G54 Co-ordinate system frozen

Hi there. You might remember us with the Morbidelli machine. We got it going with a lot of help from folks in this forum. Did a few small jobs with it, now returning a bit rusty after a hiatus, new workshop etc. The recommission has thrown up a mystery.

It only works in machine co-ordinates. The machine zeros and jogs, as we remembered, however we can't seem to access the G54 to offset our work area. MDI position directives are being implemented in machine co-ordinates but the G54 monitor stays stuck on zeros. The G54 monitor responds to the G10L2P1 X0 Y0 Z0 command and when you zero the G54 co-ods they revert to zeros. But they stay there, stuck on zeros, not reflecting machine movements in parallel with the machine co-ords as I seem to recall they used to . When attempting to run G code, instructions appear to be implemented relative to machine co=ords, so of course we're getting immediate out= of= bounds shut downs.

I seem to recall, and have just read, that the G54 co-ords are the default on start up? I seem to recall that all MDI commands and of course G code were then implemented in this frame. Must be a software switch we've accidentally triggered but I can't find it. Thanks for any help.

Cheers Ian

Something in the VAR file ? Like a non-zero in 5211-5213 ?
I'm not sure if this could cause what you're describing but it takes 2 seconds to check. Wild guess really.

ps: also see if 5220 is 1.0

Thanks fellas,

We're using the GUI that came with Linux CNC. Had a look through the var files but couldn't find anything of the 5211=5213 ?

Maybe there is a gremlin in our CNC installation? the computer intermittently shuts down with about 2 and a half pages of error messages - kernel access and all that.

Might be a related issue, time will tell.

In the meantime we are getting by doing one off jobs using just the XYZ in machine and work co-ordinates mode. Seems illogical to me that if the G54 co-ordinate system is displayed in the GUI, can be zeroed and responds to that MDI directive, that it is disabled to machine movements.

cheers Ian

Thanks Tommy,
We might have gremlin version 1.1!

We're homing all axis on startup. We previously did all the fiddling with the ini file to get it working with the "red box" in the right place on screen. Although we now have to home X,Y,Z individually . "Home all" used to work but for some reason doesn't any more. The target icon appears as each axis is homed.

To offset the work area in the X,Y,Z we have to use the individual X,Y,Z "touch off" option. G code then goes relative to this position.


Cheers Ian