Sherline Lathe on LinuxCNC connectivity assistance

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02 Jul 2020 03:56 - 02 Jul 2020 04:20 #173380 by Oz_gadget
Greetings Gentlemen & Ladies(?)

I humbly seek the assistance of any whom might be knowledgable in how to connect and configure a sherline cnc lathe to a PC running LinuxCNC.

Background:
I am trying to help out an old Vietnam Veteran whom purchased this (& the mill) ~10 years ago and never got it to work, he suffers from PTSD as (also a veteran) do I.

I think originally he might have gotten it all connected when he first got it, got it to move once, then it never responded to anything else he tried, hence it ended up untouched since.

He doesn't have a background in computers (which unfortunately i do), so he has asked me for assistance to finally get it going to the point he can actually use it. I'm not what I used to be in analytical and trouble-shooting anymore, the frustration etc builds up & i have to walk away, so he's also kind of scraping the barrel with asking me....
He has been mentoring me teaching me machining skills, so I would like to be able to help him out.

He gave me both the lathe & mill to clean up and get going... they'd both been sitting collecting dust & some slight surface rust over the decade of inactivity as well as the control box, however no cables
I had to research the encoder pin-outs and connectors then fabricate some cables to suit, I asked sherline for clarification of those cables but they seemed somewhat reluctant to confirm anything...

He also had a laptop but that has since died & other than the windows deskcnc? software had little for me to use.
there is no db-9 COM cable with the controller box (he has all of this stuff somewhere but I doubt he can find any of it),
His concentration wanders as well and he is frequently going from one unfinished task to another, but he tends to take on too much at once. I do have a USB/DB-9 connection cable.

I have built him a small desktop PC running LinuxCNC, whilst i have dabbled with ESX & RHEL support, I am by no means a linux guru & even less these days since my mind has gone to fudge, but i can do most of the basic things with some nudging/reminding.

One of my fortes is definitely documentation, especially documenting difficult tasks for novice users and bringing complex content into understandable laymans terms, which is what he will require & what I am aiming to be able to provide him with at the end of this
(I enjoy designing and tinkering with Fusion 360, but up until now have never actually produced anything, but in the next few years hope to get myself a cnc mill for some small projects)
I wont be much help to him with the G code side of it anyway.

Aim:
All I am looking for is to provide him with a simple to use (working) PC that will connect to his lathe (& mill) so that he can feed it G/M codes to do his designs on.

Requesting:
Assistance in gaining a successful connection between LinuxCNC desktop and Sherline CNC lathe (&mill)

thanking you all for your time

I optimistically look forward to your responses.

PS: LinuxCNC PC is working, I have run LinuxCNC and selected the sherline lathe (mm) from the config files and it has created a shortcut to the desktop, which will reduce his 'hunting & clicking'... the axis-lathe.ngc comes up in the interface ok
but regardless of what i try i dont seem to be able to establish any interaction with the machine from the interface at this point in time.
Last edit: 02 Jul 2020 04:20 by Oz_gadget.

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02 Jul 2020 11:59 #173402 by tommylight
Start Linuxcnc stepconf from the menu,
On the second screen choose "modify a configuration already created with this program", it will open another screen where you can choose the existing config,
click next,
on the third screen there is a pull down menu that says "other", click on that and choose "sherline",
click next on all the other screens if you are sure you have the settings correct, save and exit.
Now that config should work as sherline requires very long step pulses, that if not set correctly will cause the machine not to move at all.

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03 Jul 2020 04:50 #173485 by Oz_gadget
Gday
thanks for the quick response
i had gone through the LinuxCNC menu to see what was there and stumbled upon the stepconf program and had a look at it, but saw the parallel port config and 'assumed' that I wouldnt be able to use it
the sherline controller box only has a db9 serial port....
(or am i missing something very obvious)

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03 Jul 2020 06:15 #173489 by phillc54
I always thought that Sherline controllers were parallel port. Do you have any documentation for the controller or maybe some pics.

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03 Jul 2020 09:16 - 03 Jul 2020 09:28 #173498 by Oz_gadget
here is a pic of the controller unit
i dont have any documentation for it other than the a copy of the original invoice

as you can see, there is no parallel port, only the DB-9 serial interface.



which is why in my (braille method) exploration, I had eliminated stepconf from further utilisation
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Last edit: 03 Jul 2020 09:28 by Oz_gadget.

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03 Jul 2020 09:25 #173499 by phillc54
Yeah, that is serial or USB, you will need Mach for that.

www.imsrv.com/imservice_controller_model.htm

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03 Jul 2020 09:35 #173500 by Oz_gadget
ah poo.....
(back to windows)
oh well

many thanks to all who took the time to respond and help out
very much appreciated

cheers

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03 Jul 2020 09:38 #173501 by phillc54
It may be worth contacting IMService to see if you can change the interface from serial to parallel.

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03 Jul 2020 13:04 #173515 by tommylight
A picture of the insides would be helpful to see if the serial part can be removed and the rest made to work with a parallel port.
Mach can not do serial, and that for sure is not a USB.

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06 Jul 2020 06:58 #173718 by Todd Zuercher
A quick brows of imsrv.com shows that the servos they use are step/dir, and they do sell a parallel port version of the control box. It might be simple to excise their serial control board and replace it with a parallel port breakout board. Imsrv.com might even sell you the pieces to make the change. It may be worth trying to contact them. (No idea how helpful they might be. )

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