ATC Project - Debug phase

Time for an update and a question for Andy...

I've got the orient function very close using lincurve and fiddling with all the settings. It completes an orient within 2 seconds 9/10 times with a heavy (or no) tool in the spindle.

Newest issue is with the carousel component.  I'm using the latest version which has both of the updates (counts mode as well as the homing bug fix).

Because the 'homing' isn't like a traditional joint/axis homing, the first time it's enabled it rotates until the index pin goes high then stops.  Where it stops is dependent on the speed and accel... which means I have to settle on a 'final' speed/accel value before I can tune in the sensor/pin location to get the pockets lined up with the spindle.

The issue I just observed is that when I set the speed (carousel.0.fwd-dc or rev-dc) higher than +/-25, carousel apppears to sort of lose track of where it is.

If the speed is set at 25 or less, it behaves as expected.  If I raise the speed and then enter M68 E0 Qn (after it's homed) then M64 P0 to enable it, the carousel starts rotating, passes the correct pocket, and keeps rotating for a random number of complete turns.  It will eventually settle on the correct pocket.

carousel.0.counts is going up/down the whole time as expected.
carousel.0.current-position is flaky... it's counting up or down, but skipping numbers.  "10, 12, 14, 16..."

If I run it slower, everything is fine.  Faster I go, worse it is.  At fwd-dc = 35 it makes an extra turn before settling on the pocket.  At 50, it takes 4 or 5 turns.  At 75 I lost interest watching it sit there and rotate while the counts were changing by 3's (9, 12, 15, 18...)

It's not losing track of the pockets - it's just not stopping in time.  If I run it fast enough to skip pockets and then manually stop it. I can turn the speed back down and it'll go right to the correct pocket with no extra rotations.

It's keeping up with the pocket numbers even if halshow isn't fast enough to display them.  But it's not stopping at higher (but still reasonable) speeds.

Andy - got any ideas?  Running the carousel at "25" is great for safe testing, but painfully slow to be a permanent speed limit.

I've been down for the count with some sort of low-grade sinus filth.

I'll recompile and test this weekend, maybe tomorrow if I'm feeling better.  Thanks for having a look (again!).

-R

I recompiled after making your edit and it's still behaving the same way:

• M64 P0 enables, homes to pocket #1 no issues
• M65 disables carousel ok
• M68 E0 Qn updates carousel.0.pocket-number
• M64 P0 enables, carousel moves to correct pocket, no drama.
• M65 P0 disables
• <raise fwd-dc & rev-dc to 50/-50>
• M68 E0 Qn changes pocket-number appropriately
• M6 P0 starts the carousel (carousel always gets shortest path direction right), but keeps rotating multiple turns past the pocket.
  • rotated 5 full turns past the intended pocket, and then it stopped at the right pocket (but not aligned quite right).
  • current-position did not update during the extra turns.  In fact, it didn't change until it stopped - and then just jumped straight to the final (commanded) pocket number.
  • M65 P0 disabled carousel after it finally settled on the correct pocket.
• Repeated with different pockets, same result
• <lower speed to 25/-25>
• Same behavior as with higher speeds - but only once.
  • After the first pocket movement with extra turns, subsequent behavior worked as expected.
• Raising the speed again gets the same result.
  • Higher I raise it, the more extra turns happens - just like last time.

As before, carousel.0.counts is going up/down as expected every time it moves - even if it's doing extra turns.
 

Sorry, don't understand the question.  Where is it physically?  Or the hal connections?

EDIT - or the carousel.comp file?  It's located in linuxcnc-dev/src/hal/components/

And I double-checked by opening carousel.comp in that location and it's the modified version (i.e. line 396 changed to "old_index = ind;"

And carousel.c has a Date Modified = Today, so I'm fairly sure the new version is installed/compiled.

Depends on your location.  I'm in Ohio, USA, so it does not require space travel.

Or I can ship the pieces to you for a personal Advent Calendar of Industrial Aggression episode.  Your choice.

Seriously - have you just lost interest?  I can go back to beating my head against the ATC-as-axis option.

If you want a physical duplicate to test with, I'll be happy to buy a stepper, drive and cheapo gearbox and have them sent to you.  'Cause thats all it really is.