I mentioned the new components that were purchased and the old parts that would be brought back into service to build the CNC Controller PC here. This morning I assembled everything and was relieved when the system fired up without a hitch. This first boot up was using the original boot drive that has Windows XP installed. Since I transferred the Windows license to my newer system when I built it a few years ago I am in a position where I need to either purchase another license for Windows and purchase Mach 3, or give Linux and EMC2 a go. I decided to try Linux/EMC2.
Information about the Enhance Machine Controller (EMC2) can be found here. Linux comes in different flavors, known as 'distros'. EMC2 comes bundled with the Linux distro known as Ubuntu. As a result, when you install EMC2 you also install the Ubuntu flavor of Linux. This turned out to be a painless process. It is possible to create an 'ISO image' of the OS and EMC2 application and then boot the system from a 'live' CD-ROM. Since the boot up from the CD went well I went ahead and installed everything on the hard drive. Here is the process I followed:
- Download the EMC2 Live CD file image from here (this takes awhile since it is a large file).
- Download CDBurnerXP, a freeware application capable of making 'ISO 9660 Image' discs.
- Burn the ISO Image to CD.
- Boot the controller system using the CD.
- Launch EMC2 application.
- Whoohoo! We are in business!
The next step will be configuring EMC2 for my controller hardware. Hopefully this will prove to be as easy as the basic installation.
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