quick workaround for: "Not a com32r image" when booting from USB stick on ubuntu.

[Note: The best solution is to just boot into windows and use unetbootin to make the USB.]


I've been trying to install a bunch of PC's to drive a bunch of CNC machines. Linux, as expected, manages to mess things up. When booting from a USB stick I get "Not a com32r image". The hack below seems to work:

After some fiddling around with the syslinux config files and still not getting it to boot properly, I found a deceptively simple workaround for this: Just type "help" on the BOOT prompt, and when you get the help menu, just hit enter. The system will now boot!

Confirmed that this also works for me when booting a USB stick created by 10.10's USB creator.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-mint-84/trying-to-boot-linux-mint-9-from-usb-flash-drive-vesamenu-c32-not-a-com32r-image-829397/

How to boot thinkpad X1 from USB.

1. Format USB stick so it has a bootable ISO image (linux has various ways to do this; I used usb-creator-gtk for no particular reason other than it was already on my machine).
2. Power cycle.
3. Hold down F12.  The initial screen says to hold down the "blue botton" which doesn't exist.
4. Select the USB stick from the bootable options.
5. Press return.

Of course, like many things to do w/ linux and installation these days, this just doesn't work (at least for me).  I keep hitting "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" which is a known bug.  

So, now the google searching begins.  


Looks like it's a USB 3.0 issue.  The most expedient fix is to check for other USB connections on the laptop.  The one on the left side of the x1 seems to do the trick.

Part II: retrofit of an Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe

This is a delayed follow up to the post on disassembling an Emco Compact 5 CNC (http://coltpython.blogspot.com/2009/10/part-i-retrofit-of-emco-compact-5-cnc.html) on putting the machine back together with new bearings, motors, etc. I did this a month or so ago; hopefully this doesn't leave out anything important.

Note: this writing is *way* too detailed for a real machinist. It includes a bunch of very basic steps since that's the level I'm at.

It's currently at around 80%: motors in, everything turns, but still have:

1. hook up limit switches, the motor, the shutoff switch, and the RPM encoder to the gecko g540.
2. do something about the cosmetics: I ripped out a bunch of the stock electronics, leaving empty holes. These will suck up dust and junk, so need to decide what to do.

It's largely straightforward to put things back together.  The two tricky things are:

1. getting the optical encoder to not drag as the spindle turns. It turns out you have to bolt the lathe in and push/pull it back and forth so that the sheet metal of the housing torques until the drag stops. I kept disassembling the spindle head (and trying to seat the flywheel assembly deeper) in a misguided belief that these were the problems.
2. You probably 't just bolt the motors right on and go --- you need to make sure the tension is sufficient. So push the motors away from the timing belt wheel until the belt is tight and then tighten the bolts.

Finally, I still cant' get mach 3 to run reliably on windows XP on a Thinkpad T61 laptop, but this seems to be a known problem.

replacing timing belt on wells index CNC

Not exactly a universal problem, but: I have a wells index 700 series CNC mill that when you put into traverse mode gets stuck frequently. It seems to be a timing belt issue, esp since the belt broke when trying to adjust the motor. This is a short post on replacing the belt since I couldn't find any documentation.

As a bit of background, if the documentation is correct, it weighs more than 3,500lbs. Unfortunately, when it was moved, the servos got whacked and it's been a problem getting it running when controlled by computer (manual is fine).

The Y axis drive was giving a lot of problems for a while, until a real machinist came over, moved the motor around and then it worked. Turns out it had been hit and moved slightly out of alignmnet --- this was making it slightly more difficult to turn the handle, which was causing the torque sensor to stop movement.
I started getting the same problem on the X axis so started fooling around, and making it tighter. 20+ year old belts don't like to be made tighter and this one promptly broke.

I paniced.

I then called the company and the owner hadn't had to deal w/ that before (?!) so wasn't sure what to do. He said he'd get back to me. He then said I could maybe get the table to seperate and go from there. These instructions were fairly vague to someone that don't know much about machines.

In any case, it sucks having a broken machine so sans documentation I started taking bolts off. Turns out it was actually not that hard to replace the belt, despite some initial false starts.

Here's more photos than anyone other than the one wells index owner out there would want to see :)

Part I: retrofit of an Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe

I recently got a somewhat beat up Emco Compact 5 CNC lathe. I spent a bit of time retrofitting it. (Note: "Emco" is Austrian lathe as opposed to "Enco," cheap Chinese) While the manual has a schematic, I didn't see much on taking it apart, which is a bit nerve wracking since Emco doesn't seem to make replacement parts. This is the first chunk of photos from what I did. No guarantees it will help, but perhaps you can at least see things to avoid.

So here's what we have to work with:


Pretty dirty, some rust spots.

The spindle moves if you manually program it, but there's no way to save programs other than a tape player(!) and no way to upload other than typing.

I bought a plug&play CNC setup from dmauch@seanet.com, which includes a set of Nema 23 500oz motors and a GeckoG540 controller. You can drive it using Mach3 or (hopefully EMC2).

In any case: first thing is to strip the lathe down.

Fixing malignantly stupid ubuntu linux and windows XP on a thinkpad

I've wasted two days trying to get any of my thinkpad laptops to drive some stepper motors. Both windows and linux have behaved like inbred meth heads when it comes to doing simple things they should handle.

Windows

I was having issues making the parallel port work. One suggestion was to change the "ACPI" option to "Standard PC" from it's current setting.

Easy enough. Seemed completely harmless since "Standard PC" seems less tricky than whatever was in there to begin with.

I did it.

Reboot.

Windows crashes.

Reboot

Crashes

Reboot in "Safe mode"

Crashes

Reboot in "last stable configuration"

Crashes.

Reboot in with recovery CD.

Can't recognize harddrive.

Mount the windows file system in linux. Copy a bunch of DLLs over to try to revert thing. Crashes.

Finally, the sysadmin here changed the "Serial ATA" setting in the BIOS to be "Compatability" rather than ATA.

Now the recovery CD could recognize the drive.

Reinstall. Freezes since I need a product key and the one on my laptop doesn't work.

Track down what it wants (what an insult given that it fucked up!)

Continue.

Things now work.

Linux

Linux is not necessarily any better.

Since windows blew up I installed the ubuntu linux distribution to try out EMC2 (a CNC program). The installation went fine.

Reboot.

Boot loader cannot recognize the harddriver! WTF! (Grub: error 18)

I spent around 4 hours trying to get something to work. Even trying to do a complete reinstall of windows using a rescue CD failed w/ errors that it couldn't find the harddrive.

Fixing ubuntu's complete stupidity turns out to not take many key strokes in the end:

1. You need to get into the "BIOS" to change a setting: reboot your laptop
2. Hold down one of the function keys (F1 works for me)
3. It will take you to a configuration screen
4. Select "security"
5. Set the "hide disk area" option to "disabled"
6. Reboot.
7. Should work.

neat machining videos

Start of ongoing list.

CNC porn:

• Hard core mass production CNC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwgobIVj4fU
• Another fun one by the same people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcGHtI9Lql4&NR=1
• And another for a mill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SUQKGu7F5w&feature=channel
• Fast CNC cutting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYqN90gHOZM
• Now this is a production setup: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J4RlAmBuEo&feature=PlayList&p=199985F23F191210&index=1
• nakamura CNC lathe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Gtr4WbtNw

Machining tricks:

• Indicating workpiece in seconds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tn7A9PqNftY
• Steady rest facing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThVprkb2w6g
• Using CNC mill as lathe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezx_hCSJDLQ&feature=PlayList&p=C228FBAE81E4F35A&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=4

Building CNC links:

• Neat home brew CNC lathe w/ a crazy tool changer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1IDHIcyHLY&feature=related

• Cheap to build CNC dremel mill (from instructables). Not powerful or accurate, but seems like a good starter project before building something serious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6drMZqmyXQc
• Same guy: building cheap CNC driver board: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUyqscxLJ4k&feature=related

Stepper links

Since the main point of all this electronic stuff is to build some custom CNC machines, time to start a collection of links:

• Nice H-bridge tutorial: http://www.mcmanis.com/chuck/robotics/tutorial/h-bridge/bjt-circuit.html
  
• Some notes on doing motors on arduinos: http://www.ladyada.net/make/mshield/use.html
• Arduino on steppers: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/StepperBipolar
• Good stepper tutorials: http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/168 and http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/120
• Reverse engineering which stepper wires to use: http://wwwhomes.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/stepper/others/
• Even more stepper motors w/ lots of data:http://www.st.com/stonline/products/literature/an/1679.pdf
• Related: how to use an oscilloscope: http://www.doctronics.co.uk/scope.htm

sending gcode to a bandit controller on a wells index CNC milling machine

There's at most one other person on the planet that needs this information, but since I spent hours (and hours (hours (...))) looking for it, here it is.

Currently I only know how to send using "hyperterminal" on windows. When it starts tell it to connect to the serial port (If you don't know what this is: you pull down the hyperterminal menu which will say something like com3, com4 or other --- just try these until it works).

You set:

• data bits: 7
• parity: even
• stop bits 1
• flow control: hardware
  

Then under "properties" set:

• windows keys
• autodetect
• send line ends
• wrap lines
  

To send a program to the bandit:

• put in ext mode
• press "CE" and then "start"
• In hyperterminal "send ascii file."
  

Here's a trivial program to move on the X axis one inch:

N001&0
X-1.0
M2

The "N001&0" seem required at the beginning. And "M2" states its at the end of the program.

After it loads

• put the bandit in run "continuous mode"
• hit reset (to put the machine to the beginning of the program)
• hit start.
  

It should move one inch. If it doesn't and the red error light keeps going on when you try to the program, sure you've pushed the "axis enable" button.

I am using a laptop. Since modern laptops no longer ship with serial ports (at least mine doesn't) I'm using a USB-to-Serial converter from Frys. The first one I bought was broken, which really jacked up the whole process.

If anyone can figure out how to send using linux that would be great! I've tried cu, minicom, and a random com.c program from the net. Something doesn't seem right. The bandit red light of death goes on (so it received something) but it's definitely not the right thing.

Useful post on converting an emco compact 5 to modern hardware

I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to build my own CNC.

This is a nice rundown on how to convert an emco compact 5 lathe by Art Fenerty (he wrote Mach 3):

Just to kick in on costing of such a project ( having converted my emco PC5 last year. This isnt a plug for my software, I retired over a year ago from Artsoft, just info for those interested in such a conversion. )

My costs were..

Motor drivers, about 100.00 each ( 2 required. ), I used some I had from ebay that I got for about 50.00 each, prices vary, but I used 10uStep controllers @ 3amps, 24 volt. Gecko's work great, as will almost any microstep driver.)

Motors ( you can use the ones currently on a pc5, but they are very weak, or mine were anyway. You couldnt even feel the torque detents as you rotated them without power. 500oz inch ( approx) cost me about 50.00 each , but you dont really need that power. ( though its nice to have ). My power more than tripled on the axis, they cannot be stopped by hand at this point, and they are much faster.

Power supply ( the one in the emco can be used, no need for an additional one. You can tap the original power supply for 24 volts for motor drives, and the 110volts for the breakout board power. )

I also added a breakout board for interfacing. The breakout board from pmdx.com fits well in the spot where the original
emco pc com board fits in the machine. Cost approx $129.00 US. The mach3 web based form has photos of the conversion I did,
everythign fits well int he Emco casing and made my pc5 a much more usefull machine.

I also added a sensor for threading, and put a bolt in one of the original slots to trigger the sensor for speed and threading. Mouser electronics 653-ee-sb5v is the sensor I used. About $20.00 for that.

Of course I didnt have to pay for the software. :-)

The emco works very well now, has no file length limitations, and lazyturn generates code that runs pretty well if you have nothing else available. ( free from the mach3 web forum till I end up adding a final finish pass. ). The only possible dodgy part is the
threading. While threading short threads works well, after a couple inches of thread there is a bit of wander that makes the thread imperfect, though nuts do spin on with no binding. This is the result of single pulse per rev threading. Still being worked on slowly, but seems to work well for most threaders, depends on the pc and sensor configuration and setting as to how well it works.

So my total cost was about 350.00US or so ( somewhere about 175 EU ) , adding software would make it about 300EU for a complete conversion.

The same conversion would allow EMC or other software to run the lathe. If one used an encoder for the spindle EMC woudl do perfect threading on it, or if one can figure out the original sensor in the pc5 to feed the software. ( I never could get mine working but it may have been defective from the start, I never used it prior to converting, so I just tore it out and replaced it with my 20.00 sensor..)

Alternately, instead of a breakout baord a smoothstepper device, USB based could be used, the smoothstepper is also known for perfect threads. All I can tell you for sure is the upgrade makes the lathe run much better than stock, much more powerfull, faster, and more reliable. Much depends on what you use it for of course.

Thanks,
Art

And his continuation of the same post:

>>I searched around: is this the thread you mean on your conversion?
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,214.0.html


Yup, thats the thread.

Wiring isnt as bad as it looks. Where you see I added a pmdx breakout board, is where the emco put their pc interface card. You just rip that out entirely. ( if you have the same machine I do.. ). Your new motor drivers wire directly to the pmdx board, so between the docs for the drivers and the docs for the pmdx, all the wiring is described. Now I added 2 drivers and a pmdx, and 2 motors, the motors wire directly to the drivers ( real easy to wire the motors.. ) , and the pmdx board simply gets a printer port cable which I wired to the pc printer port plug on the back of my emco.. and then it wires to the drivers.. ( step/direction and com ) so 3 wires to each driver from the breakout board. I put 2 7 amp drivers and a PMDX in the same area.. they all went in just fine and with little effort. Chinese drivers or geckos all run about 120.00 I think for pretty high current drivers.

As to the power supply, yell if you like when you get there, its easy to find the 24volt spot on the emco supply. Lots of current available so no extra supply is necessary at least on the PC5 version of the Emco, those two points on the emco ( 24vdc and common) wire to each of the drivers to supply power to them, the pmdx just gets a tap to the 120vac line inside. Again, pretty easy.

Thats it, no other wires really need to be done unless you want threading.. the sensor can be a bit of a bitch to wire if you dont do electronics, but again, yell when you get there, its only 3 wires to the sensor from the breakout board.. and then I put a screw in one of the slots of the slotted wheel, the sensor see's it on every spin. The sensor bolts in the same bolt holes the old emco sensor did as I recall. I can take better pics if you get to that stage. But you can cut fine without the threading sensor. ( I dont cut threads usually..). If your firend can get that sensor that comes with the Emco running, then even better as I do have a special plugin that will use an index slot and multislot timing pulses for threading. Tests show it works well, but there is a wandering after an inch or two. Still holds nuts fine, but with Mach3 dont expect Boeing quality threads unless you use a smoothstepper.. its simply a limitation
of running from Windows. On the bright side, for those that need perfect threads, this described upgrade isnt just to make the emco Mach3 compatible, its also EMC compatable at that point, so if you like linux, you can run EMC as well. ) or pretty much any other step/direction controller. Steve Stallings, the pmdx inventor is an EMC group member and pretty knowledgeable about such things, Im sure many could help you get that up and running.

By the way, the new motors simply bolted in the same spots the old ones did, no work required at all.. you just wire the 4 wires from the motors to the drivers.. pretty easy.. Any basic electronics person will find it painless to do such a job.. ( and many people who know only about basic dc wiring..). Ill post Mach3 settings for the emco if anyone wants them.. it configures pretty easy and runs real well. No limit on file size at all.

Just my opinion, but if one is to upgrade an emco, Id really recommend going this route simply because it makes it compatable
with pretty much any controller that will send step/direction commands. The future will probably bring about things like SCurve controllers, ( which smooth out motion quite nicely), or other advances in technology which , if you go proprietary you wont be able to take advantage of. We all know how long these lathes last.. pretty much forever, so having a standard type of control has its advantages. ( Emco's also seem to sell for more if they are step/dir controlled thus allowing a new owner to pick their favorite software. ). Price wise, it seems if anything quite a bit cheaper to go this route, and then its done and standard, but thats just my opinion.

I usually dont kick in on such discussions as some may feel Im pushing for Mach3 to be used, and since I wrote it Im obviously biased,but I am retired.. I only work on things like future control code these days. So that having been said, you should probably ask as many groups as you can what your best plan would be. Ive never used WelTurn , the specs dont appear to be shown real well so I cant tell you max speed vs EMC or Mach3. At about 900.00US it seems pricey to me,specially if you have to then add new motors, complete conversion to step/direction is about 300.00 to 400.00US if you stick with your emco motors, I just found my emco motors so slow they drove me nuts. Max speed on my machine is set for 554 mm/minute, I could go quite a bit faster, but at 554 I never lose steps unless I jam into material. ( In fact the carriage would snap my hand off if I tried to stop it..), acceleration is set to 91mm/sec^2 and standard setting is 2000steps/mm. ( because I have it set to a high uStep setting, which is nice if your drivers support that. ). I tend to limit my speeds because using max speed rates on something like an Emco does stress it too much, but 550mm/sec seems very doable, and my lathe has no trouble with it at all.

At 2000steps/mm, Mach3's lowest kernal speed of 25Khz can do 720mm/min max, higher kernal speeds could double that quite easily if your motors can handle it, but I dont suspect an Emco can handle a meter a minute. My motors were advertised on Ebay for 750oz in, (Deep Groove) but I dont really believe it, I thing they are 500oz in or less, but I have to admit they are very powerfull, orders of magnitude above the steppers that came with my emco, the difference is not only audible, but amazing and very powerfull, the original motors I could easily stop with one hand, I would'nt recommend anyone trying to stop these puppies with their hands..not if they like having hands. :-)

My only problem is that my lathe has the AC motor driven spindle , which makes it quite low torque, my buddies emco ( You can see Brians on the group forum somewhere as well ) has the DC motor spindle, and Ive seen him do 1/4" of steel in one pass ,
(in fact theres a video somewhere showing it do that at a pretty high feedrate. Perhaps emco's with dc spindle can all do that, I only know the few Ive worked on). To me thats a pretty high rate of speed for 1/4" in one pass. No possible way my spindle could do that, I limit to 1mm per pass or less usually, but since feedrate is quite fast it doesnt seem an issue to me. I cant see any posting of welturn max speeds or step rates on their site, perhaps someone can post their experience in terms of speed and at which point they start to lose steps. Any comparison would be interesting to those considering updating hardware or software.

The welturn software does seem very nice to use from what I can see though, and any software is an upgrade from the original dos version of emco IMO , it seems pretty limiting and pretty non-standard in its Gcodes. CNC is all about standards what with the CAM packages available. Each person has their own requirments though, so check out every option as thoroughly as you can before you make a decision.

Again, this is all just my opinion, I know of many emco's that run Mach3, and several that run EMC, all seem pretty happy. Its not
a conversion project that should scare anyone with $400.00 or so to burn.. took about 3 hours to do mine, of course it may take
longer if your not used to cnc wiring, but its not brain science and very little wiring really needs to be done. Threading seems the only real issue, there are several ways to do it, and performance there will vary with software, methodology, sensor and experience.

While I think of it, the other issue you may want to think about is an auto tool turret if you have one, ( I dont ), Mach, and EMC can be configured for it, the pmdx interface board has lots of spare outputs when used with a lathe, and macro's can be written to
run it, but I havent done any for myself. From what Ive heard when I did support they just used a timed macro to run the motor, wait for a switch to hit, then run backwards for a couple seconds to jam it into position. You can also do things like add lights, blinking indicators that job is complete, relays for various optional functions.. all advanced topics if you do go that route... the various support groups are pretty good with information on such things.

Hope these thoughts help, sorry for the verbosity.

Thanks,
Art