Hi, guys, I know the thread got a bit tangled, but for those who see the subject line might be interested in seeing this site: http://www.project1a.com/cnc.html
Hope that it helps-
It does help to reinforce the notion that people use their 'CNC controller' to run more that just plain vanilla MACH3. The author of the linked article had success only to a point. He says:
"Specifically, I wanted to have Cambam installed because, even though I wouldn't do any major design work on this computer, it would sometimes be handy to be able to produce gcode for simple cases without moving to a different computer."
However, his progress is summed up thus:
"Unfortunately, my efforts at installing Cambam have been fruitless so far. I'll try again later. "
And so ends the article.
Surfing the web, watching YouTube or reading E-mail are arguably not realistic needs for a CNC computer, but Above is an example of a valid App to have available. Some others might be Feed Rate calculators, G-code viewers and/or editors, G-code generators and simple geometry editors *Vectrix CUT2D is one that I use, and I can go on and on.
The argument has been correctly made that these kind of satellite utilities CAN be run on a remote computer, however, I suspect that such arguments must come from people who are running a simple stepper setup with the PP have therefor no need for servo configuration and diagnostic software.
Systems that employ industrial drives have the need to run such software, usually on the CNC host machine. These capabilities are filtering down to hobby level stuff as well with at least one hobby level servo drive vendor that provides servo config software that requires .NET to be installed on the host machine in order for the config software to run.
So, can the .NET package be installed on a particular Embedded Windows XP hardware? It should be a simple question, but getting an answer seems all but impossible and is made more difficult by that vocal group of stepper users who insist it is not necessary, as if that is an answer.
In any case, the customer who I was doing this research for has now purchased a new PC with Windows 7 and the Tormach 'CNC controller' shall become a door stop. So far as I know this puts the score back to 100% as far as my Tormach users ditching the sertup as delivered, so I have no further interest in the topic and this will be my last post.
In parting, I do want to make one last quote from this thread:
. . . . please feel free to sue me if anything I've said is incorrect. (or snipe back at me again - whichever lights your candle the brightest).
Clearly, the banter in this thread was by invitation. I do enjoy sparring with a challenging opponent, be it physical or verbal. Yeah, I have some moves, but I take my lumps too and I don't whine about it. However, I do no beat up 12 year old students, and it is never, and I will repeat never, my intention to be mean spirited and make an intentional verbal degredation of anyone. If I am swapping insults with someone, be sure of two things, 1) it is all in fun and 2) I think the opponent is capable of kicking my A$$. Now surely that would be fun to watch. There are a number of well know rivalries here and on CNC zone that have nothing to do with me. I did not invent anything new. Some people watch a boxing match and then post that the winner is a mean person because he hit the other guy. Hello, its boxing. If you are afraid of getting bruised, don't get in the ring. If you can't stand the sight of blood, then don't watch.
Personally I love competition, but I despise bullfighting . . so I don't watch bullfighting. Its not complicated.
Have a nice day . . . .