SETUP OF MESA 5I20/7I29 FOR DC SERVO MOTORS

Hello;

I'm brand new to EMC, having purchsed a Cadillac NC100 lathe partway thru rebiling using this system.

The machine has DC servo motors with 3 channel encoders (A/B/Index - 1054 counts/rev). I have the 5i20 hooked up to a 7i29 to run the servos, and a 7i37TA for the in/out puts for limit switches/etc. I have just completed terminating everything and am trying to get some movement out of the servos. I figured out the MESA setup screen finally and believe I have everything together properly.

EMC is loaded and appears to be running fine, but I appear to be having trouble getting it linked into the MESA cards. Upon computer startup, the 5I20 board has red indicator lights running, but as soon as run EMC, or try to enable the axis for testing on the PnCConf, they shut off.

I am wondering if there is some critical step on setting up the MESA boards, or some specific selection needs to be made/paramaters included in PnCConf in order to run these type of servo's. I am not very familiar with the terminology in the servo setup section on PnCConf - mostly the P/I/D area, the rest I can get. I tried the manual, but it only appears to describe the PnCConf program, not what the selections are doing/mean.

Appreciate any help!

Thanks.

Sounds right
The red lights indicate that the FPGA is _not_ configured. Since they have been extinguished, this indicates that the FPGA has been properly configured .
(EMC2 would not run if it did not detect that the proper configuration had been loaded)

What version of EMC are you using?
Can you do an open loop test in pncconf and check that there is output from the 7i29.
you could also confirm the encoder counts from that test too.

Yes the manual is incomplete and a little out of date.
Did you find the help button on pncconf . It gives some information about the screens.
If you could list what info that would help a first timer user I can add info for the future.

I have EMC V 2.4.6 with Ubuntu V 10.04 LTS.

I did try the open loop test in pncconf and got no output to the motors - no movement. I'll try spinning an axis manually and see if I can get any counts on the encoder.

I did try the help button, which was nice - it does tell you what the area is, but not what it means - as in how to deal with it, or reference where to find the details. That alone would be very helpful.

I am not sure if this has anything to do with it but I am also getting a RTAPI error when I start EMC - 'unexpected realtime delay on task 1' In reserching this some more, I re-checked latency and it appears to be really high whenever accessing the hard drive - in the 2,000,000 uS. From what I have found so far, this should not completely stop me from getting motion out of the axis, though, unless you all know otherwise!

Any suggestions on dealing with the latency would also be helpful! It's a brand-new setup, running an Asus motherboard.

Thanks so far!

Have you looked here?

wiki.linuxcnc.org/emcinfo.pl?TroubleShooting

Rick G

Do you have a multimeter to check the output of the 7i29? Even an led and a resister could give you some idea if it is working.
Does your motor require an enable ?
Are you sure you have the 7i29 plugged into the right plug of the 5i20?
The realtime delay wouldn't stop the open loop test from working, but that will need to be resolved before the system is usable I think.

Not sure if pncconf turns on the motor enables, this is necessary for motor drive.
If enabled you should see the indicator LEDS for DIR and PWM change (with default jumpering)
Also the green LED near the motor power connector should be on

To be safe when first testing this you can run motor power from 12V or so

pncconf will turn on any designated amp enable or charge pump signals in the Mesa or parport page
I should add this to the help screen....

Thanks everyone for helping - still no response from the boards.

I put my multimeter on the outputs and tried running again in the open loop test in pncconf, but absolutly no voltage coming out. I also verfied that the 30A fuse was not blown (it beeped continuity).

I jumpered some power directly to the motor leads, and both axis ran, so I know it is not a power in/out issue.

I also tried turning the axis by hand during the open loop test, but nothing showed up on the halscope encoder counts/etc. (no changes).

It totoally acts like the 7i29 board is not there. I do beleive the 5i20 is configuring at least somewhat right, becuase when I run EMC, I do get estop enable/disable signal to show up, which is coming from the 7i37 board.

I am wondering if maybe he 7i29 board itself is faulty - is there any way to test for this?

I am getting what appears to me odd signals on the pncconf startup, here is what I am getting for my pncconf session:
(the concerning part is the warnings and the 'not found' on the pwm generator- is this normal?)

benderservices@Lathe1:~$ pncconf
/usr/bin/pncconf:30: DeprecationWarning: the md5 module is deprecated; use hashlib instead
import md5
/usr/bin/pncconf:2654: Warning: g_path_get_dirname: assertion `file_name != NULL' failed
self.xml = gtk.glade.xml_new_from_buffer(doc, len(doc), domain="axis")
/usr/bin/pncconf:2654: GtkWarning: gdk_pixbuf_new_from_file: assertion `filename != NULL' failed
self.xml = gtk.glade.xml_new_from_buffer(doc, len(doc), domain="axis")
/usr/bin/pncconf:2654: Warning: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
self.xml = gtk.glade.xml_new_from_buffer(doc, len(doc), domain="axis")
/usr/bin/pncconf:2654: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
self.xml = gtk.glade.xml_new_from_buffer(doc, len(doc), domain="axis")
/usr/bin/pncconf:3361: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
self.widgets["mesa%d_numof_encodergens"%boardnum].set_range(0,d[_MAXENC])
/usr/bin/pncconf:3363: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
self.widgets["mesa%d_numof_pwmgens"% boardnum].set_range(0,d[_MAXPWM])
/usr/bin/pncconf:3365: GtkWarning: GtkSpinButton: setting an adjustment with non-zero page size is deprecated
self.widgets["mesa%d_numof_stepgens"% boardnum].set_range(0,d[_MAXSTEP])
<stdin>:5: parameter or pin 'hm2_5i20.0.pwmgen.pwm_frequency' not found
switch PWM mesa0c2pin6 to PDM
switch PWM mesa0c2pin7 to PDM
<stdin>:5: parameter or pin 'hm2_5i20.0.pwmgen.pwm_frequency' not found
switch PDM mesa0c2pin6 to PWM
switch PDM mesa0c2pin7 to PWM
<stdin>:5: parameter or pin 'hm2_5i20.0.pwmgen.pwm_frequency' not found
z stepgen-- false
z encoder-- mesa0c2pin3
z pwgen-- mesa0c2pin7
1
0
looking at available axis : x
looking at available axis : z
looking at available axis : s

is the green LED near the motor power connector on?
Also can you just try the standard hm2-servo demo?
Is the 7I29 connected to the 5I20s P2? (it should be)