Having trouble starting linux cnc following config

Hello Everyone,

I'm having a bit of trouble gelting linuxcnc to run following installation and configuring my mill.

The tests of each axis during setup work fine but when I try to use the config using linuxcnc it gets past the splash screen and then crashes out. It spits out the error report below.

Can you please have a look and give me a little guidance on how to move forward.

Regards,

Nick


Debug file information:
sim_hardware.hal:32: parameter or pin 'parport.0.pin-02-out-invert-fake' not found
6203
PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components

How did you generate your HAL file?

Are you trying to run a real machine or just run a simulation?

Thank you for tidying my post BigJohnT.

PCW,
Thanks for lookin at my issue. The code was generated by Linuxcnc as it exited and was presented as a dialog box. I am trying to run my real 2.5 axis mill steppers via the parallel port. The hardware works fine under Mach 3 and during the testing of the linuxcnc parallel setup utility but Linux cnc itself spits out that error when I try to use the config generated by that same utility. ( with my drivers and motors powered on or off). Interestingly I can open some of the sample config files and linuxcnc does not crash.

I'm new to Linux and to Linux cnc as well as cnc in general except for a course done for fun in the late 90s while I was studying engineering, so I'm struggling a bit.

On the up side Debian seems pretty nice and doesn't have the display issues that Ubuntu did when I previously tried it. ( it didn't like my nvidia graphics card much). The dual boot setup from the linuxcnc 2.7 Iso seems to work well.

Regards,

Nick

Actually linuxcnc did not crash, it simply exited because the hal file you are attempting to load has a syntax error:

sim_hardware.hal:32: parameter or pin 'parport.0.pin-02-out-invert-fake' not found

Which looks like you are trying to run a sim config, not a real machine config

Is it possible you checked the "Create simulated hardware configuration" option in Stepconf?

( you don't want to do that for real hardware )

post your complete config archive as a tar.gz , and i'll check it out for you
but as PCW says you seem to be mixing sim & real configs

if lcnc blacks out ! , look at dmesg in a terminal or have a terminal also open , any errors will show up including the line number and file name
of the error , most times it's a typo or syntax of the command at fault

Thankyou PCW and cnc basher.

I had indeed checked the box for simulated hardware... Don't know why though! It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

Anyway I unchecked it, resaved the config and all is well now. I can happily drive my axes around using lcnc.

Thank you both for your time and thought.

I'm off to learn some more.

Regards,

Nick

I didn't even get as far as Nickle. My stepconf conversion from Mach3 to linixcnc went OK and my desktop cnc router/mill/engraver responded correctly to the X,Y,Z axis tests. The stepconf procedure also created .hal and .ini files and put shortcuts onto my desktop.
So I opened linuxcnc from my Stepconf-created shortcut - this produced the expected linuxcnc GUI. So thought I would try one of the provided .ngc example files from ~/linuxcnc/nc-files/examples/ - loaded arcspiral.ngc as a relatively easy example.
But the "Execution current File" menu button is "greyed-out" and therefore, for some reason, not operational. Also the Manual Control (F3) pane on the left has all options greyed out.
Read through the "5. Running LinuxCNC" notes from the "Getting Started with LinuxCNC" documentation. I seemed to be doing the right thing. As an alternative, I invoked LinuxCNC directly from my config file in ~/linuxcnc/configs directory rather than from desktop shortcut - same outcome - greyed out operational buttons.

Went through the whole Stepconf procedure again and created new and differently named .hal and .inin files. Tried running these from both the created shortcut and direct from the directory files - with exactly the same result - greyed out execution buttons.

What am I doing wrong?

Did you take the machine out of ESTOP and set MACHINE-ON?

The top leftmost button (RED X) on axis toggles ESTOP
The next to leftmost button ( ORANGE I power symbol ) on axis toggles MACHINE-ON

Linuxcnc/axis will not do much unless ESTOP is inactive (button not depressed)
and MACHINE-ON active ( button depressed)

Thanks for the pointers - PCW. The conversion from Mach3 to linuxcnc did not fully transform all the parameters - velocities etc were different from the Mach3 config (mainly to do with mm/min ans mm/sec but the "steps per" were half of that expected value - but more of that later.
One thing the conversion didn't do was map the Estop config from Pin 10 (Mach3) to the corresponding linuxcnc Pin 10 - so I had to set that myself. That was OK but there was the problem of ticking or not ticking the invert box. On my first attempt I didn't tick the box - and that config didn't work. On my 2nd attempt I did and that worked. But the Machine On button is only available when my machine control box "On" switch is Off - evidently some cnc machines you can control the power from within linuxcnc - so either:
1) this option is not available with my 3020T machine.
2) The Mach3 - linuxcnc conversion did not translate this function across and so it was not set in the parport config - and so I don't know which parport pin to set anyway.

Anyway - I managed to get the machine to do the 6 hexagonal drilled holes from within the examples folder - but the holes are not at 76.2mm spacing - but at 38.1mm (i.e. half scale). What parameter would control this? - is it the "steps per" which was set as 400 in Mach3 but which was translated into 200 in linuxcnc (A value that I changed to 400 to conform with the Mach3 value).
So I'm nearly there:
Is there a way to view the Stepconf final config file in its original GUI form - I've found that you can view it as the .hal file but the information is presented differently i.e. you don't know whether the invert tick box has been ticked from the .hal file - or do you?