transitioning from smoothstepper to mesa?

PCW wrote:

Typically modern servo drives have local encoder feedback _and_ a simulated encoder output.

This simulated encoder output is what would be feed back to linuxcnc for position feedback control,
not the motors encoder signals.

That would certainly spare me the headache of splicing and forking the signals from the motor!
I sincerely appreciate the advice and direction guys, I've never fiddled around in this domain and am learning as I go.
I'll dig through the Teco user's manual again.

andypugh wrote:

axk wrote:

From what I can tell the encoder input to my Teco drive is done via 20 pin centronics connector.
I suspect I'll need to find a way to go :
20-pin centronics -> header / breakout -> daughter board -> 7i80

Encoder input it likely to be already taken up by the servo motor.
However, looking at
www.teco-group.eu/Resources/Drives-Contr.../JSDAP-Manual-EN-V03

Page 2-28 and 2-13

It looks like they re-transmit the encoder feedback on pins 35 to 40 of Connector CN1 which is a 4-pin Centronics for maximum inconvenience

Maybe this will help?
www.ebay.com/itm/14-100pin-0-05-Mini-D-R...vx25DREEFN7KsiYQx-cg

Excellent!
I dug around in my manual and it looks like they're using an identical connector. 50-pin centronics



It seems to be in use, for all the axes actually.
I need to track down where the existing breakout board is located in the electrical cabinet. Perhaps a call to the OEM is in order before I start trying to trace wiring around...

thanks guys!

andypugh wrote:

With that breakout you will still need a cable.

It might actually be cheaper (if not easier) to get a Centronics cable and a P-Port cable, cut them both in half and solder the wires together to make the cable you need.

I just snapped a pic in the electrical cabinet.


It seems MachMotion has CN1 connected. CN2 is the actual encoder input from the motor on the bottom. The heavy cable in the middle with the green wire showing has the power related wires to the motor.
I've sent MachMotion an email asking where that cable connected to CN1 leads. I'm hoping from there I can just use a 25pin cable and connect up the encoder pins for from their own breakout board, repeat for X Y and Z and connect it to a 7i80 ?

andypugh wrote:

The step-dir pins are in that cable, and probably alarm and enable, maybe even the limits if they go via the drives.

So, it goes to the Apollo 1. The important question is how many of the wires that could be in that cable _are_ in that cable.

I'm in for a real treat if they're going RJ45 -> Centronics 50 pin
Waiting on their email for clarification.

andypugh wrote:

axk wrote:

So, it goes to the Apollo 1. The important question is how many of the wires that could be in that cable _are_ in that cable.

I would bet money that they are. Maybe as much as 5p ( I am not a gambling man).

Making up your own cables is not the end of the world, and makes it easier to revert if necessary.

You would win that bet.
They confirmed that they're going 50 pin centronics -> RJ45. They suggested opening up the connector and wiring in my own leads as necessary, so I may be able to skip using a breakout board near the Teco. That's a plus

I would suggest moving anything on "p-port" 2 to "p-port" 1 in your LinuxCNC config, it will all fit and then frees-up a connector on the Mesa board you choose.

I looked into that. Here are my current settings in Mach3. I see references to things which are enabled but not on my machine at all, such as B-axis (??) and some settings that leave me wondering why they're set (THC mode for Torch Height Control?). Also there are a slew of inputs and outputs enabled that may be completely unused. I'll need to poke around and see if that is the case. I don't have flood coolant or a probe, so I'm not sure why the OEM enabled them.








Assuming for a second I leave port 1 and port 2 configs as is. Wouldn't I have enough pins available on a 7i80db to make this work if I combined the XYZ servo encoder pins on to 1 parallel port input?