No progress after using stepconfig.

I've had issues with the Y axis as well. It seems like the homing switches on X and Z work as described, but the Y axis homing switch is both acting as a homing switch and a Y-axis emergency stop switch. When I run the motor that far it stops working. To recover I've been cranking the Y axis by hand away from the limit switch, then jogging.

I figured out that the pins were being read differently by stepconf and axis by looking at "halcmd show" as suggested in this thread. The pins were having different outputs when I ran under Axis vs under Stepconf.

Now I'm trying to figure out if I need to match EMC's chop clock to the driver's chop clock. It looks like these drivers are designed for a 40k chop clock. I've noticed that my torque just seems pretty compared to what I'd expect. I have PowerMax II steppers which should have a torque of 210 in-oz configured in a 4-wire bipolar setup.

Did Dennis give you any advice on the proper timings for the first page of stepconf? Are you just using the L297 configuration?

He may have done, but not as far as I can remember.
I'm just using the standard L297 option in stepconfig.
I've got the powermax II as well.
Would you like me to email you the circuit diag. if it's any help. I have it as a pdf.
The little grey cells can keep up, but somewhat slower than they used to be.
I was trained on digital logic just 50 years ago, and it's coming back very slowly.

John

Well, here I go again sticking my neck out.
The beast is cutting air successfully.

I went out to the workshop, opened up stepconfig, and instead of doing what I'd previously posted, I changed two pin configs and tried it. For no known logic, I seem to have hit the right set up.

1 Estop............................................10 Unused
2 X step...........................................11 Min + Home X inverted
3 X dir..............................................12 Min + Home Y inverted
4 Y step...........................................13 Min + Home Z inverted
5 Y dir....................... inverted........15 Unused
6 Unused
7 Unused
8 Z step
9 Z dir.........................inverted
14 Amp enabled .... inverted
16 Amp enabled
17 Amp enabled

Just posting this for reference for anyone else with the same hardware, and having similar problems.

Thanks all, but I've still got the limit switch and homing to sort out yet, so I shall return !!!

John

BigJohnT wrote:

.............I assume you are an old fart like me,.....................

Heading for 72 next birthday, but I find avoiding green vegetables helps

I have a sneaky suspicion that my subconscious is pushing me into cnc so that I can build myself another, power assisted body.
Wind powered, of course

John

Well, well, well. A revelation

All the problems I'm having with setting up "homing", all come down to the idea that my machine (or me) "don't know which way is up".
Or rather, in this case, up/down is OK, but it doesn't know its XY from its elbow.

I couldn't understand why the gantry went off looking for the home switch in the wrong direction.
So I've just printed off the Integrators manual pages for Homing, pp 38-41, and sat staring at the diagrams and reading the text.

I now suspect that my machine and the software don't agree on what is being moved, the tool or the table.
In stepconfig it says "table travel", but I'm moving the tool, and the significance of that passed me by.

So, while I ponder that, another question springs to mind.
I've got an N/C limit switch at each end of the table wired in series for X axis and simillar on the gantry for Y and Z.

I've set the stepconfig to "minimum limit + home" for each, and I've got the latch direction "Same".
Is this correct ?
At the moment, the homing search is going the wrong way if home is 0,0,0, and it's trying to go to the final home position in the wrong direction !!

John

I was very confused by that as well, then found the answer hidden in some FAQ. Put a - (negative) in front of the speed for looking for the homing switch. That will make it move in the opposite direction.

I still don't have homing working on my Y, but it works well on my X and Z. I have all three set to Home only, not Home+Limit, although I guess both would work.

Thanks Alex, I've just done the restting on the X and Y direction, and it now works on all three axis.

Regards
John

This may be final request on this thread, asked here because it's part of the same learning process.
I would like to print out a couple of files - the ini and hal files- which showing on screen in the workshop in gedit are easy to read.
But my printer is in the house on my xp laptop, and I can use a memory stick to get the data there v. easily.

However, it opens in notebook, and as gedit doesn't add any formatting, the layout makes it all but useless.
I can turn it into a pdf, and it has some formatting, but it sees it as an image, not something I can make printer friendly.

Can someone advise how I jump this hurdle ?

John
EDIT
I can only open the ini file in notepad, not the hal file.