I do not find "base period" or "motor steps per rev" in my .ini File

Hello,

I just started with the Stepper Configuration Wizard and looked after this in the .ini File
For example, I typed in "base period" 35000 and the generated ini file contains only
"BASE_PERIOD = 100000". Or I cant find "motor steps per rev" (200) or "microstepping" (2) here,
or in other generated files.

My systems works fine (so far), but I would like to know how these things work together.

Thanks & Best Regards
Roman

It's the SCALE parameter you're looking for.
That's how many steps per millimeter or inch.

Say for instance you have a 5mm pitch leads screw, with 200 steps per rev & 8 micro steps.

scale = STEPS_PER_REV * MICRO_STEPS / LEADSCREW_PICT
= 200*8/5
= 1600/5
= 320

Stepconf asks you for base period max jitter, then calculates the actual base period based on the figure you put in for the jitter. If you open up stepconf and reread the Base Information page you'll see what I mean.

Thank you, know I understand scale. But BASE_PERIOD do not seems to work proper here.

When I enter "Base Period Max Jitter" 35.000, "Min Base Period" is calculated in the info down there as 50.000. But *.ini is written with 100.000

When I enter 50.000, "Min Base Period" is calculated 65.000 but *.ini is still 100.000.

I use this the RTAI Version
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/getting-start...#cha:Installing-RTAI

No problem to correct this manually but I would like to be sure, that 50.000 is the right value

Going by the docs 35000ns is about 16% over what is recommended for software stepping.
I’d be looking to reduce that via some bios tweaks to reduce that.
Have you looked in your bios and turned off any power saving and hyperthreading ? On a multi core CPU it might be an idea to use the isolcpus kernel option.
Or if it’s an older machine Wheezy might be worth a try.

hi, I tested my mini mill with 50.000 Base Period and seems to run very fine



I think the 100.000 is just a bug in the RTAI version, this value does not change, when changing "Base Period Max Jitter"... and it should

@BeagleBrainz this is the best I can achieve with my pc, its a longer story
forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...h-57000-good-enought
Also, I have the linuxcnc settings from the sherline factory computers
www.sherline.com/product/linuxcnc-comput...-without-driver-box/
and they use also 50.000. This should works fine with the sherline driver box.

I don’t think there is any code change between the version of stepconf in the uspace or rtai versions.
I plugged in the same values on a uspace Linuxcnc package and got the same results.

As there is no input value for the option coupler in stepconf & latency won’t affect rise and fall times of the parallel, it’s the parallel port hardware that would affect this. You would have to have god awful optocouplers to get to a point where they come into play to affect stepping. Like really really bad, due to major manufacturing defects. Or instead of a photo transistor they use a gnome encapsulated in the package who turns on a switch as the LED goes on & off.
Add to that the stepper timings recommended by various posts and docs for Linuxcnc are pretty conservative.

I do not get a latency warning

Regarding stepconf, I hardly know anything here ...
but this value, red



is not written to the ini file. its always 100.000

I got nuffin'