Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] BDI install, ie hand book

peter smith wrote:

> Hello all
>
> Just installed BDI ver 2.04 on a Dell pentium 400, all went ok after selecting the required display etc,
>
> As A Linux non user, and coming straight from DOS, Windows9xx, the immediate questions that come to mind are.
> Which EMC do I use, Generic, Mini, Run, or sim, when using steppers/servo,s

Sim is a simulator, that runs on any Linux, and doesn't talk to any hardware (other
than the screen, keyboard and mouse).

Probably none of the above will do what you want, anyway. You need to prepare
a xxx.ini file for your specific configuration. You cans start with emc.ini (and
the emc.run file that calls it up) (note: generic.ini seems to have an error in it,
as it selects steppermod.o, but has the period parameter set to 16 uS. I think
this may cause system hangs.) You will have to edit the max and default velocity and
max and default acceleration parameters, the input scale for each axis (number of
steps per user unit (inches or mm) and the polarity settings for all the limit switches
if you use them. (You can deal with that later, after getting it to move.)

>
> How do I view the entire hard drive contents i,e, (in old DOS
> DIR/P), or move in directories so that I know exactly what is there,

There's a LOT out there. The easiest method is to use the cd command to
change to a particular directory, so to go to /usr/local/emc you would enter
cd /usr/local/emc

Then, you can use ls, or ls -l to get date, size, etc.
ls --color gives a color coded listing by file type.
ls *.run lists only files that end with .run
note that unlike DOS/Windows, there can be no, or more than one '.'
in a file name. So, a file name like a.b.c.d.e is legal in Linux.

cd .. goes to the next higher level in the directory structure, ie closer to the
root. if you are in /usr/local/emc, and want to see what is in subdirectory
src, you can do ls src or cd src and then ls

If you are going to get into this seriously, you'll need to get a book on Linux
at the local bookstore. There's a lot to learn.

>
> How do I move around in Linux i.e. copying files from the A drive etc. to the H/D, and will these be recognisable if they have been created in another simple text editor such as DOS edit,
> Are G code programs readily recognised if they have been created in another program.

If you do it right, there should be no problem. Linux knows about DOS file systems.
1. You have to mount and dismount floppies, the mount command is :
mount /dev/floppy /mnt/floppy

then, you can check what's on it, with the usual ls commands, like :
ls /mnt/floppy

copy like this :
cp /mnt/floppy/xyz.dat .

The '.' means put it in the Linux directory i'm set to at the moment. You can change the name,
put it in another directory, etc by replacing the . with some other name, directory path, etc.
To check what dir you're in, the command is pwd (print working directory).

Don't forget to unmount any floppies, especially if you have written files to them!
The command is umount /dev/floppy

Jon