slowly making progress. but still a long way to go.

Greetings, fellow CNC enthusiasts. A little background; I am building a small milling machine with a 1000w servo for a spindle and I need a little guidance configuring the servo-spindle in hal. Currently, when I turn on the spindle in linuxcnc the spindle light on the mesa 7i96s comes on. As per the recommendations of the brilliant people on this site, (not hyperbole) I have the servo spindle enable physically wired to the 7i96s #5 output. I need a little help making the connections in .hal. I know this may be an arbitrary question but, it would help understand the functions of the files.  Is the .hal file the file that identifies the connections, and the .ini file is where the values are stored?  en.bergerda.com/filedown.php?id=49.  Is the servo I am running,  How would I connect the servo enable to the output of the mesa board in .hal?

Yes, the connections are done in a hal file though typically
you would use a configuration utility like mesact or pncconf.

pncconf shown here:

 
 

i did all that through pncconf. spindle enable out on output#5. i even have to invert it or the spindle light on the mesa board will stay on until i go into linuxcnc and turn it off. yeah, i don't know why it does that. its configured just as the pic you posted

     

jg00163206 wrote:

i did all that through pncconf. spindle enable out on output#5. i even have to invert it or the spindle light on the mesa board will stay on until i go into linuxcnc and turn it off. yeah, i don't know why it does that. its configured just as the pic you posted
 

Just verified that this (pictured setup) works as expected:

M3 (or M4) turns output 5 on
M5 turns it off
 

m3,4,5 won't turn on the #5 output. all it does is turn on the spindle led on the mesa board. i tried all the m codes i could think of and i still can't get it working. i can enable the servo right from the drive if i need to. even with it enabled from the drive, i can't get it to move. i keep getting an hm2 error. maxvel is too large for current step timing on stepgen 04. when im in hal show, it shows the spindle enable is connected to the #5 output but when i turn it on, (through m code or from the gui) it just turns the spindle led on on te mesa board. i am new to linuxcnc but that just doesnt seem right to me. why is the led on te mesa board coming on? it's not connedted to anything. im at a loss here. is there a hal file that i could compare it to that is running a servo for a spindle? it shouldn't be this difficult. im missing something simple.

If the output5 does not start the spindle (but is controlled by the expected m codes),
that suggests that output5 is not wired correctly to the drive. The LED indicates that output
5 is on. On meaning a connection is made between OUT5A and OUT5B.

Do you have a drive manual?

"maxvel is too large for current step timing on stepgen 04"

Means that the current steptime and stepspace settings and current step scale
will not allow the maximum velocity you have specified. (its just a warning and
will not effect operation but you will not be able to reach the velocity specified
in your .ini file)

 

en.bergerda.com/filedown.php?id=49. i do have a manual for this drive. the output #5 light does NOT come on when i turn on the spindle. the spindle output on tb2 comes on when i turn on the spindle and there is nothing connected to that pin. i guess my next step is to verify that i have the wiring correct but that doesn't explain why the spindle led on tb2 comes on when i turn on the spindle. what do i look for in hal show for the encoder for that drive? i have been reading through some of the linuxcnc documentation and one of the pages i read recommended rotating the motor with the power off and look in halshow to see if the encoder is connected to one of those pins. i am just wondering what i would look for in halshow or hal meter to see that signal? would it be a signal or a pin? or would it be something else? i have noticed looking at other hal files that their output spindle enabel has a true after is. should mine have a true after it? here is what mine says
# --- SPINDLE-ENABLE ---
net spindle-enable => [HMOT](CARD0).outm.00.out-05