Re: EMC and WinNT

> 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.

You can't run a machine with EMC on WinNT. You need to use real time
linux. Also, to use the program you need atleast a P133, 32MB RAM,
1GB HD. However, I have found that I couldn't compile the realtime
kernel for red hat linux 5.2 on a P166, I had to use my K6-2 300, I'm
assuming you can get away something less, and 64MB RAM. Also you need an
LSI 11 bus board to hook the PC up to a machine, which costs $2k, pretty
steep.


Karl