahead and installed a second processor since the board supports it. This seemed to do the trick and the PERIOD is now set to .00002 and I'm running without problems. Thanks guys! Craig

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quickstep, apt-file
by Jeff Epler 14 Apr '06

14 Apr '06

On the irc channel, a bdi user was talking about what he described as "ringing": <approx> it sounds like emc1 pulsing has some kind of ringing when running constant speed <jepler> what step rates are you trying to attain? <approx> I have 1333 steps/mm . ringing occurs when running over 10mm/s I first suggested that he try "quickstep", but then I couldn't figure out which version(s) of the emc-modules package have quickstep. My bdi test machine has "emc-modules-2.6.12.6-magma+bdi.102" and apt-get doesn't report any newer version is available. But that package doesn't have a "quickstep.o". So my first question is this: Which emc-modules do I have to install to have quickstep available? I tried to answer this question for myself by using apt-file, but I got an error when running "apt-file update": --11:28:24-- http://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/debian/dists/sarge/Contents-i386.gz => `/var/cache/apt/bdi4emc.ourproject.org_debian_dists_sarge_Contents-i386.gz' Resolving bdi4emc.ourproject.org... 193.127.103.92 Connecting to bdi4emc.ourproject.org[193.127.103.92]:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 404 Not Found 11:28:24 ERROR 404: Not Found. Is this an error on my end, or is the ourproject.org apt repository not set up to permit use of apt-file? Thanks -- I'll pass any answers I get along to <approx> on irc. Jeff

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BDI-4.40 released
by Paul 13 Apr '06

13 Apr '06

Finally, after much work, BDI-4.40 is available for download. Currently available from ftp://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/pub/bdi4emc/ and http://www.cncgear.com/EMC/BDI/ Regards, Paul.

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Re: New BDI-4 packages uploaded
by Kent A. Reed 11 Apr '06

11 Apr '06

Paul wrote: > In advance of the BDI-4.40 release (more on that in a sec), the new packages > have been uploaded to the repository at http://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/debian/ > The short list includes: > > <stuff deleted> > > The BDI-4.40 CD includes all the latest security updates from Debian plus > > <more stuff deleted> > > Despite several new packages being added, the latest CD is some 35Megs > smaller. All going well, it should be up on the servers sometime tonight. > > Thanks for all your hard work, Paul. I downloaded the BDI-4.40 iso-file this morning. Since I'm a chronic nit-picker, how about embedding the md5 checksums somewhere on your webpages? That way I'll have increased confidence that the file I downloaded is not only a valid copy of what's on the server but also less likely to have been hacked by a third party? Have you given any thought to using the torrent? I'd think it would lessen the server loading when there is a new release. For example, now that I've downloaded BDI-4.40, I could be seeding the torrent with it, just as I am with the Fedora Core 5 image built in VMWare by thoughtpolice. Regards, Kent

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New BDI-4 packages uploaded
by Paul 10 Apr '06

10 Apr '06

In advance of the BDI-4.40 release (more on that in a sec), the new packages have been uploaded to the repository at http://bdi4emc.ourproject.org/debian/ The short list includes: emc-1.0-40 emc-modules-1.0-2.6.12.6-rtai emc-modules-1.0-2.6.16-rtai (Source code also available for -40) linux-image-2.6.16-rtai linux-headers-2.6.16-rtai linux-source-2.6.16-rtai rtai-dev-2.6.16-rtai rtai-modules-2.6.16-rtai rtai-3.3-source python-axis-1.2.1 python2.3-axis-1.2.1 The BDI-4.40 CD includes all the latest security updates from Debian plus wireless drivers & tools for an assortment of WiFi cards. bwidget has been added to the ever growing list of packages - This is purely for emc2 (source tarball included for those that want to try it). Despite several new packages being added, the latest CD is some 35Megs smaller. All going well, it should be up on the servers sometime tonight. Regards, Paul.

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RE: Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 5, Issue 2
by Craigg Gadd 05 Apr '06

05 Apr '06

Paul, Thanks for the help. The motherboard is an Intel N440BX, it does have an onboard video card which I think is a Cirrus 4680? The processor is 600Mhz P3 and I have 256Mb of ram I increased the period to .00005 and was able to run the default generic.ini file, so I was quite pleased with the progress. When I set the period back to .000022 I froze again so that appears to be the problem. One thing I thought was interesting is that I had installed a vital systems servo card (the 4-Axis version) and using the vital.ini, I was able to run with the period set to .000022 without any problems. I guess this has something to do with the way the card is managing certain processes that would normally be handled by the motherboard? Anyway,I'm off to hook up some motors to see if I can make something move. I'll report back. Thanks Again, Craig ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 21:15:09 +0100 From: Paul <bdi4emc(a)bulldoghome.com> Subject: Re: [Bdi4emc-help] RE: Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 5, Issue 1 To: bdi4emc-help(a)lists.ourproject.org Message-ID: <200604022115.09709.bdi4emc(a)bulldoghome.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hi Craig On Sunday 02 April 2006 19:38, Craigg Gadd wrote: > I'm very new to Linux but managed to successfully install BDI 4.38 a few > days ago. I seem to be having trouble launching EMC however. The problem > is that the system hangs when TK starts to load. I'm saying this based on > what I'm reading on the script window as EMC is loading. > > Once the system is hung, I'm unable to recover and must reboot. I'll > mention that I don't seem to be having any other problems with the > installed applications so I believe the problem relates to EMC and Tk. This sounds very much like PERIOD being set too low for your computer. This parameter is defined in /usr/local/emc/emc.ini, or generic.ini, depending on which run script you use.. The value is set at a fairly conservative 0.000025 and should work with most 400MHz and faster computers. Even a P266 will run, but performance would be quite sluggish... There are one or two motherboards out there that just can not provide adequate performance due to inherant design problems - Generally, anything that uses shared main memory for onboard video, certain i845/855 chipsets, and Geode processors all have "issues". You could try increasing PERIOD to 0.00005 and see if avoids the freezing. Some additional information about your computer (make/model of motherboard, graphics card, etc) would help.. Regards, Paul. ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Bdi4emc-help mailing list Bdi4emc-help(a)lists.ourproject.org http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bdi4emc-help End of Bdi4emc-help Digest, Vol 5, Issue 2 ******************************************

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