MONSTER - A learning experience... pyVCP machine

Askjerry wrote: adding a second parallel port today to give me more inputs.

It generally makes more sense to fasten a Pico or Mesa card to the existing port. You get a lot more pins, and much faster stepgens.

For example: store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=produc...83_85&product_id=291

72 IO pins @ 24mA for $60

I am familiar with those types of cards... the parallel cards are cheap, $15 or less. I sometimes get them at a local surplus place for $5... so they were cheap to experiment with... and the STEPCONFIG allows setup using them. I have not yet set up a machine with the other type cards. I actually have an older AR-B2201 card that I had used originally, it had 32 Input, 32 Output pins. Unfortunately, older style PC connector, so it doesn't fit anymore. Manual: www.acrosser.com/download/2201bv10.pdf

Eventually, I want to build a SCARA robot... for that, I'll likely need the additional pin-out of the MESA cards. I don't know how to set them up and configure them... do you have a link to someone showing the installation and setup using LinuxCNC? For the older board above it was just a port selection... the factory default was &H3E0 and the next 7 consecutive addresses.

I would like to learn how to set them up... as I'm certain I'll need to do that for robotics projects in the future.

Askjerry wrote: I actually have an older AR-B2201 card that I had used originally, it had 32 Input, 32 Output pins. Unfortunately, older style PC connector, so it doesn't fit anymore. Manual: www.acrosser.com/download/2201bv10.pdf

Not much chance of finding a PC to plug it in to nowadays, but I wrote a driver for a different ISA card and it was pretty simple. For some reason it doesn't show up in the html documentation, but there is a man-page.
git.linuxcnc.org/gitweb?p=linuxcnc.git;a...f91d011eb2db;hb=HEAD is the source code, not a great deal to it.

do you have a link to someone showing the installation and setup using LinuxCNC?

Normally you would use pncconf but I am not sure if that has caught up with the 7i90 yet. It does support the 7i43.

I just fired up the development machine (Linux Box) and took a look at the pncconf system... I see it really steps you through everything... now you have me wanting to get one of these boards to experiment with... pretty cool how it takes a joystick input, etc. So much to learn... so much to learn...

I'm the one Andy wrote the isa card driver for.

Motherboards with an ISA slot are not impossible to find, but they tend not to be very cheap. ($300ish for a P4/Core2 Duo board).
www.industrialpcpro.com/imba-g412isa-ind...ynu8gcfugyhwodyjwi7q

So I stripped down the MONSTER machine and installed the second PARALLEL port ('cause they are cheap) so now I have the additional inputs I wanted... and many additional outputs as well.

I'm using the StainSmart breakout board... which has a relay tied to the parallel port: pin-14. It is normally used to switch on the spindle.
It's a 10A rated relay with a common, normally open (NO), and normally closed (NC) connections.

I got to thinking... the StainSmart board has the ENABLE pin for each axis tied to the parallel port PIN-1 which is used in some boards to ENABLE the driver. (When set to "Amplifier Enable") The Geckodrives that I'm using do not support this pin... so it is an extra.

I got the idea of taking this output and running it into the (NO) pin on the relay, then connecting the (NC) pin to ground. The relay common is then used to activate the SPINDLE. So in effect what happens is... even if the relay starts up in the "ON" position when you boot the machine... the ENABLE pin (PIN-1) is off... so the spindle is MUCH less likely to accidentally turn on when you start AXIS.

I still have an override switch... it connects breaks the signal to the main SPINDLE relay (115vac powered) when switched off. I have a real panel with a switch... there is a symbol of a spinning endmill and another with a wrench... anyone who uses my machine knows to switch this to the picture of the wrench when changing bits... just to be safe.

So now... to get the spindle to spin...

• The 220vac 3-phase converter has to be ON.
• The safety switch has to be set to RUN (picture of an endmill)
• AXIS has to be running and "switched on"... ENABLE ACTIVE.
• SPINDLE ON signal must be present.

Every bit of extra safety is a good thing right?