Maho MH800e Retrofit Project

After looking at the schematics and hal file I realized there is an error on one or the other but the estop pin I needed to get the machine to release was on tb2 rather than tb3 that the drawing indicates. I connected that so it is "bypassing" the non existent estop switch and bobs your uncle I can get the ui out of estop and mess around with pin outs and what not. I plan on editing the program quite a bit more to move all of the user controls to the 7i73 that will be mounted in the user interface box rather than running all the wires back to the main 7i77 in the electrical enclosure. I verified connectivity with the 7i73 so it should be fairly smooth sailing from here(crossing my fingers) I have ordered as many different breakout boards/connectors so I don't have to splice into the existing wiring. My goal is to have as minimal invasivity if that's a word as possible. In theory being totally reversible with no retermination of connectors. It added a bunch of extra cost but I think it is way more valuable having all the connections in tact and original.

I have been slowly chipping away at this in my free time. Finally got to the point of removing the old computer. I made a mess of the wiring trying to test stuff but I ripped all that out and started over so here is where I am at. Waiting on another power supply for 12v as one of my cards needs that rather than 24v the machine provides. Only a few more wires to add then I believe I will be able to start carefully jogging the machine around. 

Well I have all of the electronics mostly wired properly to the point of testing. I am struggling to get the machine out of estop as my external estop doesn't seem to want to close the circuit even though I thought the relay was closing. More investigation into the schematics are needed and then hopefully I can move forward with the testing

I got a little more work done this morning, the PC now boots up when power is applied, the impulseformer is wired to 12v but I found the 5v is not hooked up to the correct pin, Chinese wiring diagram or I was wrong not sure yet, and all the raceway is snapped back into place so you can't see the rats nest of wiring. Should hopefully have the machine scales reading something when I find the correct wire for 5v. All of the other pins rung out correct so it's just the one color wire. I ordered a touchscreen interface so I should be starting the build for the control panel when that arrives. I need to decide if I want the jog wheel on the interface or on a pendant or both. Regardless I have a 7i73 for that stuff. I am considering implementing a 4x20 LCD display into the pendant control but don't know if that would really add any value as my touch screen will be fairly large and easy to read or I hope from a distance.

Well yesterday and this morning before work I was able to not only correct the wiring for the encoders which works now, but also figured out my issue with the 2x20 pin header wiring issue. I now realize a note I read on another document that the output is not alternating between the top and bottom row but is straight across the top then the bottom. Now that the wiring is squared away I just need to figure out the gearbox shifting logic to make the machine in theory functional. Well that and build the operating panel which the screen is on its way.

Hit another little snag with the homing. I have it set up for index homing. I have the call out in the hal to enable it but in the halmeter I was trying to catch it hit the index but nothing popped up on the scope. I'm not sure if it is indicative of hitting the index but the x axis is very close to where it is home and each time I hit the home button it jogs either way towards it but then faults out with two "cannot unhome while homing" errors and usually a "joint0 following error." If I understand the following error that means it is not where the computer thinks it should be? I am considering bringing my actual oscilloscope out to the garage to watch the signal if I can't figure it out.

To check homing to index, you need to halscope the index-enable signal.
The actual index signal is often too short for halscope to see.

LinuxCNC sets index-enable once is has detected the limit switch and the hardware
clears index-enable when the index is detected.

So I did have that pulled up at one point. If I remember correctly it would turn on when I hit the home button but then would stay on until after it estopped and I relatched the machine it would turn off

I seem to have gotten the following error to not kick in, I turned the velocity and acceleration to 1 and that seems to let the axis move more than about .25" at a time. Still looking into the index not kicking in.