Re: EMC and BDI install

[Paul <paul.corner-at-tesco.net>]

Hi Enrique

As the main developer of the BDI, I'll mix my comments in with yours.....

On Friday 14 December 2001 2:57 pm, Enrique Sanchez Vela wrote:

>  I have few comments on EMC and the BDI image, please dont get me
> wrong, I do not intend to
>  be stuck up, picky or anything like that. English is not my native
> language and I might
>  sound rude, it is not my intention to critize the work being done, 

Comments and constructive criticisms are welcomed, so fire away...

> However, I would like to know few things related to both EMC and the
> BDI image.
>
> regarding EMC, How is Backlash compensated? I have 0.008" Backlash on
> my X axis and it
> does not compensate it at all,

Possibly a bug here - We will need to take a closer look at the code and run 
a few tests.

> regarding the BDI, unless was it done on Feb, 11th? or Nov 2nd? the ftp
> site lists the file
> as being modified Dec, 04th.

This particular version was put together towards the end of November. The 
version numbers do not relate to the date. Each time I build a new version, 
either by including packages that have been asked for or recommended, or 
changes made to the EMC sources, the version number gets incremented.

> (different partition) but when I tryied to rebuild it, just issued the
> /usr/local/compile
> command, it would not build, I had to edit the Makefile.inc and the
> generic.def files in
> /usr/local/emc/src and /usr/local/rcslib/etc directories.

There should not have been any need to edit the Makefile.inc or generic.def - 
Could you let me have details of the changes and the reasons behind them. 
I'll add these to the BDI EMC sources along with an updated compile script.

> Also I found that the sources are not quite up to date to the CVS
> repository, I understand
> that there must be some lag, between image builds and the CVS files

There are some bugs that creep in to the CVS sources from time to time, so 
unless any major new functionality is commited to Sourceforge, I prefer to 
use a "stable" source. As bugs are reported and fixed, changes are made to 
the BDI source - The problem with stack sizes is one example, the dro bug 
another.
A build using the latest and greatest is all well and good, but IF there is a 
stonking bug, potential new users are going to decry EMC based on just one 
CVS snapshot. Not a good thing IMHO for the long term future of EMC. 


> also I belive this is not a full time work,

Correct, the work I put in on the EMC and BDI project is very much a spare 
time thing.

> For my particular situation, I need to modify I need to modify this file or
> the emcmot.c file, to be able to use the existing driver hw, which is slow,
> but works fine for our particular app.

Again, what changes do you require, and would they affect usage with other 
setups ?
If you emailed me a 'diff -u' of emcmot and emcstepmot, I can look at 
applying the changes to my sources.

> If the particular BDI image, I mentioned in the message, is not the
> current one,

Version 2.11 is the current one - There is however, a problem with XFree86. 
On shutdown on some computers, the screen flashes several times before a 
fatal crash is reported by X. This does not appear to affect EMC or any other 
application. Along with this problem and a number of smaller EMC issues that 
you and few others have raised, Ver 2.12 is going to be released soon. If you 
care to supply a patch or two off list, I'll try to include them over the 
christmass period.

Regards, Paul.