Newbe - LinuxCNC or Mach3
I started down the Mach3 track. I've purchased breakout board, power supplies, Stepper drivers and Nema 23 Steppers.
I really prefer Unix over windows so would love to go the LinuxCNC route. I have LinuxCNC installed and working on this
Dell Optiplex 745 (eBay $50). Might have to update the Graphics card. Looks like I need a decent Video with a minimum
of 512MB. Onboard video is a no go for realtime from what I've read.
Is the hardware setup with all the electronics and steppers pretty much the same for LinuxCNC and Mach3?
Can I use my existing electronics with LinuxCNC?
It's a bit overwhelming trying to get started and knowing which path to take. I'll continue to look at the Wiki
and docs but would appreciate any feedback on the subject.
Thank you.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
I wish I knew where people are reading thisOnboard video is a no go for realtime from what I've read.
![:-) :-)](/media/kunena/emoticons/smile.png)
Is the hardware setup with all the electronics and steppers pretty much the same for LinuxCNC and Mach3?
Can I use my existing electronics with LinuxCNC?
It depends...
If you are using the parallel port then the answer is "Yes". if you have a USB device like a SmoothStepper then the answer is "No" for the SmoothStepper but the rest of the system will be OK and there are LinuxCNC-compatible alternatives to the Smoothstepper using PCI, Ethernet or even EPP ports.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
just about all my builds use onboard graphics , in the majority of cases nothing more is needed
although i do find AMD 64 boards & cpu's to work better than Intel's.
i never use Dell ( that might give you a hint ), never had one that would work consistently well .
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Onboard video is a no go for realtime from what I've read.
I wish I knew where people are reading thisEvery one of my CNC builds has used onboard video.
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Troubl...oting#On_board_video4.1.1. On-board video
Disable it and plug in an AGP or PCI video card.
Avoid anything nvidia. Old matrox (millenium, G400, G450 era) work great. Some older ATI work great, not so sure about recent stuff.
All of my machines are currently Dell and running on-board graphics.
Rick G
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Onboard video is a no go for realtime from what I've read.
Funny I've never read that anywhere and all my machines use the onboard graphics chip.
JT
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- tommylight
-
- Away
- Moderator
-
- Posts: 18512
- Thank you received: 6183
Again, i have disabled everything not essential in BIOS, but no other tweaking. The only thing preventing me from running it 24/7 it is the power consumption (lots of power cuts so running on ups batteries is a no go). I use some HP disk-less computers wired directly to 12V car batteries as local servers for anything, even Linuxcnc as the latency on them is magnificent.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Onboard video is a no go for realtime from what I've read.
Funny I've never read that anywhere and all my machines use the onboard graphics chip.
JT
I was enlightened by someone with far more experience with LinuxCNC than me
there was definitely a time where onboard video which shared RAM with the CPU was bad for latency, at least in certain chipsets.
doing an operation like maximizing or opaquely dragging a window could cause multi-ms latencies
JT
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
After two week I tried LinuxCNC and have never looked back.
I have always used onboard graphics cards with latency at about 15000.
Recently I bought some HP DC7900 with E8400 processor, 2 gig ram and onboard graphics.
With Wheezy I get 3500 latency with 12 glxgears windows opened.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
rather than Mach3. I'm not using a USB smooth stepper setup so sounds like all
my existing electronics will work ok.
I'll have to read up on the latency issue. So does have a more modern, faster processor
help with latency? I mainly bought the old Dell because I was going the Mach3 route on
Windows XP (yuck!).
Can you guys recommend some good resources on setting up the configuration?
In the meantime I'll be loading back on LinuxCNC and dumping Mach3. LinuxCNC
loaded just fine on the Dell Optiplex.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
I previously used Mach3 and I took me a while to get it to run "OK".
Linuxcnc was actually 10 times quicker for me to setup.
Although I don't recommend nvidia in a linux machine I am currently using one with latency around 8000.
Cheers,
Oz
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.