Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Digest Number 2286

"P. J. Hicks" wrote:

> Hi guys,
> I enjoyed talking to many of you at N.A.M.E.S. In watching this list many
> of you have extolled the merits of EMC. So I picked up a EMC BDI CD and have
> since managed to install it on my old computer. Now what? I use Dolphin on
> my main computer and the G-code files are/can be put on disc, MS formatted
> of course. Linux/EMC writes disks in it's own format, I think, and will not
> read/write a disk from the MS Windos computer, I think.

While Linux has its favorite disk format, it CAN read and write a DOS/Windows
floppy. If the floppy is already formatted, it should automatically detect that and
mount it as an msdos file system. You have to mount and dismount devices,
and link them to the file system. This is very different from DOS/Windows.
Use the mount command like this :

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

If this fails, you can override the file system with

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

Then, you can check what is there with a command like

ls -al /mnt/floppy

You can copy files with commands like :

cp /usr/myname/abc.def /mnt/floppy ( copies files to floppy)

or

cp /mnt/floppy/abc.def . ( copies file from floppy to current directory on
hard drive )

before removing the floppy, dismount it so that all buffered blocks are forced
to write out to the floppy, like this :

umount /dev/fd0

> At least I haven't
> been able to do it?? How do I get g-code into the EMC box? How/where do I
> get software that the Linux/EMC computer will run other than the EMC
> program? There are several EMC icons on the desktop and only the simulation
> responds. When it does it appears to be working correctly, I think. Any
> direction here would be greatly appreciated.

There is a lot of other software out there, in fact the BDI CD has some software
that is not loaded unless you ask for it. But, if you are looking for CAD/CAM
software, there is not a whole lot available right now. There are some windows
emulators like Wine, and virtual machine packages like VMWare, that let you
run Windows software on the same computer as Linux.

Without physical hardware, most of the non-simulation versions of EMC
will have functions that don't work, as the software is checking that the hardware
really did what you asked it to.

Jon