Installing Plasmac

I appreciate the work you put into this. I am on my third go at this. Must have found an ISO that didn't have the RT kernel and couldn't install that. Before that I tried wheezy and couldn't get plasmac installed. Will continue to try following your instructions. Very new to this whole thing. Hoping to build out a system using LinuxCNC for my next plasma table, really not happy with Mach3.

PurduePete wrote:

I appreciate the work you put into this. I am on my third go at this. Must have found an ISO that didn't have the RT kernel and couldn't install that. Before that I tried wheezy and couldn't get plasmac installed. Will continue to try following your instructions. Very new to this whole thing. Hoping to build out a system using LinuxCNC for my next plasma table, really not happy with Mach3.

Unfortunately, Plasmac is not yet in any branch so it requires compiling from source. That is not that hard and I did write a guide in the plasma and laser section outlining how to do it. It could be a bit dated now as Phill has been working hard to make it easier to install.

Plasmac seems to be fairly stable now so hopefully, it won't be long before its deployed as part of the Version 2.9 branch (the current master branch) so compiling won't be necessary.

BigJohnT wrote:

I wonder why plasmac needs to be in a branch? Can't it just be a stand alone component like QtPyVCP? LinuxCNC is getting very bloated with all the GUI's now...

JT

Personally, I think it should be pushed to master as there is nothing in it anymore affecting the core code. Plasmac is much more than a GUI, its a complete system, but then its not really a GUI as its built on axis and Gmoccapy.

At it's core it's a HAL component. Is there already a way to distribute precompiled components?

Rodw, I actually started with your list of instructions. Followed you here from Plasma Spider actually. I commented there that Plasmac might be a good option for my next build. So took the plunge and decided to start working on it. Needed a computer no matter what I went with control wise so just got one without the OS.

Unfortunately this is where my issues started. When following your instructions it appears that Wheezy is out of date and would not update. Tried for a couple of hours and really got no where with it. Moved on to this set of instructions. Didn't have the correct ISO as there was no RT kernel in the program list. So trying again tonight.

There are a couple of things that I am struggling with unfortunately. First, I have no idea what versions I should be installing of linux and then struggling with the versions of linux cnc as well. What has caused some issues is that there are so many how to's and most of them appear to be older and reference old versions. The main point of struggle is just being unfamiliar with Linux and working with that operating system. My background is mechanical engineering and automation design, but only the mechanical systems. But I want to understand the systems better. I think this is the right route to take.

My plan is an mesa ethernet BOB so that I can keep some distance from the plasma and computer. Going to go with Clearpath Servos, but the ones that take a step/dir input so that shouldn't be much of an issue. I would love to be able to send a signal to the hypertherm unit to change settings, but that might not be possible right now. One challenge at a time I think.

PurduePete,
There is an ISO available that already has the RT-PREEMPT kernel installed along with linuxcnc here: www.linuxcnc.org/testing-stretch-rtpreempt/
This is Debian 9 (Stretch) with LinuxCNC 2.7. This will get you started. (FYI, they are currently in the process of making 2.8 the current release)

Then to install the plasmac branch I would start here: github.com/phillc54/linuxcnc/blob/plasma...smac_user_guide.adoc
This will install linuxcnc 2.9 (pre release) with the plasmac component.

I will try that. I have the "linuxcnc-stretch-uspace-amd64-r13.iso" file downloading now and was going to try that next.

WHERE is this file located
sudo halcompile --install plasmac.comp