Start PathPilot without a Mesa card connected

Hi

I don't have the Mesa card at hand yet, is there a way to trick PathPilot into starting up and not stopping with a missing Mesa card error? Sorry if this has already been discussed elsewhere and I just couldn't find it.

Regards
Martin

This might help, though it may not work with the latest PathPilot versions:

forum.linuxcnc.org/pathpilot/30222-setti...-port-tutoral-part-3

There is a DEMO setup for PathPilot if that is something you would consider.

( TP

Not to hijack, but I've always wondered how Pathpilot is able to start without power to the daughter card (their custom board)?

It doesn't complain about all of the pins not existing yet.

I'd love to make my plasma table do the same...

Tormach doesn't use any sserial devices (which are dynamically discovered
at startup) in their daughterboard, so can start LinuxCNC with it being powered.
Though I suspect they will not let the system out of EStop until all is powered
and working.

Why would you want to launch LinuxCNC when it cannot actually run?

you basically want to enter SIM mode which there are several ways to do it

1. in your .bashrc add
PATHPILOT_SIM_MODE=1, restart then start PP
2. run in a virtualized environment
3. in the MACHINE section of the ini file put in SIM=1
4. in the specific.ini file for your machine comment out the bit file.

all these force it into SIM mode which will not load the BIT file

PCW wrote: Tormach doesn't use any sserial devices (which are dynamically discovered
at startup) in their daughterboard, so can start LinuxCNC with it being powered.
Though I suspect they will not let the system out of EStop until all is powered
and working.

Why would you want to launch LinuxCNC when it cannot actually run?

You are correct, can’t do much until power is on and you “reset”.

Honestly, the biggest reason is that I forget to turn the cabinet on and LCNC yells at me :laugh:

Then I have to repeat the process of starting after I remember to turn on the cabinet. Otherwise, probably not much reason.

Its probably possible to launch LinuxCNC by deferring the parts of hal that access
the hardware to a hal section that's loaded later.

You could also have a script that determines if the hardware is available and puts
up a "Waiting for Control power" notifier until the hardware is detected

PCW wrote: Its probably possible to launch LinuxCNC by deferring the parts of hal that access
the hardware to a hal section that's loaded later.

You could also have a script that determines if the hardware is available and puts
up a "Waiting for Control power" notifier until the hardware is detected

I’m not sure how to execute that, but it would be awesome.

Heres the basic idea:

Someone with python or tcl smarts could do a nice graphic version