Spindle control not showing in Axis window...

Thanks you @tommylight - I was somewhat fearful that my response was offensive and it was by no means intended to be. @PCW pointed me to the HAL documentation (I didn't discover that part of the documentation myself because I was 'spindle' focused and not 'general hardware') which was still 'over my head' because (I think) it is written from an integrator's context/viewpoint.

EDIT:
Opened and browsed the 'Integrator Manual' you referenced. It's 342 pages in length... I think that competes with 'War and Peace' for 'longest book'. BUT! definitely where I should have been focused. That document will be on my desktop and as I have time - I will be reading it.

Thank you everyone for your hints and help - my 'voyage of discovery' has exited the rough waters of the storm (my system is yet again working) and I will be gracefully sailing smooth waters as I figure out how to implement 'auto-zero' for Z (not sure that's the correct term) and maybe even some custom G-code sequences for startup and shutdown.

Arden

Just a heads up. Tommy's link is to Linuxcnc v 2.6 and our release version is now 2.9 so it will be obsolete in places.
The PDF files are available from the Documention page but are just a copy of the content in the HTML version which I tend to use in preference,
But none the less I too was gobsmacked when starting off to find the documentation runs to 1347 pages!
2.9 version: linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/pdf/LinuxCNC_Documentation.pdf
 

andypugh wrote:

And it's true, I think. For example we really could so with a section on toolchangers. 

And Ethercat now it can be installed without breaching licenses
And how to optimise later distributions

Back to the 'knowledge well'... sigh.

What I CAN do:
I have my motion control working (I can job X, Y and Z in the correct directions - or at least in the directions I want them to move when pushing the +/- buttons).
     - I had to 'reverse' the homing direction of my X and Y axes in the INI file, changing the lines:
       HOME_SEARCH_VEL = -0.050000  ; changed 0.050000 to -0.050000
I have my spindle control working - I can turn the spindle on and off from the Axis UI
I have my home/limit switches working - I can 'home' my X & Y (I don't have Z-axis home/limit switches)
     - the 'home' symbol shows in the DRO section of the Axis UI

What I CANNOT do:
1) I cannot 'touch-off' any of my axes. I homed all axes, jog my router off of the Home position, click the 'Touch Off' button and leave the defaults as presented, click the 'OK' button and immediately get an error stating "Can't issue MDI command when not homed. This of course also translates to my MDI (F5) screen when I attempt to move the router around using the G0 command
     - I am somehow way out of 'scale' with motion - I was planning on using the MDI interface to specify G-Code moves and measure results. Of course I immediately got the "Can't issue MDI..." error so I returned to the 'Manual' tab to ensure I was homed... which I was.
     - At this point, 'eyeballing' alignment with marks on the wasteboard, a 5" move shows as ~1.25" on the DRO in the X dimension. I'm guessing Y will be the same - but Z will be different because it uses a different Acme threaded rod.

I did try to find a solution in the 1347 pages of the manual... but that document is just absolutely overwhelming. In fact - I tried going through it again, one more time before I pushed 'submit' on this post (I DID realize that at least part of my motion scaling issue is my INI configuration). I even read the 'history' this time and realized that LinuxCNC emerged from a NIST project that was based on Windows NT... if ONLY the guys that were first involved would have stayed there (insert joking face emoji here).

If you want me to repost this as a new thread with a new title - I am happy to do it.

First - I have NO idea what I did to fix it... but it is working now. I feel like I 'proved' the Infinite Monkey theorem ...(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem)

That said, when it WASN'T (or being pessimistic about the the future - when it DOESN'T) working, the target you refer to, was appearing but the DRO was not zeroing.

I'm going to do a text comparison of the now working INI and HAL files with the almost working INI and HAL. The almost working files allow me to start the router, move it around and homes without error... except it does not zero the DROs.

Arden