Micro stepping not taken into account ?

Hello Linuxcnc experts,

I have a weird problem... I had a stepper which was not working very well and giving a lot of "bumps".

The driver (leadshine MA860H) was set up to run with 8 micro steps for this axis and by increasing to 16 what a surprise it runs smoothly and perfectly with a perfect smooth noise while tested within stepconf wizard... (linuxcnc 2.7.4) Joy joy joy

BUT it only does so under stepconf wizard when I run under axis it behaves like it did before (i.e. like when I used 8 micro steps...)

why oh why ? Why does it behave differently under axis than under stepconf wizard ?

Many thanks in advance for the help you can provide.

for info the base period on the linuxcnc pc is 15000.

andypugh wrote:

Were you using exactly the same step timing in stepconf as in LinuxCNC?

The stepconf test does not do anything with the drive enable pins. Perhaps your drives are getting a weird enable signal? (possibly even getting steps on the enable pin?)

thank you Andy but yes the exact same settings under stepconf and linuxcnc... I even deleted all the config files except the .stepconf to regenerate everythin...

Drive enable pins ? Not sure what this is... My ful config is attached to this message

again , your config ini file is what is used , the config knows nothing about microstepping , the entrys in stepconf are only a basic configuration ,and used to calculate the scale from the microstepping/ballscrew values check your SCALE entry , also your steplen and dir timings again in the INI file .

stepconf does not use the drive enable , it also does not use some of the timings as it's only used for an initial setup
you also appear to be modifiying your stepconf files , with regard to timing .
if you have the scale correct then the axis will move the required distance .

dont forget if you change anything in your ini to restart linuxcnc , ini files are read only on start up

cncbasher wrote:

again , your config ini file is what is used , the config knows nothing about microstepping , the entrys in stepconf are only a basic configuration ,and used to calculate the scale from the microstepping/ballscrew values check your SCALE entry , also your steplen and dir timings again in the INI file .

stepconf does not use the drive enable , it also does not use some of the timings as it's only used for an initial setup
you also appear to be modifiying your stepconf files , with regard to timing .
if you have the scale correct then the axis will move the required distance .

dont forget if you change anything in your ini to restart linuxcnc , ini files are read only on start up

The axis moves the correct distance both under stepconf and under linuxcnc, there was a mistake in the config with some stuff on pin17 but I just checkrf the // interface card and there is nothing on pin17... so I removed that.

I did check my INI file and my HAL file
the SCALE value in the INI file is also correct.

The timings I got from a table on linuxcnc wiki for the US version of a driver looking similar to mine. Mine is a leadshine MA860H)
2500 2500 10000 5000

I also tried disconnecting the 2 other motors to see if it was a power issue.

But no still no luck the motor vibrates under linuxcnc and works like a charm in stepconf

Getting crazy with this, so close to have this machine working...

Below is my INI... and in attachment the full config with HAL and everything



Things I am not sure about is the BASE_PERIOD set to 34722 while I did set it to 15000 in stepconf... ?
Same for SERVO_PERIOD

---
# Generated by stepconf 1.1 at Sun May 8 17:33:09 2016
# If you make changes to this file, they will be
# overwritten when you run stepconf again

[EMC]
MACHINE = cn1412_new
DEBUG = 0

[DISPLAY]
DISPLAY = axis
EDITOR = gedit
POSITION_OFFSET = RELATIVE
POSITION_FEEDBACK = ACTUAL
ARCDIVISION = 64
GRIDS = 10mm 20mm 50mm 100mm 1in 2in 5in 10in
MAX_FEED_OVERRIDE = 1.2
MIN_SPINDLE_OVERRIDE = 0.5
MAX_SPINDLE_OVERRIDE = 1.2
DEFAULT_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 9.00
MIN_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 0
MAX_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 90.00
INTRO_GRAPHIC = linuxcnc.gif
INTRO_TIME = 5
PROGRAM_PREFIX = /home/cnc/linuxcnc/nc_files
INCREMENTS = 5mm 1mm .5mm .1mm .05mm .01mm .005mm

[FILTER]
PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .png,.gif,.jpg Greyscale Depth Image
PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .py Python Script
png = image-to-gcode
gif = image-to-gcode
jpg = image-to-gcode
py = python

[TASK]
TASK = milltask
CYCLE_TIME = 0.010

[RS274NGC]
PARAMETER_FILE = linuxcnc.var

[EMCMOT]
EMCMOT = motmod
COMM_TIMEOUT = 1.0
COMM_WAIT = 0.010
BASE_PERIOD = 34722
SERVO_PERIOD = 1000000

[HAL]
HALFILE = cn1412_new.hal
HALFILE = custom.hal
POSTGUI_HALFILE = custom_postgui.hal

[TRAJ]
AXES = 3
COORDINATES = X Y Z
LINEAR_UNITS = mm
ANGULAR_UNITS = degree
CYCLE_TIME = 0.010
DEFAULT_VELOCITY = 9.00
MAX_VELOCITY = 90.00

[EMCIO]
EMCIO = io
CYCLE_TIME = 0.100
TOOL_TABLE = tool.tbl

[AXIS_0]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 85.5005472035
MAX_ACCELERATION = 180.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 225.0
SCALE = 320.0
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 1400.0
HOME_OFFSET = 0.000000
HOME_SEARCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_LATCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_IGNORE_LIMITS = YES
HOME_SEQUENCE = 1

[AXIS_1]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 85.5005472035
MAX_ACCELERATION = 200.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 250.0
SCALE = 320.0
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
MIN_LIMIT = -0.001
MAX_LIMIT = 1200.0
HOME_OFFSET = 0.000000
HOME_SEARCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_LATCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_IGNORE_LIMITS = YES
HOME_SEQUENCE = 2

[AXIS_2]
TYPE = LINEAR
HOME = 0.0
MAX_VELOCITY = 45.0
MAX_ACCELERATION = 200.0
STEPGEN_MAXACCEL = 250.0
SCALE = 320.0
FERROR = 1
MIN_FERROR = .25
MIN_LIMIT = -110.0
MAX_LIMIT = 0.001
HOME_OFFSET = 0.000000
HOME_SEARCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_LATCH_VEL = 1.500000
HOME_IGNORE_LIMITS = YES
HOME_SEQUENCE = 0

andypugh wrote:

gaeldk wrote:

Drive enable pins ? Not sure what this is...

Pin 17. What does that connect to? What happens if you disconnect that wire? (The axis test in stepconf doesn't know to switch that pin, I don't think, so if it works better without switching that pin, perhaps you need to invert the sense, or just not wire it)

Pin17 was not connected on the // interface card to anything so removed it from the config file.

please do not take stepconf as gospel , edit your files manually and tune them
you have in your Hal file the following entrys :
setp stepgen.1.steplen 1
setp stepgen.1.stepspace 0
setp stepgen.1.dirhold 25000
setp stepgen.1.dirsetup 20000

these are not as you quoted :
2500 2500 10000 5000
this is where your problem lies
i would set them as :

setp stepgen.1.steplen 1000
setp stepgen.1.stepspace 1000
setp stepgen.1.dirhold 35000
setp stepgen.1.dirsetup 35000

you may need to lengthen steplen & stepspace to say 2500 , you should not need to change the dirhold & dirsetup from 3500
but you could take them to 50000 if you need to . these values will change from machine to machine depending on how good your breakout board is , so please just take them as starting values , and change to suit , if you use stepconf , make a note of the values
and double check the files afterwards for the correct changes . they may not change
anyhow see how you go , let me know if i can be of help.