As some of you might know I am installing an NC
  controller on my Kasuga heavy duty mill.

  http://www.rotaryeng.net/Nc-Mill-How-To.html

  An NC mill is as close to printing money as you will every
  come unless you happen to be the government :) I need it
  to make parts for rotary engines.

  There is a open source for the software based on Linux.
  http://www.linuxcnc.org/

  It is very up to date and has far more computing power
  than your average used NC mill selling for $10,000 on up.

  I bought this self contained little mother board with
  processor for $89 called EPIA mini ITX Mainboard.
  http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/ProductSeries.jsp?serialNo=2

  There was some question whether Ubuntu Linux would run on this
  cheap 17 mm by 17 mm mother board. The good news is yes Ubuntu 9.04
  (Cost me $16 for the DVD and the magazine.) works fine as does
  Windows XP pro. For some strange reason Fedora 5 does not like
  the built in video driver.

  If I had to buy a new  mother board for a  Hass or Fadal used
  NC mill it would cost thousands and then would have only one tenth
  of the memory.

  Paul Lamar


  Paul, Ubuntu is available on the linux.com website with a real time
 kernal
 and their EMC-2 program for CNC already compiled when you download it. I
 chose it to convert my big cincinatti mill with dual ballscrews and stepper
 motors.I am lacking one ballscrew on e-bay to put it together. That is next
 after I get the rotary engine castings done, and will be usefull for a lot
 of things.

 george grimes

 Does it come with an install program?
 How do you install it on a virgin hard drive?
 Can it be burned on a DVD and then installed from that?
 What version of Ubuntu is it?

 Paul Lamar

 The version is 8.4 although you can download the EMC-2 software separately
 and assemble and compile it on any version of linux'. Some versions of
linux ( such as linux puppy) can be run from the DVD drive without being
instaled. The real necessity is a simplified version of linux. You
definitely don't want debian linux for this. This  program needs a stripped
down linux so that it won't be trying to multitask when you are machining
something and the command stream of the G-code would get interupted. The
good folks at linux have taken the latest version of unbutu and assembled it
with a real time kernal,( This makes it process only one program at a time),
and assembled the EMC-2 ready to run.

You can partition a large hard drive
like a 500 Gb serial  ata (SATA) with multiple partitions to  boot other
linux or windows operating systems at start up. They show the latest release
and most stable release on the website and all are totally free. There is no
advantage to a higher number release since we are only running a real time
application, just choose the latest stable release.

Yes you do burn the
downloaded file to a DVD and do the install from there. It installs on a
blank hard drive or an empty partition of an existing hard drive.The drive
has to be partitioned during it's initial installation. Jimmy partitioned
his up to drive L to use to troubleshoot almost any operating system from
win 95 thru vista and many linux systems.

It will install much easier than
the more optioned linux releases a there are few options to sort thru. Use
something like 2GB of ram and a 3.2GHz AMD brand processor. If your
mainboard doesn't have SATA channels  an expansion card on E-bay is cheap
$2.72 thru $13.26 last week when I  bought 3 of them all free shipping.

After installing the EMC-2 you use a parallel port (preferred) or USB to
send signals to the stepper driverboard which will also need a power supply.
The stepper motors wire into this control board. Jog the computer for each
axis one microstep at a time to be sure it continues the whole rotation with
all steps going the same direction and the same size step. Also they have to
go forward and reverse. Then you coordinate the number of steps to the
travel distance on the mill to set up the program. You may be thinking of
having something like RHINO V4 on a partition of the computer, but if it is
windows based you would have to reboot to start it. Best bet is a flash
drive for the USB port. You  can load the file from it or even run off it
and keep your CAD computer out of the shop dirt. When You start printing
money don't forget your friends!!

george grimes

Thanks George.
I have analog servos  so I won't be using steppers.
The computer will be dedicated to the mill with no other OS's
installed.

Here is a preliminary schematic.

Paul Lamar