Inverting input in stepConf causes error loading

I have a machine that works with Mach3, so I'm happy that the hardware works. I want to use LinuxCNC, so I installed the latest distro image onto a computer and fired things up. The Parport test script shows that my limit switches are seen by the hardware, and I can step all of the axis, so again, hardware is fine.

When I run the StepConf wizard and create a configuration the 3 axis run back and forth just fine with the axis tester. When I run LinuxCNC it loads but gives limit switch errors. SO, I went back into stepConf and inverted my limit switches (they are active when grounded). HOWEVER, when I do this LinuxCNC fails on loading due to an error message:
sim_hardware.hal:20: Pin 'parport.0.pin-10-in-not-fake' does not exist.

(pin-10-in-fake works just fine, but for some reason when I invert the limit/home switch the hal config file that StepConf wizard generates has this problem.)

Linux CNC version 2.7.3
I'm not sure of the stepconf version, but it was whatever is bundled in the standard 2.7 ISO image that I downloaded just a few days ago.

Anybody run into this before and know a (hopefully easy?) fix?
Thanks,
Jay

Lots of more information about my machine home/limit switches is here:
www.summet.com/blog/2016/01/17/how-to-co...ome-switches-e-stop/

Are you sure it's 2.7.3 ? I think the ISO is 2.7.0 without an update. These sound like bugs that have been fixed by 2.7.3

Chris M

The first thing I tried was importing the mach3 file, but I had some problems with that so I just re-created it. The pin assignments and stepper speeds are not an issue, the axis tests on each stepper work just fine. The problem appears to be a config file issue when inverting the inputs.

The version reported by LinuxCNC is definitely 2.7.3.

I did install the updates (for both Debian and LinuxCNC repositories) after installing from the ISO image.

Perhaps the stepConf needs to be updated somehow? I wasn't sure how to find out the version number of StepConf (it doesn't show it anywhere on the screen when I was using it as far as I can tell.

andypugh wrote:

It would probably have been easier to directly import the Mach3 config on the first page of Stepconf

I am puzzled whet the sim_hardware.hal file came from, that is inappropriate for a real config.

What happens if you just delete the reference to that file from the INI file?

The sim_hardware.hall file was created by the StepConf gui.

I tried commenting out the "source sim_hardware.hal" line from my ScanTek2000-sherline.hal file, but then the error messaged changed as follows:
ERROR: function 'sim-hardware.update' not found ./ScanTek2000-sherline.hall:15:addf failed

So I commented out the "addf sim-hardware.update servo-thread" line.
And then the error was:
Pin 'parport.0.pin-10-in-not' does not exist.

(This is from a line: net home-x <= parport.0.pin-10-in-not)

at this point, I stopped commenting things out, because that line looks very much like something I really want to have in my final config.

when first running stepconf the second page I think, see if 'create simulated hardware configuration' is unchecked - it should be for a real machine.

Chris M

So the fix for invert pins will be in 2.7.4 but it should only affect simulated hardware configs.

Chris M

cmorley wrote:

when first running stepconf the second page I think, see if 'create simulated hardware configuration' is unchecked - it should be for a real machine.

Chris M

Great, thanks! I didn't know to uncheck that default. After I did that the generated configuration file loads into LinuxCNC correctly!

(My computer will automatically upgrade to 2.7.4 when it is released with just the normal apt-get upgrade correct?)

Thanks for this thread.
Installing 2.7.4 for the first time and although test motion worked great i too got the error, but the error disappeared when i unticked the invert box but of course the axis wouldn't then turn. So fresh configuration and unchecked the 'Create simulated hardware configuration' on the second screen....now works fine.