General CNC control to LInuxcnc config
I have the live CD version of Linuxcnc running in a VM. I can work through the stepper wizard and find what looks like the right path for Gecko config, but I do not see any way to configure the PICA board from that wizard. Conversely from the pins wizard I see a configure for MESA (not PICA).
My questions are what is the right path to configure linuxcnc for a PC, a PICA board, and Geiko drivers? Is there a wizard, if so which one? Where are the PICA pins configured?
I apologize for the basic question but I am stuck on which path to start down. Thank you in advance. Dan
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- Todd Zuercher
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Second, I don't think a PICA board can be supported, that would be a GRBL thing. (Unless it can be plugged into and used with an ordinary parallel port like a breakout board.)
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The PICA board is listed as part of supported hardware. I thought its visibility to linuxcnc would be limited to the pin layout of the Geiko connections? Is this an invalid assumption?
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- tommylight
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PICO boards are supported by LinuxCNC, and the owner is a very helpful member of this forum that goes above and beyond to help users of those boards.
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Thanks again, Dan
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pico-systems.com/images/uscgecko.pdf
This documents how the pico board is set up to connect to Geiko drivers. I assume that the mapping from the wiring pins is reflected in the parallel port configuration page.
Thanks for the pointers. Dan
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- tommylight
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Was wondering that i read this before...andypugh wrote: I have moved this post into "Driver Boards" where there is a good chance that the Pico chap will see it.

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Sorry, I did not see this thread until Andy alerted me.dansawyer wrote: You are correct, it is a PICO universal stepper. It is connected to the PC via a parallel port and to the Geico drivers. Is this hardware configuration supported by the stepper wizard? Where can I find a 'how to' to configure the PICO board hardware setup in linuxcnc?
Thanks again, Dan
No, the stepconfig wizard is for Mesa boards, not Pico. We do have sample configs under "by interface/pico/univstep"
that can be used as a starting place for your particular setup.
Here's a link to a wiki description of the hardware : wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Universal_Stepper_Controller
And, a general article on first-time startup:
forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/14977-pico-systems-faq
Note: this has sections on all 3 of our product lines, you want to concentrate on the part for the universal steppper controller.
The USC is not a breakout board, it is a step generator and encoder counter. The encoder counter can either count real encoder position or count the steps issued to a step driver for open-loop operation. The selection is made for each axis with a DIP switch. See :
pico-systems.com/univstep.html
for more info on switches and connectors.
And, if more questions arise, certainly contact me directly or here on the forum.
Jon
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No. The parallel port is used as a communication port to the stepper controller FPGA. There is no 1:1 correspondence between the parallel port pins and the step outputs or digital I/O. Do not pay any attention to the parallel port setup, that is used for software generated stepping. The USC board provides hardware step generation.dansawyer wrote: Progress, a search of the Pico documentation found a wireing diagram:
pico-systems.com/images/uscgecko.pdf
This documents how the pico board is set up to connect to Geiko drivers. I assume that the mapping from the wiring pins is reflected in the parallel port configuration page.
Jon
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