It took a couple weeks and several tutorials, but I finally got FabModules.org to work on my laptop. So far, I have connected to the Epilog Legend 24TT, Epilog Mini, and Roland MDX-20.

I needed a reliable workstation for my projects at SETC. The computers in the Fab Lab are mostly iMacs with older solutions for connecting to the machines. I am currently on an HP Sleekbok 14 with Ubuntu 14.04. The Processor is Intel® Core™ i3-2377M CPU @ 1.50GHz × 4 with 3.8 GiB of RAM.

After several attempts at following the text tutorial, I came across Fiore’s video walkthrough of the install. There are several dependencies to be mindful of. These are inconspicuously listed on the bottom of mods.html.

Once the dependencies were installed, I created problems for myself by misunderstanding what was happening with mod_server.js. Instead of the ip address of localhost and the “wild card” port 12345, I edited the file for specific machines and the port that they listened to in the lab. I changed mod_server.js back to the default setting.

Once I got mod_server.js working, I attempted to send test files to the Epilog laser cutters in the lab. At that point, I got an unknown printer error from lpr. This was resolved by installing cups-bsd from the solution here:

http://serverfault.com/questions/364112/lpr-command-wont-recognize-cups-printer

Connecting to the Roland MDX-20

I connected to the machine through the serial to USB adapter. The goal to test this connection was to see if I could move to xmin, ymin and then home.

Make sure to set permissions for your user on Ubuntu. This is taken care of with Steps 1 and 2 here:

http://fabacademy.org/archives/2015/doc/millingPCBs.html

The rest seems to be geared towards the compiled version of fab modules.

Troubleshooting info for this connection is here:

https://github.com/FabModules/fabmodules-html5/wiki/Troubleshooting

I first ran into this error:
error: /bin/sh: mod_serial.py: command not found

I followed the instructions and made the file executable. I also prefixed the default send command on the interface with “./”

Whether or not you intend to mill, you still need to process PCB traces before sending commands to the MDX-20 on the fabmodules web interface.

I re-downloaded the FAB ISP traces png from this page:

http://fabacademy.org/archives/2015/doc/electronics_production_FabISP.html

After the setup, I demonstrate how the connection works: