Help with pinout. 2 motors (joints) on one axis. 2.8

So will I be able to manual home it just to test? Page 96 in the manual says:
"If your machine does not have home switches defined in the configuration the Home button will set the current selected axis current position to be the absolute position 0 for that axis and will set the is-homed bit for that axis."

I had planned to have everything in place and leave off the stepper to screw couplings just for testing. Home and then just push the gantry over the sensor by hand to make sure the motors both move in the right direction and stop when they should. Once I'm happy, I'll hook up the couplings and start to set the homing properly.

I think I', still about a week away from having everything in my control box and hooked up. I don't know if I said before but at the moment I just have a computer with LinuxCNC, breakout board, one driver, one PS and one stepper hooked up on the bench. I work on the physical stuff during the day and software during the evening when I'm not working. The INI and HAL files are making sense to me now.

Happy Days

I guess it does work to home manually, if you have your config set up right for it.

ALso you can't just chop and change from XXYZ to XYYZ and so on in the ini file without modifying the stepgen set ups in the HAL file as they will be pointing to joints which no longer marry up correctly.

Todd wrote:

I guess it does work to home manually, if you have your config set up right for it.

You guessed right mate. Bloody Happy Days. Pretty excited, I think I have this worked out enough for now. I have some cabling to do now once I finish my night shifts.

Thanks for your help both Todd and Rodw.

rodw wrote:

ALso you can't just chop and change from XXYZ to XYYZ and so on in the ini file without modifying the stepgen set ups in the HAL file as they will be pointing to joints which no longer marry up correctly.

i don't think this is right Rod. It would be hay wire but I think it's still work unbeknown to LinuxCNC. I don't refer to Y anywhere in my HAL file. I reference the joints with arbitrary names "y0" and "y1"

Here is my joint 1 and 2 stuff:

setp stepgen.1.position-scale [JOINT_1]SCALE
setp stepgen.1.steplen 1
setp stepgen.1.stepspace 0
setp stepgen.1.dirhold 25000
setp stepgen.1.dirsetup 20000
setp stepgen.1.maxaccel [JOINT_1]STEPGEN_MAXACCEL
net y0pos-cmd joint.1.motor-pos-cmd => stepgen.1.position-cmd
net y0pos-fb stepgen.1.position-fb => joint.1.motor-pos-fb
net y0step <= stepgen.1.step
net y0dir <= stepgen.1.dir
net y0enable joint.1.amp-enable-out => stepgen.1.enable
net home-y0 => joint.1.home-sw-in

setp stepgen.2.position-scale [JOINT_2]SCALE
setp stepgen.2.steplen 1
setp stepgen.2.stepspace 0
setp stepgen.2.dirhold 25000
setp stepgen.2.dirsetup 20000
setp stepgen.2.maxaccel [JOINT_2]STEPGEN_MAXACCEL
net y1pos-cmd joint.2.motor-pos-cmd => stepgen.2.position-cmd
net y1pos-fb stepgen.2.position-fb => joint.2.motor-pos-fb
net y1step <= stepgen.2.step
net y1dir <= stepgen.2.dir
net y1enable joint.2.amp-enable-out => stepgen.2.enable
net home-y1 => joint.2.home-sw-in

And my pinout:

net xdir => parport.0.pin-02-out
net xstep => parport.0.pin-03-out
setp parport.0.pin-03-out-reset 1
net y0dir => parport.0.pin-04-out
net y0step => parport.0.pin-05-out
setp parport.0.pin-05-out-reset 1
net y1dir => parport.0.pin-06-out
net y1step => parport.0.pin-07-out
setp parport.0.pin-07-out-reset 1
net zdir => parport.0.pin-08-out
net zstep => parport.0.pin-09-out
setp parport.0.pin-09-out-reset 1
net spindle-on => parport.0.pin-17-out
net estop-ext <= parport.0.pin-10-in
net home-x <= parport.0.pin-11-in
net home-y0 <= parport.0.pin-12-in
net home-y1 <= parport.0.pin-13-in
net home-z <= parport.0.pin-15-in

Yep, Just confirmed Rodw. Doesn't matter what you call the joints in the HAL. I called my "y0" "jam" because I'm having jam on toast. Still works.

net xdir => parport.0.pin-02-out
net xstep => parport.0.pin-03-out
setp parport.0.pin-03-out-reset 1
net jamdir => parport.0.pin-04-out
net jamstep => parport.0.pin-05-out
setp parport.0.pin-05-out-reset 1
net y1dir => parport.0.pin-06-out
net y1step => parport.0.pin-07-out
setp parport.0.pin-07-out-reset 1
net zdir => parport.0.pin-08-out
net zstep => parport.0.pin-09-out
setp parport.0.pin-09-out-reset 1
net spindle-on => parport.0.pin-17-out
net estop-ext <= parport.0.pin-10-in
net home-x <= parport.0.pin-11-in
net home-jam <= parport.0.pin-12-in
net home-y1 <= parport.0.pin-13-in
net home-z <= parport.0.pin-15-in

Hey Todd, I think you posted somewhere. Can't find it, too tied. That I couldn't have a duplicate letter in the TRAJ Coordinates. I read in the manual last night that I can.

This is mine. Out of interest though. I think it works with just X Y Z as well. The joints part of the INI need XYYZ though.

[TRAJ]
COORDINATES = X Y Y Z
LINEAR_UNITS = mm
ANGULAR_UNITS = degree
DEFAULT_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 10.00
MAX_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 100.00

Pretty keen know to hook everything up and make sure it works then complete a how to thread. It works fine with Hal meter.

Happy Days

joel0407 wrote:

Hey Todd, I think you posted somewhere. Can't find it, too tied. That I couldn't have a duplicate letter in the TRAJ Coordinates. I read in the manual last night that I can.

I think Todd was referring to the GEOMETRY=XYZ in the [DISPLAY] section. This controls the DROS shown on the display.

Now you've got everything sorted in your head, I'm not going to buy in to the other stuff. I did convert mine from an XYYZ to XXYZ on someones advice and I do remember changing the Hal a far bit. It did impact on limit switches etc too. Its too long ago to remember.

rodw wrote:

Now you've got everything sorted in your head, I'm not going to buy in to the other stuff. I did convert mine from an XYYZ to XXYZ on someones advice and I do remember changing the Hal a far bit. It did impact on limit switches etc too. Its too long ago to remember.

Yeh mate. Super excited about this now. It's not really that hard at all. It's just hard to find all the information in one place.

Yes the HAL file would need to be changed a fair amount for XXYZ vs XYYZ but not due to references to an axis. I could not find a reference to an Axis in the HAL. The linking or pairing axis to joints is in the INI then step/direction generation and linking joints to outputs is in the HAL. This adds to confusion as it's hard to know if a "Y" in the HAL is a relevant attribute or and arbitrary name. By me changing a Axis letter to "jam" in the HAL and having it still working as it should proved it to me that it's just arbitrary name but makes it easier to understand the file to keep it a name that actually relates to what it does.

I want to get it correct as possible before I write a How To thread.

Getting pretty close now. I'll be buying some aluminium plate to mount my drivers and power supplies on and 8m of 4 core shielded cable for my motors tomorrow. The control box and wiring should be finished my Sunday arvo. There is a chance I'll be making a cut by about next Wednesday. Just depends what the kids want to get up to on the weekend. It won't be finished still. I'm ordering a vacuum cleaner for dust extraction tonight and a local quote for Cable Chain was $182 so I'll be ordering that only for about $30.

Happy Days