EMC and WinNT

Hi All:

I've been lurking for a while and thought I'd de-lurk to ask a few questions.

First some background, I'm a programmer, with some history in
electronics, machining is one of many hobbies. Some time ago I converted
my Sherline Mill to CNC control and have used it (successfully) for some
engraving, wood routing and unsuccessfully for pcb prototyping. I'm using
a home-made 3-axis bipolar step controller based on the designs included
with DANCAD/DANCAM and an old 486 running DOS all connected to some cheap
($4) ~50oz-in steppers mounted to the Sherline with homemade attachment
plates.

I read about EMC and thought it might be a good opportunity to learn g-code
(for no good reason) and found that they have a NT version. I've tried it
on my regular computer and as a result here are my problems/questions.

1. Has anyone made it work with NT? Whenever I start it using the emcstart
batch file, simio.exe terminates.
2. Is it fully implemented in Winnt? It looks like a couple of apps are
missing, ie. emcmot doesn't exist, although emcmotsim does.
3. If it's not worth bothering on NT, what are the minimum requirements
for the Linux version? Such as RAM, total hard disk space (for linux and
EMC), and processor.

Thanks

Ron


=============================================================
Ron Hanson Email: rhanson@...
North Plains Systems Inc. WWW: www.northplains.com
989 Derry Road East, Suite 302 Phone: (905) 565-1900
Mississauga, Ontario Fax: (905) 565-1978
CANADA L5T 2J8