Lathe Spindle Control Help Needed in PNCCONF

Hi Andy,

I've been reading about the mux4 tool, and have decided to practice with that instead of going right to the mux_generic suggestion that you gave in order to ease the learning curve. I made the changes that you suggested to my custom postgui hal, but I'm getting the following error message (in part):

Debug file information:
Can not find -sec MOT -var MOT -num 1
Can not find -sec IO -var IO -num 1
Can not find -sec LINUXCNC -var NML_FILE -num 1
Can not find -sec EMC -var NML_FILE -num 1
custom_postgui.hal:23: Pin 'hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax' does not exist
24029
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
24110
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components

Here's what I have added to the custom_postgui hal file:

loadrt mux4 count=1
addf mux4.0 servo-thread


#*****************
#Start mux testing
setp mux4.0.in0 0
setp mux4.0.in1 660
setp mux4.0.in2 1330
setp mux4.0.in3 2660 #One meeeelion rpm!
net spindle-max mux4.0.out

net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax
net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-minlim
net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-maxlim

I haven't changed the main HAL file or the INI file at all.

Also, you'll notice that I haven't netted the 2 "sel" pins to the switch inputs yet.
Am I forgetting something, or doing it wrong?

Mr. Technical

hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax [SPINDLE_9] OUTPUT_SCALE
is correct if it helps

Thanks for the help guys. Still no go.

Here's where I'm at:

I copied and pasted the following from my main hal file to the custom_postgui hal file:

hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_SCALE
hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-minlim [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_MIN_LIMIT
hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-maxlim [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_MAX_LIMIT

Then I added this prefix to each line: net spindle-max

Now the
custom_postgui hal file says this:
net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_SCALE
net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-minlim [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_MIN_LIMIT
net spindle-max hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-maxlim [SPINDLE_9]OUTPUT_MAX_LIMIT

When I run linuxcnc it get the following debug message:
Debug file information:
Can not find -sec MOT -var MOT -num 1
Can not find -sec IO -var IO -num 1
Can not find -sec LINUXCNC -var NML_FILE -num 1
Can not find -sec EMC -var NML_FILE -num 1
custom_postgui.hal:24: Pin 'hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5-scalemax' does not exist
9318
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
9374
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components

If I comment out those 3 lines and show hal config, I can confirm that there is a pin called "hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5" which has the signal "spindle-vel-cmd" netted to it. I don't see the scalemax suffix on this pin here nor anywhere else.

I ran show pin from both the main hal file and the custom_postgui one, then started linuxcnc using the icon, and copied out the pin list from each error message. (Hopefully that gives a full picture). The pin lists both show this line:
12 float IN 0 hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.1.analogout5 <== spindle-vel-cmd

Any ideas?

Mr. Technical

I guess I'm rustier than I thought after months away from this. I made the changes that you suggested, but get the following message:

Debug file information:
Can not find -sec MOT -var MOT -num 1
Can not find -sec IO -var IO -num 1
Can not find -sec LINUXCNC -var NML_FILE -num 1
Can not find -sec EMC -var NML_FILE -num 1
custom_postgui.hal:24: setp requires 2 arguments, 3 given
15714
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
15770
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components

I'm posting the 3 files that could be related to this error; my ini, hal, and custom postgui hal. It would probably save you time to see the whole picture instead of just seeing the parts that I think are relevant. I'm just trying to get it to load so that I can learn about the mux tool and get my gear change working. Thanks a lot for breaking it down for me.

Mr. Technical

Ok, that makes sense. I already have a scale loaded from the main hal ("loadrt scale names=scale.spindle" and then "addf scale.spindle servo-thread" ).
I'm having issues with syntax (I think) adding another iteration of scale. Can you show me the exact text that I need to enter to get the scale.gears function loaded together with that? At this point, it's all starting to run together and drip out my ears.

Mr. Technical
BTW, high gear is 2660 spindle RPM max speed, mid gear is 1330RPM max speed, and low gear is 660rpm max speed.
High gear has a min speed of 1330, mid gear has a min speed of 660, and low gear has a min speed of say 50 rpm.