Adding a C6 Speed control board

I abandoned the idea to map pins from the Sherline controller box A axis, given Sherline does not provide a schematic, I have no oscilloscope, and simply do not want to either play a guessing game or smell molten chips. I added a 2nd parallel card, and configured stepconf to send PWM, STEP, and DIR through the second parallel port on pins 1, 14, and 16 respectively.

I have been working with Arturo Duncan at CNC4Pc and he recommended pin 14 for PWM and 1 for DIR, and if that eases setup I know how to make the changes. AT THIS TIME I have stepconf configured as describe in my first paragraph.

The 2nd aprallel port seems to be working. My reading from pin 1, the PWM, is 2.3v, and Arturo confirmed this is what I ought to see. I am making some progress. I am not however, reading voltage above .008v on the output terminals set by the C6 onboard potentiometer, nor am I seeing the two LEDs located behind the relays light up. 12v power is being applied to the board during this testing.

I believe the issue at this time is my HAL file setup, and therefore a software problem. I have tried a few customized HAL files; the result is a crash of LinuxCNC on startup. I don't know if resolving these customized HAL file problems will solve the voltage output issue; I decided I would start loading customized HAL files to test how LinuxCNC would respond on startup. Arturo assured me I would NOT get voltage readings in the 0-10v range without the correct Stepconf setup.

I am working in Linux 2.6.2

With patience, please, discard the earlier issues I poorly or erroneously described, as I think I have a good understanding of the C6's role in the chain of hardware I am wiring together. The earlier issues I wrote about were the result of not having parallel port pins physically wired into the C6.

Please if you have questions or input, all is welcome. I have pictures and configuration files I will gladly share.

yes pin 14 would be good , as you are limited on output pins you can use for pwm , hence why your been asked to use alternative pins
if this is a laptop by the way that would bring other complications .

rather than try and scale the output , try and get an output first then scale back or up to get your measured scaled output correct
once you have some voltages to work with

what you have is a step ( frequency output ) hence why you have limited pins that can be used for the purpose
and direction in this case it is a logic high or logic low ( 5v or 0 ) depending on either switching the relay on or off
spindle enable works the same way , either high or low ..

try steplen at 1

Now that your customizing hal files I suggest you get familiar with the short Basic HAL Tutorial in the Manual. If you need a link I can look it up.

JT

I am looking into the details of everyone's configurations, but as far as my situation, I'm using a C69 board and the KDIC-120 and was wondering if I had a similar setup as far a LinuxCNC goes. Every aspect in consideration, but as far as pin setup, its it the same? Pin 1 for Spindle-on, Pin 14 for PWM, and Pin 16 for Spindle-CW? I'm using a Sherline 6517 if that helps. I have yet to get it to work, aside from going from full stop to full speed and I'll probably need to adjust the analog output.

DaveDischord wrote: I have yet to get it to work, aside from going from full stop to full speed and I'll probably need to adjust the analog output.

This is probably a scaling problem. At a guess your PWM scale is 1, so your spindle is at full speed with a request of 1 rpm.

Try M3 S0.5 and see if you get half-speed.

DaveDischord,

I abandoned CNC4PC's products and went with the Mesa Spinx1 from Mesa.

I was able to get the Spinx1 working.

C. Jones