mesa 5i25 and mx4660 installation and configuration

If 1 rev = 38mm and you have 200-step motors are 10x microstepping then the STEP_SCALE should be 52.63 steps per mm.

Hello,

I just want to update you about my progress and the new questions that arose. First some pictures of my switch cabinet. Maybe its not high end, but we are very proud of it!


We wired the motors and 1 of the 4 proximity switches. The problem is now, that I want to have the cleaner, the vacuum pump and the spindle controlled by relays. But when I turn on the Linuxcnc Computer first, it sends a high signal to the Output connection, that means, the relays stay tuned until I start Linuxcnc itself. Have you got any idea how to keep the signal low?

After connection all the hardware, we will try to put our hands on the refinement of the configuration. the idea here is, to have the y-switches at the back of the machine, the x-switch at the left side, and the z-switch on top of the z-axis. Furthermore I would like to home all axis in the back left corner of the machine and measure the toollength as well there.

I will attach the pncconf and hal. If you have any advice, it would be great!

Thanks Mathias

goofy wrote: We wired the motors and 1 of the 4 proximity switches. The problem is now, that I want to have the cleaner, the vacuum pump and the spindle controlled by relays. But when I turn on the Linuxcnc Computer first, it sends a high signal to the Output connection, that means, the relays stay tuned until I start Linuxcnc itself. Have you got any idea how to keep the signal low?

I guess you are using the parallel port?

You could try finding a parallel port with a different behaviour. Some are hardware-inverted, for example, and might not have the problem.

The "correct" answer is to use a charge-pump circuit. (LinuxCNC has a suitable HAL module)
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?About_Charge_Pumps

my setup is a mesa 5i25 and I want to use both ports (P2, P3). I dont know if thats a parport?! Is there any possibility to rewrite the bitfile to invert the Output pins?

I dont know anything about the ChargePump. I just set the jumper at the mx4660 to on and thats it...

The 5I25 cannot easily have low outputs at startup,
(all GPIO pins have pullup resistors and are inputs at startup)

Many CNC BOBs use a chargepump circuit to disable outputs
until the controller signals that its running via the chargepump signal
since parallel port outputs do not have a defined startup state due to
BIOS and OS hardware probing at startup

The MX4660 has a chargepump circuit but unfortunately its rather useless
since it does not disable the outputs, only the step drives and it doesn't have a
chargepump status output that could be used as an output enable

Thanks a lot for your explanations! Know I start to understand the ChargePump circuit. Its really a pity...
But anyway, we can teach ourselves to start first Linuxcnc and than turn on the hardware.

I will connect the remaining switches and the next days Im going to complete the machine itself. For sure I will come up with more questions. I hope you are not annoyed yet?!

Thanks
Mathias