Need help with the orient component for spindle activation (M19)

Have you tried looking with halmeter? I would pay special attention to the pid.1.command, pid.1.feedback and pid.1.output pins.

pid.1.command should be the commanded spindle posiition. pid.1.feedback should be the actual position, and pid.1.output should be a number that increases as the angular angle increases. And you _should_ see that same number appear on the pwmgen.0.value pin

You can open as many halmeters as you need to watch a number of pins, though at some point it makes more sense to use the "watch" tab of halshow.

(in the Axis interface, these are machine->halmeter and machine->show hal configuration.

Is the motor really spinning at 1777 rpm?

If it is, then it looks like the problem might be the "abs" function, or possibly the spindle direction control.

Do you see pid.1.error increasing or decreasing? (or neither, if the spindle isn't turning)

What is different between the modes? There is a value going to the pwmgen in both modes, but Is the number similar? Is that number 29 rpm? (or is it 29 rps?) Can the spindle turn at that speed?

jpg wrote:

Hello, the value of PID.1.ERROR is 1/100 (e.g. 0.125) compared to PWMGEN.0.VALUE (12.5); PWMGEN.0.VALUE stops when not in "orient" mode.

Can you answer the second part of the question? are the numbers big enough to turn the spindle? The Halmeter images shows a spindle speed command of 29 rpm. Does your spindle drive even respond to a speed request of 29 rpm? If it is a VFD then it is unlikely to go below 10Hz, or 150 rpm. 
Try increasing the PGAIN_P to 1000 and also add some IGAIN_P of 0.1 or so
I think that this might all just be incorrect PID tuning. 
 

Which values change? Does the pwmgen.0.value ever get high enough to turn on the VFD?

With the I-gain active you should see the pwmgen.0.value steadily increasing. At some point I would expect it to get high enough to satisfy the VFD.

Unless my guess is wrong about what is going wrong.

Note that you need to restart LinuxCNC (only LinuxCNC) for INI file values to register.

You can try using the "Calibrate" menu item in Axis to make live changes to the PID tuning.