setting up estop, stepper driver enable, ...

Hi,

I am building a plasma cutter using a Mesa 7i76e card, a Raspberry Pi 4, and stepper motors without encoders. I could not use the pncconf wizzard because it does not work on the Raspberry Pi, so I tried editing the ini and hal files by myself:



The axis work fine, the homing sequence too, and I have executed the example gcode successful. Now I want to implement the safety features before I start the PlasmaC installation and configuration, but I don't know which signals and pins I have to use for my purpose.

I use the following inputs and outputs on the Mesa card:

Input 9: External emergancy stop button
Input 8: Safety cabin door open
Input 10: Torch lost (e.g. because of collision with material)

Output 3: Stepper driver enable
Output 4: Plasma on
Output 5: External Relais 1 (indicates "Machine is ON")
Output 6: External Relais 2 (indicates "Program is paused")
Output 7: External Relais 3 (indicates "Emergancy Stop is pressed")

I want the following:

1. When I start LinuxCNC
-> Machine is OFF (via F2)
-> Motor drivers are disabled (Output 3)

2. When I enable the machine via F2
-> enable Motor drivers
-> switch on Relais 1

3. When the Safety cabin is opened OR the torch is lost
-> Pause the Program (P).

4. A resume (S) should only be possible via the GUI.

5. When the Program is paused
-> Plasma is disabled (Output 4)
-> switch on Relais 2

6. When the external Emergancy stop button is pressed
-> Activate Emergancy Stop F1
-> Disable motor drivers (Output 3)
-> Disable plasma (Output 4)

7. When the external Emergancy stop button is released
-> Machine is in state OFF


Can you help me archieving that? Most of the features are as I want them to be by default (like 4 or 7), but for example I can't get it to work that the motor drivers are disabled when the machine is OFF, and only enabled if the machine is ON...

Best,
Christoph

I just tried and pncconf runs fine on a RPI4, what issue did you have?

Thanks andypugh! I will try that when I am at the machine on Thuesday (I only have access to the machine twice a week...)

About the problem with the Raspberry Pi: Some libraries for gtk2 glade were missing and I could not install them on the Raspberry. I made a topic in the pncconf section of the forum: forum.linuxcnc.org/39-pncconf/38339-how-...ll-and-start-pncconf

PCW wrote:

I just tried and pncconf runs fine on a RPI4, what issue did you have?

Most python tools like pncconf.py and configurator.py (for PlasmaC) fail at importing gtk.glade.
Which OS do you use on the Raspberry?
I use "4.19.50-rt22-v7l #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Tue Feb 4 11:39:12 CET 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux"
How did you manage to install gtk.glade?