BROKEN PIPE REPOON SETUP WHEN TRYING TO JOG MOTORS

Greetings all

Can anyone help me.

I am new to Linux and CNC and the only programming I have done was in GWBasic on a ZX81 back in 1982.

I am trying to set up 4-wire 200 stepper motors on StepConf via Gecko 203V drives and a Mach3 breakout board on a dedicated HDD containing only LinuxEMC 10.4.

I get a 'broken pipe" report on trying to jog the motor in its test routine.

Does that mean the program cannot see the ports or does it mean there is a programming error in StepConf?

The motors work in DOS on Turbocnc on a different HDD.

I have given up trying to use Mach3 on XP as it cannot seem to find/hang onto the ports even with its port grabber.

A broken pipe usually means there was a problem with stepconf talking to HAL.
If you run stepconf from a terminal then you will see a more detailed error message.
Are you using a real time kernel?
Can you run an EMC sample config with no errors?
How did you get EMC on the hard drive? live CD?

Hi - thanks for the response.

I downloaded the 10.04 live CD off this home page and installed it on a formatted HDD.
I dont know anything about real time kernels - in my part of the world we just salute them
When I get back to my radio shack after work I will try and run a sample config.

Is it imperative to install a video card? I am running off the motherboard's video unit.

I am still waiting for Vodacom to tell me how to install the Huawei E220 modem to run on Linux so I am offline on that PC as regards updates etc. I cannot seem to find any solution that works for an E220 from what I can see on Google.

Hello,

Did you run the latency test and for how long?
What port and address are you using?
Is the parallel port with the correct address listed when you enter
lspci -v
from a terminal?

Rick G

running stepconf from a terminal would be most helpful.
look under applications/accessories menu for "Terminal'

type stepconf and load/build your config as normal.
When you try testing again if you get an error look at the terminal screen.
I surely tell you more about the error.

Many thanks for your inputs Gentlemen.

I tried to run from the terminal the latency test, the parrallel port check, the uname-r as advised by the respondents but system returned "command not found" prompts so I figured the installation did not install properly.

I formatted another older technology 40 Gig Seagate HDD and reinstalled from USB DVDD with the HDD jumpered to cable select and got a fully functional system install.

The motors run perfectly.

Confidence restored.

Thank you

I had exactly the same problem with version 10. Assuming it was a problem with parallel port access privileges I tried to make my username the owner. that didn't work either. I finally gave up trying to ferret out what was wrong with the broken pipe and downloaded version 8, Hardy Heron. It worked first time. Even in the live instantion (prior to installation). Have you tried this?