New ethercat / probe basic control for minimonster

Decided this should be its own thread to not get all buried in the main one.

Trading for some ethercat servos this week so I'm going to make a whole separate new control for testing.

Drives are omron RD88 400w and 200w models. 20 bit incremental encoders.

They do seem to have at least a couple IO on each one, but I think I definitely need more IO. I did have an EK1100 somewhere, but I cant find it and it would cost a few hundred to get the IO modules, especially spindle analogue.

Does anyone have a link to a low cost IO module that works well with linuxcnc? I've seen a few floating around, but I have no idea if any of them "just work".

 

So as it turned out we have lots of IO on the drives. 24 in and 6 out. So really It will be down to figuring out the spindle. RS485 is an option on the drive, but I know virtually nothing about how that works. Anyone got a link to some "for dummies" instructions? and whether it will work alongside ethercat?


 

Great move!
The IO is reasonable from Rtelligent and Deiwu. I have xml configs for both
github.com/rodw-au/linuxcnc-cia402
Rtelligent has PWM
I have both but used Rtelligent on my mill.
There is another one on Aliexpress with a few more features including Encoder but you may need to write the XML which is not that hard.
Note the IO's on the drives are more for homing etc but do work for general IO

I do not use internal homing. I intend to one day but I have had my little Ethercat homing lab on my desk for 12 months now untouched...

For spindle I used RS485. It actually interaces nicely with QTdragon GUI and is very stable speed wise when tested with a laser tacho

I did not end up adding an encoder due to cost. I ended up using a thread mill that gives perfect results. I now wonder what all the fuss is about with encoders. Its only ever needed for threading which is rarely done and thread mills are much easier on the machine and don't need an encoder!

I then looked at your diagram about io. Just check the docs to see what it says for internal homing and limits as if used, it will consume some pins.
I'm keen to get internal homing working so I can do torque homing to avoid adding limit and homing switches

Thanks
Homing I am just gonna do the normal switch plus index for now. So 3 inputs out of my 24.

Other inputs I need are:
- Probe
- Laser tool setter
- Spindle clamp sensor
- Hard limits are either 3 or 6 switches but I will leave those off for now.

Not sure how you handle an MPG with this.

For outputs I have:
- solenoid for tool release
- solenoid for M7 mql

I will be using probe basic I think for this, i will need to figure out the rs485 for the spindle. It looks like I can read back the torque, and alarms, which is nice. My biggest issue on the old setup is the control is blind to errors and when the spindle or an axis stalls it just keeps on keeping on. Gotta get that all tied up.

You could try this IO board which has an A/B encoder and I think a counter for MPG
vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005001454590369....gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm

Your drives should have a fault/error output ( you would configure an output for this in the xml file) and connect it to jount.n.fault-in
That way Linuxcnc will konw when a fault occurs.

That board is rather expensive. Can get beckhoff kit for less.

I laid out the terminal block rail, seems like everything will be fairly simple so far.

ihavenofish wrote:

That board is rather expensive. Can get beckhoff kit for less.

I laid out the terminal block rail, seems like everything will be fairly simple so far.

Just check the currency. My link was probably in AUD which is the pacific peso these days about 0.60 to the USD.
Dont forget it includes several equivalent modules to beckhoff. Input, Output, Encoder, MPG counter, Analog 0-10v. Beckhoff encoder and I/O was over AUD $800 in 2021

but i don't need those modules. surplus beckhoff encoder modules are in around $60-$80us

Drives are delayed (guy is sick) but I got my lenovo tiny pc and the electrical cabinet set up and a spare delta ms300 to try rs485 things with.

So originally I intended to try probe basic, but I don't have a 1080p monitor so I may try something else. What was the one you mentioned Rod? QTdragon gui?

Does this ui cover probing and ATC well? (im googling it now)

Thanks