Homing Z with 2.7.8 and AXIS GUI

Hi, Trying to install LinuxCNC 2.7.8 after happily running 2.6.x - for years.
Version 2.6.x allowed a probe pad for homing a gantry Z axis - by using the probe signal and linking it to the axis.2.home-sw-in. The 2.7.x restriction of one signal per pin has been worked around but I'm still working with other differences.
The behaviour of AXIS GUI 2.7.8 is that as soon as a home pin/signal exists for all the axis it changes the 'Home axis' button to 'Home all' axis. Any chance that is provided as a separate button - or is it customisable?.
I'm finding the need to re-edit the ini file after each run of the stepconf wizard an extra task - is there likely to be any improvement in the future to avoid that?.
Appreciate any guidance - TIA.

Cliffnz wrote:

Hi, Trying to install LinuxCNC 2.7.8 after happily running 2.6.x - for years.
Version 2.6.x allowed a probe pad for homing a gantry Z axis - by using the probe signal and linking it to the axis.2.home-sw-in. The 2.7.x restriction of one signal per pin has been worked around but I'm still working with other differences.
The behaviour of AXIS GUI 2.7.8 is that as soon as a home pin/signal exists for all the axis it changes the 'Home axis' button to 'Home all' axis. Any chance that is provided as a separate button - or is it customisable?.
I'm finding the need to re-edit the ini file after each run of the stepconf wizard an extra task - is there likely to be any improvement in the future to avoid that?.
Appreciate any guidance - TIA.

It's not clear to me what the problem is for using the probe for homing (whats the difference between 2.6 and 2.7 ?)

There has always been a restriction of one _driving_ pin for each signal - there can be multiple driven pins.
Could you explain what you mean by 2.7.x 's restriction in this regard.

Homing sequence is customizable - its probably hard to find in the manual:
www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.7/html/config/in....html#_home_sequence
AXIS looks at these entries to decide if it can home-all or not - probably should be mentioned in the AXIS docs.
(This apparent change is probably more to do with stepconf being different between 2.6 and 2.7)

As for stepconf - It is not likely to ever be smart enough to notice what you changed and not change it again.
aside from user added HAL code to the custom.hal file, stepconf will rewrite everything each time.
The general held idea here is if you are to the point you are changing a bunch of things after using stepconf then it's time
to stop using stepconf. (just use it to get a general running config then hand edit from there)
The probably more truthful answer is configuration programs like stepconf are already a maintenance nightmare - few want to
add to that chore.

cheers
Chris M

I tried to replace the following 2.6 link hal entries with the equivalent 2.7 net hal entries and received the 'was already linked' error messages.
newsig probe bit
linkps parport.1.pin-13-in => probe
linksp probe axis.2.home-sw-in

This is a difference between 2.6 and 2.7 I've found.

A workaround is to dedicate the probe pin to z limit. This means I can't use the probe pin for dual use - zeroing/homing the z axis on the tool tip and for the probe.

Cheers
Cliff

I have been using the stepconf wizard.
Adding "net probe parport.1.pin-13-in => axis.2.home-sw-in motion.probe-input" then provides 'was already linked to home-z'.
Unless I have parport.1.pin-13-in against home-z (using stepconf) AXIS GUI doesn't attempt a home on Z.

Ah - then get 'probe tripped during homing motion'. That seems a reasonable alert. I can admit defeat at this point and regroup with some hardware changes.
Thank you for your assistance. It'd still be great is AXIS GUI had two buttons - 'home axis' and 'home all axis' but hey.

Cheers
Cliff