Newbie.

Hi all, hope I am on the right board here.

I am a total newbie to the forum and to the CNC world. What I would like to do is to build a small (about 2 feet suare foot print) for mainly etching PCB boards and small signs for personal hobby. I want to start with a small CNC to get some building and using experience and when I am confident enough build a bigger one to use for my woodworking hobby. I know nothing about CNC's except what I have seen on youtube and read on the internet.

I use Ubuntu so am familiar with it but how easy is it to learn to use LinuxCNC for a complete beginner like myself?

Another CNC program that was recommended to me does not run on Laptops, it will only run on a desktop pc with a non-integrated 32MB (at least) Video card . I have a ~6 years old server with only 16MB integrated Video card and an old P4 laptop, will LinuxCNC run on any of these machines? If there is a minimum spec page could someone please give me the link.

Does anyone know of a good "How to" site for building a CNC?

Thanks

Eric

Hello,

You might start here.


wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Hardware_Requirements

Linuxcnc does not have very high requirements as far as a computer goes.

Lap tops are not a great choice.

The best way to test is to downlaod the live cd for both 8.04 and 10.04 and run the latency test and run Linuxcnc for a simulator .

Rick G

Hi Rick, thanks for your reply.

The data on the link you posted seems very old, ot mentiones PII's and PIII's and someone having problems with a P II laptop. It also mentions that "Laptops have a terrible reputation for realtime performance", is all that still valid for newer laptops with dual core processors?

I downloaded the live cd and run the LinuxCNC directly from the CD. I ran the latency test but could not find the simulator to test it properly.

I guess I'll have to do a lot more reading and try the live CD on the old server as well but I'll probably never know for sure until I build and connect the CNC to both and see if they'll work without any problems or not.

Eric

Ok, I found the simulator, will download it and play around with it.

Eric

Hello Eric,

If your computer has a parallel port either on the motherboard or an add in card and you get good results on the latency test the computer is probably a good candidate. Be sure to run the latency test for extended period of time.

Although the info may state that on board video can be a problem often it is not the case. There are different GUI's you can use, AXIS is the newest and requires the most computer horsepower.

Laptops may have power saving features that may not be compatible with the real time portion, but you may be able to disable them if they are a problem.

If the latency is good and the simulator works well you are good to go.

Some more info here...
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Latency-Test

And if you have older hardware that has a problem with 10.04 try 8.04

You may also want to look here if you decide to build a new system for your machine.

www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/compo...ew&catid=18&id=15495

Rick G