emc2 and linisteppers

anyone using emc2 with linisteppers? I'm trying to get one hooked up to my computer to test it out and I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out which pins are which? if anyone would be willing to share their setup info with me that would be a major help.

Chris

Got a URL to linisteppers?

www.piclist.com/tecHREF/io/stepper/linistep/index.htm

chris

Chris,

welcome to the forum ( I am just like You, just another interested person looking for guidance ).

Chris I note Linistep has step / direction inputs.

If You get a copy of EMC2 CD from linuxcnc.org ( current lates version is Ubuntu 8.04 with EMC2 version 2.3 ) and install it on Your PC you will have acces to stepper configuration wizard in the CNC drop down menu.

Run the wizard, it will do all the hard yakka for You and You will endup with the necesary .INI file for your machine configuration as well as the hall file(s).

In thewizard You will be presented with the LPT interface set up ( pin assignments). Use a quality BOB ( break out board) and connect Your step and direction pins in accordance withe the pin assignment YOU had made diring the wizard setup.

Your Linistepper step and direction pins to PC LPT pins. You ought to be at the stage where Ypur steppers are operating assuming they are wired up correctly to th linistepper driver .

You may find that the LPT port on Your PC is not quite 5 Volt capable ( may be 3.3 Volts?) in which case the BOB has to be able to respond to lower voltage inputs and translate them to suitable signal levels for Linistepper to work.


Good luck and yell out .. there is always someone here to help.

I've been running emc2 on one of my other cnc machines for about 5 or 6 months now, I really like it. I'm familiar with the stepconf wizard and used it last night to set up the program for the linistepper, or at least to set it up to start the process of getting it working.

I didn't seem to be getting any signal to the motor from the computer so I put my multimeter on the different pins of the printer cable to find out what the voltages were, they were only 3.3v so I'm going to have to add some resistors. The linistepper website recommended 1000 ohm resistors, so I guess I'll pick up some today if I get a chance to get to radio shack.

For the most part things are moving along slow but smoothly with getting my linisteppers going. I'm trying to use them for motors that are slightly larger than what's recommended but with the help of James at piclist I think in the end I'll get them working just fine. I may also be facing a powersupply issue as well, so I'm probably going to have to do some experimenting there as well.

Chris

Hi, I am starting out with linistepper drivers and a small light machines cnc lathe (sherline with some small steppers). This is mostly to gain experience with a simple 2 D setup.

I am also attempting a 3 D wood / foam router. For that project, I would like to be able to be able to take some existing simple 2.5 D shapes, probe / scan them using the router, and make a copy. I don't own or know how to use CAD or CAM software, so I am hoping that I can just find a way to capture the 2 D positions.

The idea is that I could take this 2D data, run a path with it, then step down a Z distance and run it again. I know - slow, but this is a hobby.

Is this feasible, or am I completely missing the size of the challenge ?

Can this be done using pretty much any old stepper driver card and EMC, or does it take more that this ?

BTW - the reason I am sort of shifting from my "plan" which was to use Mach, is that I understand that EMC has a function to route 3 D pictures from JPEGs. I am still searching for this capability, but I am sure I just need to keep reading.

Thanks to all of the people that did all of the work to make this possible.

Harry

Hello Harry,

Yes it is quite feasible.

I think there is a digitising functionality built into EMC2 whereby you can use a probe there are instructions on how to build one in the wiki area of this site.

The machine will then traverse the model and build a profile without user direct interaction.

As for converting images to 3D representation again quite correct.

In fact All that is needed ( user manual has this info ) is to include a FILTER statement in the .ini file and specify the image file extensions which will be read in and converted.

Zig - Thank you very much for the help.

Harry