Mike (aka Crash) is using this tiny pc (only 9.5 long x 9.75 tall x 3.375 wide) for his PP MK2. I was really impress with this picture he posted and decided to buy one: download/file.php?id=2201&mode=view
I bought mine from ebay for $79 shipped (Pentium 4, 2.6Ghz, 512Mb 10Gb HD). http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0360408973 I just got it today. It actually had a 2.66Ghz cpu and came with a 40Gb HD and even had a fresh install of winxp. So I didn't have to do much of anything, to get it running. I am even more impressed with in in person. The construction is high quality. If you decide to buy one, make sure it's complete with power supply, memory, hard disk and cdrom drive. Otherwise, you will probably end up paying lots more money. Here are a few picture to compare it's size to the Dell gx240, which is about 16.5" tall. I was originally, planning to use the gx240, which has a full size pc case. The sx260 does use a separate power supply, not shown in the pictures.

-Kwok

Attached files

 

Blindflight,
The guy had 6 left after I bought mine, but a few hour later someone bought all of them. Otherwise I would have spread the word earlier. I know I said, not to buy incomplete computers, but the seller has another set of 10 for $59 shipped. The only catch is no hard drive. But if you have a 2.5" ide HD, lying around, then its a nice deal. I like this seller. Great service and 100% feedback rating with over 3000 sales. And the machines are tested. I got a check list with mine. They checked sound, usb, ethernet and video. And listed the machine specs. Here is the link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... %26otn%3D3

Mark,
Sure thing, I can help you spend even more money. My friend just sent me this link. He uses it with his Media Center pc, a touch screen monitor that has only has one cable. Even power is through the usb connection. So no more need for keyboard or mouse, as long as the software you’re running is touch-friendly on low-res display device (800x480).
http://mimo.myshopify.com/products/mimo-740

-Kwok

 

kyyu, thanks! Just ordered one.
Perfect for ecm2

 

Eric, let us know how it works out. It's always nice to have 1st hand info. What did you get?

I actually bought a 2nd one, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT Just got it Friday. They are so small and quiet, it can just share my desktop display and I can use it to encode videos, instead of tying up my main computer.

I do have a trouble shooting tip to share, as this 2nd sx260 was unable to boot up when I tested it. What is supposed to happen is when you plug in the power supply, these 4 leds (labeled ABCD, on the back of the pc) come on for a second and then turn off. Then the pc just waits indefinitely. When you press the front power button, then it boots. But what mine was doing was; only waiting a few seconds and then it automatically turned itself on, but there was no video. Also, normally if you hit the power button when it was on, the pc will shut off, but in this case there as no effect. So I was sure it wasn't just the onboard video being bad. So I did some research and it turns out, these ABCD leds show an error code, http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... tm#1163061 The error code I got was A&B=yellow, C&C=green; so that indicated "Possible memory failure". So I reseated the two memory stick and that fixed it.

-Kwok

 

Good buy, I'll let you guys know how it goes, my bro dropped off his 2.5" HDD for me today, it was "just sitting around" It's going to be a crap shoot on if the RTI kernel will pickup the LAN card, in this, but I am really hoping for the best. If it does not work, oh well, I'll just resell it. But it should go smooth.

 

Alright!
I dropped in the toshiba 60gb HDD and booted it up...
Memory ERRORS!
Ack! I tried the Dorsal trick and pulled the chips and re-inserted them. I'm happy to report it worked! It took me a long time to figure out how to get the side off though…

I noticed it takes a very long time to POST, but it only shows the Dell screen so maybe it's hanging on something I don't see.

Anyway I downloaded the EMC2 live boot CD from here: http://www.linuxcnc.org/
Booted right up installed in a fairly fast time, and the RTI kernel is the default kernel so there was nothing to mess with there. If you need some guidance getting the Linux running check out this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=131&t=24
But beyond the partitioning, which is in that thread, it’s VERY easy.

I did not have time to configure the pp as of yet, but the demo CNC files they had worked great!

Also so far the LAN, USB, Video, sound all works with the RTI Linux kernel! No messing about, it just works clean! (insert winders comment here) I have not tried the parallel port yet, but the EMC2 ‘Latency Test’ looked very good. I suspect I will have absolutely no issues.

Thanks again Kyyu,
This was a great buy for me! :mrgreen:

 

Go to hear. Both my machines, boot up really quick with windows. Maybe just need a fresh install.

Yea, I have a hard time figuring out how to open the case, too. It's like a vault. But here's the how for those who don't know. There is a green switch on the back of the case, at the very bottom. Push it down and the trap door to access the harddisk will open, left side of case if looking from the front. The entire right side of the case opens up to access the motherboad. Just push the green switch up and slide the case side forward.

-Kwok

 

Once it gets past the POST it does indeed boot very fast, and the whole thing is much more peppy then my other box. I'm betting there is an issue with something it's trying to autodetect. I will test more tomorrow as well as get the phlatty running on it.

But for $59 delivered, I'm not sure how you could beat it... If you can get a HDD at a low cost.

 

Yea, the good thing is that he's got alot of units. No need to fight over it. I'm sure he will have some complete units like, what I got from him, in the future.

If you mean the Dell Logo (where you can hit F2 or F12 to go to bios), when you say POST, Mine flys throught that too.

I actually, was trying to boot windows off a usb flash drive, so we wouldn't need the expensive hard disk. Almost, but not successful. Maybe if they had just one more bios update after 2003. It seems like you should be able to do it. I was able to boot off a usb flash drive by coping a window iso image to a ram drive, but it took forever to load the 100mb image.

-Kwok

 

"The computer POST (Power On Self Test) tests the computer, insuring that it meets the necessary system requirements and that all hardware is working properly before starting the remainder of the boot process."
-http://www.computerhope.com/beep.htm

More then you ever wanted to know
But yes that is what I mean. It's likely during that process the PC is looking for something, or possibly even testing the RAM. If you say your's flys past that screen, like the Dell's we have at work do, I will further trouble shoot for sure.

In addition to possible beeps, there are also a set of 4 lights on the back of the PC that will help trouble shoot any problems if one might have them.

 

I bet you are right that the delay is testing the RAM on POST. There should be a setting in the BIOS to turn that off or even turn off the boot logo screen. That will let you see what is happening.

 

Well there is one option that I see in the BIOS, and that is Fast Boot Mode, which is already turned on. I think these dells use their own bios...

It takes about 20 seconds to POST. Just seems a little long these days.

Anyway I am very pleased to report the Phlatprinter is up and running (I just copied the config file from the other PC over) this is a sweet little box!

 

Mine is not that long. I timed it and it's like 6-7 seconds when the dell screens is gone and I think there is a flash of a blue screen. Then window's welcome screen at about 25 seconds and desktop at about 30 seconds. That's of course with nothing else installed, but winxp. Both my sx260 are like that. Sometimes if I'm slow with switching my monitor over, I can miss my chance to get into the bios.

Glad you like it. Can't wait to try mine. I think it's pretty near optimum, for our needs.

-Kwok

 

Ack! It just dawned on me, yes it's the middle of the night, the boot process on mine is slowed due to the "auto detect" of the HDD. If I can manually set it up, it will boot in normal speed.

Link with more info on these PCs: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/s ... /index.htm

 

The ebay guy sold out of the $59 no HD ones, but now he's got a batch of with slower 2.4gHz cpu. So if anyone's got a spare 2.5" ide hard drive, these are $49 shipped. Heck, I may buy one just for the base & side cover, I need and use the rest for spares.

Dell Optiplex SX260 Pentium 4, 2.4Ghz, 512Mb No HD
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0382102112

Hey tvcasualty, did yours come with the HD ide cable?

-Kwok

 

Hey TV, Have you run your PP with it yet? Just curious how it did with EMC2....I might snag one for dedicated CNC use.

Tim
AG4RZ

 

So far so good man, I've made a few cuts, no errors yet.
Here's the funny thing, standing still I get very good latency test results.
Under some load, like pulling some files from the network, the results plumit to way above what is recommended.

So I said, what the heck, and I put in the maximum value into the config...
Expecting the worse I ran a trial cut...
No issues AT ALL.
So I'm scratching my head on this one, maybe it's because I am NOT using ANY software micro stepping, and I'm allowing all the micro stepping to happen on the easy-cnc hardware controller card at 1/8 steps.

That may actually be limiting my overall step rate, but I am pulling 40ish ipm on the Y, and at that rate the poor old 1/4-20 rod looks crazy, and I can't figure it getting much higher... On the X, sure 300, 400ipm, what ever you want...

Need any specifics?

 

Man, That sounds good!...Shouldn't have any problems driving my MKII to 200-400ipm.

I am running the same way, microstepping on the controller at 1/8th steps. I don't forsee pulling any files while cutting, so it sounds like it would be a great solution for the PP

Thanks for the info!!

Tim
AG4RZ

 

I've found out there is also a SX270 and SX280. After a quick check, I noticed these differences. They both still have parallel ports, but now have the squarish digital video connector instead of the analog one. But you can get an adapter plug, if you need analog for an older lcd display. I use an adapter on one of my pc. Another big difference, is the SX280 now takes a full size 3.5" hard disk (SATA, I believe). SX280 is still roughly the same size but edges are more square and it's a silver color. The SX270 case, looks exactly like the original SX260.

-Kwok