Has any one heard of BDI a lunux control program for CNC machines?

Apparently it is a way to install a controller for rutex and gecko drivers. Even though it is linux, you dont need to have linux installed on your computer. Apparently the name BDI is short for brain dead install. I gather you just boot your computer from the CD and it does all the rest.

I have heard that Mach2 is a windows copy of this program. The only difference is it is for free.

I have ordered the CD because I cant download 500meg thorugh my modem.

If all this is true then you get the best of both worlds. An efficient free program, and you get to keep wondows on your computer too.

I will post further information when I get the CD.

Here is the site. http://www.linuxcnc.org

Well, the BDI will install Linux for you, it's a Linux installation.

Sven

Yes but it more than just linux, it is a CNC program that runs under Linux.

ynneb said Yes but it more than just linux, it is a CNC program that runs under Linux.

and the CNC program is EMC (Enhanced Machine Control) created by NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology).
I think the bdi image (for download) and cd are available at LinuxCNC (http://www.linuxcnc.org/)

robotic regards,

Tom
= = = = =
"What's the difference between a near sighted hunter and a constipated owl?"
One shoots and shoots and can't hit;
the other hoots and hoots and can't ...

Ok, but what I was wondering is, does any one use it, and is it any good?
Is it worth the hassle of the big download, or is it some home hack peice of software that will be a waste of time? Any comments from users would be appreciated.

If you've never used Linux of UNIX, you'll likely be in for a bit of learning. If this is your first time installing Linux, don't try to dual boot with a windows operating system, it can be tricky and you might lose the ability to boot into windows if you set it up incorrectly.

EMC is a very capable CNC control program. The reason it's not more popular is the whole need to run Linux.

I've downloaded it and the BDI is really a BDI (next, next, next..). My only issue is that the iso is not self bootable, at least in my year 95 p266 ;) but you only need to create a linux boot diskette the usual way.

Just now I am figthing with the emc.ini file, seems pretty capable, but I expect a pair or three hours of tweaking (btw, as usual..)

Will keep you informed.

/U

I have a program called Lindows. It is a linux version of windows. You set the computer to boot from a CD drive and insert the Lindows disk. The computer boots from the CD and launches what looks very similar to an XP setup. I think I will use this and try to run the EMC program from this sort of setup. That way It wont mess with my current windows files.

Urgundiz it would be great if you could keep us up to date with you progress etc.

I really want to push through this Linux barrier and see how well EMC works. I hope to make further postings that will advise others how to take this same path without making the same mistakes along the way.

I had Linux and it was ok; I used it for a few weeks; then I tied to install something; man what a pain; I never did get anything installed; I finally reformated the HHD and now its slave to this ne

To have EMC work properly you need Real Time Linux, which is a kernel update and therefore almost all Linux distributions needs an update. The RT part is there to ensure that the input reading speed is high enough, it also makes EMC running perfect at really high speeds with old PC's.
I haven't been using EMC yet for real, but as my router becomes ready that's my natural choice.

Linux has a higher learning level and it takes some time to get into it but when you've learned you'll realize that it's not an ordinary Point-n-Click OS, it's simply the only thing you need. ;)

Regards,
Sven

The BDI version comes packaged with the pre-patched real-time kernel, so you won't need the real time linux patch. i spent several days trying this software out before christmas, but just couldn't get it to work properly. I ended up purchasing Mach2. However, I do not intend to put you off, many people have had great success with the software, just don't spend too long trying to get it to work! Good luck.

I have wimped out and taken the tried and beaten path of buying Mach 2.

Sorry to start this thread and then bonb out badly by purchasing Mach 2.

I am just too new to this whole thing to have to worry about any more dificulties of having to deal with Linux too.

I hope someone gets it up and running and then publishes a detailed document of what they did and their sucesses.

Now I am feeking a bit red faced.

Hey Benny if you'd like to try BDI I can send it to you

Thanks Brian for your offer. I have bought a copy of Mach2, so I will stick with that for the moment.
That was a kind offer though. :)

Well Im also new to emc and have the bdi disks. I installed the redhat and then I booted from the second cd wich is morphix (with the emc program). All I have done is ran it off the cdrom. I saw an option to load morphix to hard drive and successfully did that. A message was posted that the bdi install was complete. I restarted and the computer wouldn't boot. All I saw was "LIL" not Lilo. SO whats next? How do ya restart?

LILO will write a varying number of characters to the screen during bootup -- each character represents a seperate step in the boot process (kinda). "LIL" means "the descriptor table could not be read".

My guess is that you either have a bad hard disk (not likely) or a larger hard disk (>2GB) on an old computer (with an old BIOS). If you can't seem to get things working after attempting another reinstall, try repartitioning the disk with a small "/boot" partition (64MB should be sufficient) and make this the first partition on the disk (/dev/hda1).

Flute Head, Go to: http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Look through the archives, there may be something there. And join the mailing list.
My guess is that it's a partition problem, and that the Linux partition cannot be reached.
I've only run the Morphix version from CD, but if you made a boot floppy, it will probably boot using that.