MadModder

Not been able to continue this push until this morning (yesterday - standby generator failed it's regular 'test start' I fire it up every few weeks and it's a good starter - should be it's brand new. I start it, then turn the fuel off and run until the carb is empty to stop it gumming up. Well it's gummed up and needs a carb strip  too much grovelling at floor level so woke unable to move - 600 mg of Ibruprophen and I can now move so off to the workshop.

Lathe fires up correctly, I can traverse over the reference points, initialise the tool turret, select tools at will, drive the main spindle clockwise and anti-clockwise - in fact EVERYTHING IS WORKING 

Now the big caveat is that currently the tool disk is currently empty - no tool holders fitted so minimal weight for the servo system to fight. (There is approximately 45 kG of tools when all twelve positions are fully populated)

It was while diagnosing erratic positioning of the tool disk that I managed to blow up the Siemens Simodrive AC servo system so I'm tredding ever so carefully at the moment and only taking small steps.

I've installed Mint Mate on my pc, so for a change, hopefully less terminal usage. It has its own software- and driver manager, making installing of software like Nvidia driver and Wine rather simple and straightforward.

Downsides of using software manager in Mint Mate:

- it has a limited selection of 'curated' list of apps

- when selecting "show installed applications", it shows only the ones the user has installed.
         -  -  -   
When rebooting/shutting down, there is 10 seconds or longer delay - like some app or process was hanging on the background. It's not just my system; some other Mint users have this issue as well. One solution works in some cases, another works, again in some other cases and so on.

Quick and dirty (although not necessarily convenient) way to circumvent that is to add 'custom application launcher' button to panel, having command 'reboot'. It doesn't hesitate, it reboots immediately.  Same procedure can be used to add also a  shutdown button, if needed.

Testing ? $ ? @ ?

edit: in message preview they look like they're supposed to.

I'm sure that I used to be able to put a UK sterling sign in a post, now I have to resort to "UKP" or other artifices.

This is what a pound Sterling sign ends up as:   ?

? <-- testing

Hmm... weirdness. I can only wonder if the server is set up to use 7-bit characters, as the pound sign is part of the standard (8-bit) ascii table.

? <-- more testing (that was a Euro symbol)

? <- A copyright symbol

~ <- A tilde (ascii 126)


Yep, I'm going to call it - the server is using just the basic ASCII codes, not the extended ASCII set.  Probably a server config option.

Thanks.
The good luck continues - OK I've used my one and only 'Measuring Card' spare.

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Best see if any are available on eBay - oh yes several in the price range just below and quite a bit above 1000 UKP - yikes. Then I found a UK dealer clearing his stock -  20 UKP inc postage - never hit a 'buy it now' key quite os fast !