Ditching Mach 3/4 LinuxCNC is The Plan!

i'm expecting the cd any day , i'll let you know on findings , and any mods needed

Drug the clunker gateway 510xl pc box out of the attic tonight! PC is 2004 vintage I hope the PC is Compatible With LCNC not to old.

I believe it only has 1 LPT port so may be limited.

I am 3rd shift type of person so when I get up this afternoon and do my errands I will see if it still boots.

In setting up LCNC I should be using my pin outs from mach correct. (Going form memory and poor notes)

Motors
P1 Pin 2 Step X M1
P1 Pin 3 Dir X M1
P1 Pin 6 Step Z M2
P1 Pin 7 Dir Z M2

Cannot remember if I used pins 4 & 5 for Z axis (Ny notes are poor) I will have to verify when I get out to the garage and look at my config but simple to swap if needed.

Limit Switches (I think I can Combine my + and - inputs to free up an input if needed.)
P1 Pin 11 M2 Z+
P1 Pin 12 M2 Z-
P1 Pin 13 M1 X-
P2 Pin 11 M1 X+

Spindle Control.
P1 Pin 14 Spindle Rev (Active Low)
P1 Pin 15 Spindle Index From Encoder
P1 Pin 16 Spindle Fwd

How is Quadrature handled LPT or Serial? Mach did not support Quadrature for the spindle so it was never hooked up. Do I Just Assign A & B to available Inputs? Will 2000ppr be to fast? The Hitachi VFD has Modbus I herd of people using it to control the spindle but never really got in to it as Mach did not support non china Huanyang VFD in Modbus via a plugin.

Charge Pump (Min. Frequency: 200 Hz minimum square wave)
P1 Pin 17 Charge Pump

The ports below I can switch if needed to Port 1.

Port 2 Pin 1 Coolant ON
Port 2 Pin 14 Relay for Aux 110V

After reading more about Mesa Combo and seeing the limited inputs on the PMDX. I do plan on doing a mesa combo in the near future for sure. Once i get it going i will off the pmdx and ess to recoup the costs.

I really do want to play! These Machines are an addiction like Flying!

What else to do when you have a sloppy compound slide and awaiting a ridged tool post mount.

I am Not a pro at cad at all I am still learning but hope to make this mount as soon as I can get the drawing correct. By then I should have LCNC set up and hopefully PathPilot and a mesa combo!




Thanks Again LCNC Group!

Contract_Pilot wrote: Limit Switches (I think I can Combine my + and - inputs to free up an input if needed.)

Yes, in fact you can combine all 4 inputs into one pin if you want. This isn't much of a disadvantage with a lathe where you want to home the X all the way out before starting to move Z.

How is Quadrature handled LPT or Serial? Mach did not support Quadrature for the spindle so it was never hooked up. Do I Just Assign A & B to available Inputs? Will 2000ppr be to fast? !

Basically, yes. A and B (and preferably index too, for threading) are connected to input pins and then connected in HAL to an encoder counter.
2000ppr will lose counts at about 500rpm, so as long as you thread at speeds below that you will be OK. Spindle velocity numbers will be meaningless above that speed, though.

Contract_Pilot wrote: Drug the clunker gateway 510xl pc box out of the attic tonight! PC is 2004 vintage I hope the PC is Compatible With LCNC not to old.

I believe it only has 1 LPT port so may be limited.

Thanks Again LCNC Group!

On older computers I'd try both the Debian Wheezy (current) and the Ubuntu 10.04 LiveCDs and see which one gives you the lowest latency. This is more important when using the parallel port than when using hardware step generation.

If it has a PCI slot you can get a second parallel port card for a few dollars to get more I/O.

JT

I am currently trying to get my PMDX126 working in Extended I/IO mode to give me 8 inputs and more outputs. Steve Stallings of PMDX gave me a hal file that decodes the signals on pins 11,12,13 &15 and splits them into 8 inputs. Haven't got it to work yet due to my limited knowledge of hal and its connections but am hopeful of one day getting it working. If I do I will post the info.

Operating in expanded mode would be cool. Can you post the HAL.