Boxford v190 cnc

[BernieNUFC]

Thanks doddy, i have just pulled some out of my garage loft that was hanging around, will give it a try.
I have used a cnc router without too much problem as it was with vectric so most of the work was done and made some nice carvings and acrylic jobs but metal is a bit more difficult with fusion and this pp as i have no idea at that depth :-)
thank you

[depronman]

Update on the HP small format PC that Bernie kindlt sent me - it may help other
I have spent all evening trying to get linux to see two parallel ports

There is one onboard from the motherboard and I installed another PCI parport in the only avialable slot (White slote at the very right hand side of the m/b)
Firstly the PCI card MUST be a slim height one as the HP is not very tall, not a problem as the ones I bought from ebay a few weeks ago are slim enough but I will need to modify the mounting bracket or back plate of the card as its meant for a full height case

having fitted the card and rebooted fire up terminal and type in lspci -v
this reported the PCI cardat address 1100 and 1108
from past experience I know that you use the latter of the two addresses with 0x before it in linuxcnc hal file, so this means the pci card is seen at 0x1108
so far so good

now in termin type dmesg | grep parport
This reported -
parport0: 0x378 irq7
lp0: using parport0

So happy days linux can see both parallel ports

so, run a dummy stepconfig wizard, set to 2 parallel ports, crash any data in the rest of it
Start Linux and it crashes, stating it cannot find a parallel port
no great problem, i've had this issue before as Linuxcnc tries to define the parallel ports as 0 and 1, but this sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work, but you can amend this in the HAL file by using the actual address instead of 0 and 1

loadrt hal_parport cfg="0x0378 out 0x1108 in" this should do it

try to start linuxcnc, still crashes with same error

I spent 3 hours going round in circles, removing the pci parport, changed it for another one, tried another pci card in the slot on the M/B with a spare sound card, all worked perfectly
What the hell is going on !!!!!

Into the BIOS and set the parport on the M/B to bidirectional - same problem, set it to all possible setting, still the same problem, until I set it to disabled
You read this right DISABLED
saved BIOS setting and rebooted linux
run the above two terminal commands and was surprised that the PCI card AND the M/B port was still seen (even though the BIOS was told to disable the onboard parport)
Started Linuxcnc and no errors this time, into HALSHOW, pins, parports, 0, show all input pins (10, 11, 12, 13, 15) then port 1 show all input pins (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15)
connect a parallel cable to each port, using a jumper wire in pin 25 touch pin numbers above and HALSHOW lit up each pin
So, all is working correctly

But would you 'adam and eve it', it only works if the onboard parallel port is DISABLED in the BIOS

I thought it was worth posting my findings to save others getting frustrated / giving up

On another note - I cannot get linux mint to install from a pen drive, it will never start from the pen drive even after F9 for the boot menu and selecting USB Boot
The pen works on other PC's / laptops perfectly so its not a pen drive issue
Any help on this would be appreciated.

I installed Linuxcnc from a DVD, but only had the mint version on a pen drive. I can't find my stock of blank DVD disk to burn the mint iso to a DVD to try, will have a look tomorrow when her in doors is at work (sure she as put them somewhere safe)

Cheers,
Paul

[John11668]

I found something similar when installing a second Graphics card om a SFF pc.
Had to nominate one or the other

[depronman]

I found something similar when installing a second Graphics card om a SFF pc.
Had to nominate one or the other

The strange think though is in the bios the mb par port is disabled but is still seen by Linux and used
Makes me think that either Linux is cleverer than the bios or the bios as a bug in it and is not actually disabling the par port but it is doing summit as with it enabled Linuxcnc will not use the blinking port
Paul


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[NB70]

I don't know if you have tried the linuxcnc forum - but I've always found them really helpful
https://forum.linuxcnc.org/

[John11668]

I tried to install linux via a pen drive but comes up with an error message (Hal file missing)
I was wondering about going this route ,, doesnt break the bank
https://www.softwarerepairworld.com/...it&utm_content

Having said that it is almost bewildering the number of options available to download on the linux site and I wonder which to go for .

[depronman]

I tried to install linux via a pen drive but comes up with an error message (Hal file missing)
I was wondering about going this route ,, doesnt break the bank
https://www.softwarerepairworld.com/...it&utm_content

Having said that it is almost bewildering the number of options available to download on the linux site and I wonder which to go for .

I may be wrong but I do know that the Linux version you need must have a real time (RT) kernel
I know that latter versions of Linux had issues with this I also think this is only important when using a parallel port as a Mesa card will generate the real time pulses where as when using a par port linuxcnc must generate them hence the need for RT kernel

If you go to the linuxcnc web site you can download an iso file. Use rufus in windows to burn this to a dvd. Rufus makes the iso bootable
You can then trial linuxcnc on any pc laptop etc with a dvd drive. Just put the dvd in and turn on the pc. Assuming the bios boot order is disc then hdd it will load up Linux from the dvd but NOT install it onto the hard drive. If all goes ok and you want to install Linux then reboot with the dvd still in the drive and there is a menu option to do a. Graphical install Takes about 10 mins to install
This will give you Linux and linuxcnc
You can then upgrade linuxcnc to the latter versions if you want to. V2.8.0 being the latest official release.
Give me a call and I can talk you through this if it’s still not clear

Paul


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[Muzzer]

You should be able to boot off a USB pen drive but did you make it a bootable drive first? Many (most?) laptops don't have DVD drives these days, so it's a common thing to do.

Installation gets easier each iteration it seems. https://forum.linuxcnc.org/9-install...inuxcnc#184773

[depronman]

You should be able to boot off a USB pen drive but did you make it a bootable drive first? Many (most?) laptops don't have DVD drives these days, so it's a common thing to do.

Installation gets easier each iteration it seems. https://forum.linuxcnc.org/9-install...inuxcnc#184773

No it appears the pc in question doesn’t like the booting from a pen drive
The same pen drive boots a laptop and a MacBook Pro without problems so certainly a pc issue

I have this afternoon burned the iso image to a dvd and now started the pc perfectly and installed mint19.3 with linuxcnc v2.8.0
Happy days
Paul


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[John11668]

I must admit that I get mightily perplexed by the jargon these software folks speak .
I am not illiterate , nor am I unintelligent , but I am totally at a loss with their instructions , and the software I have looked (like Rufus ) is anything but intuitive.
I am an engineer , I can do a bit of wiring, and have a passing aquaintance with rudimentary electronics . I am also English..
Why cant the software guys speak english too?

Or better still produce a bootable disc which does the equivalent of a windows disc. Lets face it we want to make our machines work.
We dont want to be software gurus.