Axis 2.9.0~pre: jogging moves the tool cone, but not the steppers

At this point also maybe have a look to see if there's anything specific in custom.hal or custom_postgui.hal ?

I think you have overthought this and lept to an oscilloscope and done TCP dumps neither of which were necessary.

I did ask you to disconnect the enable signal from your drives but you glossed over that.
You also did not tell me if you had holding torque when you powered up.

I'm pretty certain the issue is with your enable signal. I believe Todd pointed to this as a difference between pncconf and hal. I wouldn't know if that true or not becasue most of my configs are created by hand.

With the DM542 drives (which I seem to remember you are using), the so called enable signal is actually a disable signal. eg. if you apply a signal to the drive enable terminals it will disable the drive. ref: linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/man/man9/mo....9.html#JOINT%20PINS
The simplest way to check this is just to disconnect the enable plug and check to see if you have holding torque.

If you may want to trigger the enab;e with a physical output pin attached to joint.N.amp-enable-out.  This pin  is TRUE if the amplifier for this joint should be enabled. Ref: linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/man/man9/mo....9.html#JOINT%20PINS

But for this drive, the state of this pin would be incorrect and the drive would not enable. You would need to invert the signal in HAL (using not) or use one of the 7i96s's -not pins that do the inversion for you.

to tommylight: Screenshot will be forthcoming after the card returns. I assume that this is a prerequisite. Hopefully it arrives tomorrow or Friday.

to JPL: I’m assuming that when PCW tested the exact .ini files that I use and found them to work as they were, this rules them out. I’d be interested in hearing why this could not be the case.

to PCW: I thought that I responded to you regarding the enable signal. I measured it. I can also see when the drivers are enabled. As I recall, the button that enables the drivers in axis works, i.e., when it shows that the drivers are disabled, they are disabled, and vice versa. I apologize for not understanding holding torque question previously. I thought it irrelevant because the holding torque of my setup is more than adequate using the 5i25 card that I have. In any case, there are no pulses going to the driver cards, nor are the direction signals changing when running axis. They are present and change state as expected using pncconf.

to tommylight: I agree with changing the configuration and will try this when I get the card back. However, as of now, the configuration is pretty minimal. The only input is the estop input. This is in the correct state. However, I can eliminate it to see what happens. The only output is the enable for the stepper drivers. That seems to work correctly.

BTW, I tried making MesaCT work, but it comes back with the following message:

A Program Error Occurred in startup.py line 30
Error: list index out of range

Please file an issue at
github.com/jethornton/mesact/issues

If the program crashes copy the error
from this popup.

Alas, it seems that I need to be a member at github to file an issue. Perhaps this forum will be enough to get the feedback to Jeff that there is something he still needs to deal with.
To all: I’m still interested I seeing the details of the communications stack. Following communications from axis to hm2_eth seems to be the way of tracking down where the failure lies. Unfortunately, I find the software immensely confusing, not having written it myself. I mention again that halcmd sees no messages from axis after the initial load of the configuration file. Originally, I understood from PCH that I should see messages for jogging from axis in the same way as I do with pncconf. Later, I was led to understand that this understanding is incorrect. So, now I’m confused. A complete picture of what the communications stack looks like would be immensely helpful.

I have tested with four different versions of LinuxCNC as downloaded from github. The dates of the downloads are: 8 August, 29 August, 6 September and 9 September 2022. Results from all of the downloads are identical. I’ll download the latest version and install it when I receive the card again.

Going forward, at least for the next several months, I’ll only be able to do testing with an oscilloscope. The mill and the drivers are packed and unavailable. I’ll be happy when I see pulses emanating from the 7i96s card with axis that look essentially the same as they do with pncconf.

Dr. wrote:

to JPL: I’m assuming that when PCW tested the exact .ini files that I use and found them to work as they were, this rules them out. I’d be interested in hearing why this could not be the case.

 

Just to be thorough. Also since PCW did not have those files. And NO, there's in fact a (slim) chance that something there could cause the problem to YOUR configuration. Anyways those 2 files probably have only very few lines if any, Looking at them will takes less time than debating this subject.  Well, just trying to help here, you do what you want.