RE: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Universal CNC Controller HSM 1/2003+

Joe,

I got some informatiion from Ray Henry back in January about the computer
used in the Universal CNC Controller HSM article. I will quote the message
below:

"Hi John

800 MHz Cyrix/Via surface mount on an epox board. 128 Meg ram. CDROM
reader but no floppy. I'm discovering that there are a number of
variations of this board. That is a nice sized, very sturdy box with a
tiny power supply and intermediate board. There is room in the box for a
standard sized hard drive.

The $200 WalMart Linux (Lycoris) pc has one with a connector for floppy
but only one hard drive cable so you can put a hard drive and cdrom and
up to four floppy drives. I have not gotten the EMC to run under
Lycoris, yet.

Ray"

It might be worth looking at the WalMart PC mentioned above, at least it
runs Linux which is 1/2 of the battle. I have a very space challenged
shop, (105.7 sq ft) so I am always looking for a physically smaller computer
to use as my CNC controller. I don't want a laptop for the shop, and have
been considering one of these mini-itx mother boards if it will run Linux.
My current shop computer is a PC III lunchbox portable with a 300 MHz
processor, running BDI 2.20 with the new Sherline mods.

Good luck with the Universal CNC controller, I think it is a great idea and
may spark additional development on controller integration.

John Guenther
'Ye Olde Pen Maker'
Sterling, Virginia


SNIP

> 3. Major issue - the computer. A main attraction to the project for
> me was having everything enclosed in a single unit. To get
> everything in the enclosure he recommended (special order from
> Newark, took only 2 weeks to arrive) you need a miniature computer.
> There are some installation issues with EMC and the miniature
> (idot.com) computer that he specifies in the article. I contacted
> Ray Henry about getting set up. He offered to sell me the unit used
> in the article. On follow up he never sent me info on how to pay,
> etc. I'm not (nor have the time to be) a Linux guru - I need the
> machine up and running so this has been frustrating. I think I will
> just order the idot machine and use a windows or dos CNC program. I
> wish he had given the specs for the computer he used; at least then
> I'd know the installation was possible. Idot has several models and
> multiple options so the chance of me getting a EMC compatible one is
> about "0".
>
> If I was doing it over, I'd get a computer that was "Emc friendly"
> then try to get everything to fit inside the computer (like Sherline
> did in their new CNC setup). It would have been cheaper and quicker
> to do, by far.... and achieved the goal of getting everything into
> one box (though not sealed, or as robust as Roland's specified one).
>