My build and questions

I'll try to get some pics up as some point but right now I need help getting up and running.

It's a Gantry style 4 axis with Y and A controlling Y.

I'm running a C10 breakout and KL-4030 drivers.
www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/produc...6v9-7a425oz-inkl4030
I have gone through the manual and stepconf many times trying a lot of different settings without luck.
One of the main things I have noticed is not once have I seen the motors hold or respond at all. The drivers, C10 and power supply are all wired per this diagram.
www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/wp-con...8/KL-4030WithC10.pdf

Master enable switch is jumped

In stepconf
Axis config XYZA
Units MM

Driver Kelling 4030

port 0X378

Jitter 28000 based off latency test

I have tried Sherline inputs and Xylotex both standard and inverted.

For troubleshooting I have switched everything to unused except XYZA. Pin number looks right compared to the wiring on the C10 board .



Steppers are wired with all solid wires just like in the diagram. Striped wires are insulated and wrapped away.


I haven't messed much with the individual axis settings.
Ballscrews are 5mm/turn

Everything else I have left as it is.

When I try to test nothing happens but like I said the motors aren't holding or showing any signs of life.

LEDs are lit up on the C10 and all four KLs

I haven't touched any of the C10 jumpers.
2-9 are jumpered for output
input 123 are jumped for pull down
com is jumped for com-gnd
pins 2-9 are jumped for pull down

I'm questioning the parport address but haven't figured out how to confirm it's right.
I just found this.
www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.4/html/examples_pci_parallel_port.html
And ran lspci -v but don't know what to make of it.

$ lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Xpress 200 Host Bridge (rev 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Kernel modules: ati-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
Memory behind bridge: dfd00000-dfefffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d0000000-d7ffffff
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: shpchp

00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA (prog-if 01)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 23
I/O ports at fe00
I/O ports at fe10
I/O ports at fe20
I/O ports at fe30
I/O ports at fec0
Memory at dfff6c00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci

00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
Memory at dfff7000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
Memory at dfff8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at dfff9000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
Memory at dfffa000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4) (prog-if 10)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 18
Memory at dfffb000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI) (prog-if 20)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 19
Memory at dfff6900 (32-bit, non-prefetchable)
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 13)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel
I/O ports at 0b00
Memory at fed00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
Kernel driver in use: piix4_smbus
Kernel modules: i2c-piix4

00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
I/O ports at 01f0
I/O ports at 03f4
I/O ports at 0170
I/O ports at 0374
I/O ports at ffa0
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: pata_atiixp
Kernel modules: pata_atiixp

00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, slow devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
Memory at dfffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0

00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge (prog-if 01)
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=64
Memory behind bridge: dfc00000-dfcfffff

01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200]
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
I/O ports at ec00
Memory at dfdf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Expansion ROM at dfe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: radeon
Kernel modules: radeon

02:09.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
Subsystem: Dell Device 01e5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
Memory at dfcfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: b44
Kernel modules: b44

Might want to look here...
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...ind-my-parallel-port

Also try using the port index...
www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.4/html/hal_parallel_port.html

Rick G

Hi

The port should be shown in BIOS, you also need to make sure it is enabled, many boards have the facility to disable it.

Another check is run cat /proc/ioports from a terminal and look around the 0x278 and 0x378 areas in the list, they are the most likely addresses.

regards

Okay so when I change the port number I get this error.

Stepconf encountered an error. The following information may be useful in troubleshooting:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/stepconf", line 2025, in update_axis_params
halrun.flush()
IOError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe

with 378 there is no error so that makes me think it's the right port.

Also did
dmesg|grep parport

$ dmesg|grep parport
[ 21.106447] parport_pc 00:06: reported by Plug and Play ACPI
[ 21.106552] parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7, using FIFO [PCSPP,TRISTATE,COMPAT,ECP]
[ 21.196473] lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).

I also read that some cables don't have all the connections so I did a continuity test on mine and did confirm I have continuity on all pins.

What next?

So the guys on IRC got me up and running. I had my motors wired wrong. Going off the diagram I had I assumed that 4 of the 8 wires were unused. So now I have it wired up right and have motion on all motors. The problem is that I can't figure out how to set it up with a gantry configuration. I will be using two motors to control y.
In trying to setup stepconf when I get to the A axis the settings are in degrees instead of linear like I need. I assume this is one thing that the gantry config file should change?

The problem is that if I click on linuxcnc I can create a gantry profile but it doesn't setup a stepconf file. If I create a stepconf file I can't figure out how to link it to the gantry profile.
How should I go about this?

In trying to setup stepconf when I get to the A axis the settings are in degrees instead of linear like I need. I assume this is one thing that the gantry config file should change?

The problem is that if I click on linuxcnc I can create a gantry profile but it doesn't setup a stepconf file. If I create a stepconf file I can't figure out how to link it to the gantry profile.
How should I go about this?

stepconf is for basic setup, beyond that you have to edit by hand, it cannot possibly cater for all possible variations of configuration.

In this case you have an example set of configs in the gantry sample config
(I think they are at /usr/share/linuxcnc/configs/by_interface/parport/gantry, but I don't have Ubuntu 10.04 or 2.5.X installed anywhere, so the path may be slightly different)

You also have generated configs for a 4 axis setup, you just need to change the A axis to be the same settings as Y.

Open /home/yourname/name-of-your-config/name-of-your-config.ini

Assuming your motors and their settings are identical, you can cut and paste the entries for [AXIS_1] into [AXIS_3]

That should get you going, the example config file gantry-hs.ini shows some further setting for use with homing switches, but you have to have them and have them connected in the hal file for these to work.

If you get stuck, come back and attach your config folder in its entirity in a zip and we can doubtless assist

regards

If I make any changes to the .ini then open up stepconf again I get this.

File '/home/yoshi/linuxcnc/configs/gantry/gantry.ini' was modified since it was written by stepconf

Saving this configuration file will discard configuration changes made outside stepconf.

Once in settings the changes are discarded.
Shouldn't it be possible to go back in and edit stepconf after making these changes and have them show up in stepconf?

Further troubles.
I can't get into world mode
I found this post

andypugh wrote:

If you load and experiment with the gantrykins-hs simulation you will get feel for how it works.
What isn't immediately obvious is that after homingyou need to switch to World Mode (XYZ) which you do using the $ key.
(if you do not have a dollar key then it can be done from the menu).

Running the sim will create a copy of that configuration in your home/linuxcnc/configs directory. You can compare the gantry HAL file to your stepfconf-created HAL file.
The changes are quite small, mainly changing loadrt trikins to loadrt gantrykins axes=XYZX (or something like that)

but I don't know where or how to do what. I tried to type the $ into the MIDI box since that was the only thing that made sense but it didn't recognize it.
I tried hitting shift 4 in the manual window and nothing happend. I also could not find any way to select this in the menu.

Second problem is that my Z is going the wrong direction. I figured out I can change that by reversing the screw pitch in the stepconf but I can no longer use it without erasing my settings and I can't find it in the .ini file.

So it sounds like many people run two motors to run one axis. Why is it so hard to find any documentation or support on setting this up?
I have spent hours searching and have only found a couple threads with convoluted info, contradicting info and enough missing pieces to just leave me confused and frusterated.
I don't understand what people mean by the $ hotkey. Can I just use shift 4 are are they talking about something else?
If I go into the view tab I see no option to switch into or out of world mode.


Is there any way someone could take the time to walk me through a step by step process to make this work?
Could we do it well enough to make it part of the documentation?
Every search I do I come across people looking for this info and no one finding easy answers. It's a very common question so why not make easier more accessible solutions?

yoshimitsuspeed wrote:

If I make any changes to the .ini then open up stepconf again I get this.

File '/home/yoshi/linuxcnc/configs/gantry/gantry.ini' was modified since it was written by stepconf

Saving this configuration file will discard configuration changes made outside stepconf.

Once in settings the changes are discarded.
Shouldn't it be possible to go back in and edit stepconf after making these changes and have them show up in stepconf?

Which bit of this was not clear?

stepconf is for basic setup, beyond that you have to edit by hand, it cannot possibly cater for all possible variations of configuration.

Further troubles.
I can't get into world mode

Does this mean that you have edited your config as suggested and it now runs?

I don't understand what people mean by the $ hotkey. Can I just use shift 4 are are they talking about something else?
If I go into the view tab I see no option to switch into or out of world mode.

If you cannot see a menu item to switch in and out of world mode, you are probably not running gantrykins.
You have possibly just modified your stepconf generated config for the A axis but done nothing else as per the gantry example config.

So it sounds like many people run two motors to run one axis. Why is it so hard to find any documentation or support on setting this up?
I have spent hours searching and have only found a couple threads with convoluted info, contradicting info and enough missing pieces to just leave me confused and frusterated.

Instead of moaning at the lack of personalised info for your particular problem, why not accept the offer of just that

If you get stuck, come back and attach your config folder in its entirity in a zip and we can doubtless assist

regards