What is the post processor of choice here? 3 and 4 axis milling using MasterCAMX and the Syil Super X3. Should this post go into the "software/programming" forum instead? Thought it would be best here.

Any pointers on Gcode differences required if using EMC or MACH control software to run the X3?

thanks

I'm just getting my EMC setup together. From what I can tell their are not any differances on the surface. Mach uses pretty standard G-Code configurations. I've used several other posts to use on Mach. Most, if not all, CAM software has a post for Mach.

As soon as you have your EMC 2.0 setup done, could you please make it available for others too ;-)

I.

I'm just getting my EMC setup together. From what I can tell their are not any differances on the surface. Mach uses pretty standard G-Code configurations. I've used several other posts to use on Mach. Most, if not all, CAM software has a post for Mach.


is that true,

i heard a ISO gcode would work in mach

regards

I'm a little slow on the Linux thing. The distribution I'm using is the one recommended on the EMC site. Qutopia? Something like that. I really like it. Simple. I've been working on writting the configuration so that it can run the software controller from a CD only. No harddrive. Makes things a little slower, but I don't have to worry about hard drive failure. Only issues I've been having with it, is the video driver. Makes my LCD screen unreadable at the login. If I put in my user name and password (even though I can't see it) and get it right, then it works.

Most likely your distribution switches to 40 or more lines per row during boot. And your graphics card doesn’t know what to do with this. I assume that you can see your laptop’s initial BIOS messages and you have access (briefly) to linux prompt. Linux usually wait a few seconds before it loads the kernel.
You should see something like this “ xxxxx kernel linux:” at this point you should be able to pass commands to your kernel before it boots. Try to google up the command to disable bootsplash (vga=???) But to make this permanent you’ll need a hard drive. (chage grub.conf or lilo )
If you have a desktop I’d try a different graphics card. The cheaper the better.
Personally I prefer hard drive because it is more stable than CD. Plus you can store your programs and configurations on a hard drive. With a CD you either drip feed or create a memory drive where you loose your data each time you reboot. Drip feeding huge 3D programs via Ethernet is dangerous.
An other option is to boot from a 1GB flash. If you want a hard drive free system. You’ll need a newer mother board for this.

I control my TV and server with linux. But I still don’t dare to jump into EMC. I like to stick with one control. Mach is more widely used and If I buy a new machine most likely I’ll have Mach support but for EMC I’d need to set it up by myself each time. If I move from steppers to servos in the future I’ll need to learn again how to configure servos. I’m not saying its no fun but I rather spend my time designing and cutting parts from Alu.

I've been playing around with my EMC setup. Very nice screen. Love the graphics. Unfortunately, that's about as far as I've gone. No time left in the day to complete the configuration.

Any good tips for getting started writting a config file for EMC?