LinuxCNC 2.8 pre (latest), 7i96

tommylight wrote:

Easy, you connect the PWM pin from the Mesa board to the A1 pin on the VFD, the ground pin to the ground pin and the 10V output from the VFD is not connected anywhere.
Mesa boards ( 7i96 included ) can provide 5V from it's IO pins and the VFD's can work at full speed with 5V input. Where is the confusion ?

I hope you are being sarcastic.

As I wrote before not all users of LinuxCNC are programmers or are willing to learn the deeper details of LinuxCNC. LinuxCNC is mature enough now that people should be able to use it without studying loads of documents. Remarks as

"Easy, you connect the PWM pin from the Mesa board to the A1 pin on the VFD, the ground pin to the ground pin and the 10V output from the VFD is not connected anywhere. Mesa boards ( 7i96 included ) can provide 5V from it's IO pins and the VFD's can work at full speed with 5V input. "

do not make sense at all when you are frustrated and are having big troubles to make your investment (both financial and in time) in a cnc machine work.
I think it is time for an attitude adjustment for LinuxCNC. Now it seems like a select group is trying to keep LinuxCNC for themselves, while others are helping out on an ad-hoc basis. Fixing things as they arise is not the proper way to make a successful project.
LinuxCNC is a powerful tool, but it is just a tool. We need tools to get work done, we do not need tools that are a project on their own.

As an example of someone who does give great help and does not have any attitude at all I recommend watching Talla83's video's on YT, he knows his stuff and lets us look at the working product. www.youtube.com/user/talla83 We need more of that here at the community.

This is not a rant, I am just growing more and more tired of a community that really is not a community at all. It's more like a fan-boy gathering place where people worship their LinuxCNC gods.

With respect, you can't wire up your own machine without looking at the detail. Tommy's given you some good advice and I learnt something from it but you don't want to know. Forum members can't help you if you don't want our help. If you want a plug and play solution, buy a complete machine.

Usually the best thing to do when you are frustrated with a project is to step back do something else and come back to it the next day......A clear head helps.

And to be fair as a lot of open source projects, most people are involved on a voluntary basis.

I'd like to see examples of the Fan Boys and those that are trying to keep it to themselves. Or if that was just said out of frustration ignore this

AnnoyingMutt wrote:

Usually the best thing to do when you are frustrated with a project is to step back do something else and come back to it the next day......A clear head helps.

I know, and I did. For a couple of months even.

[quote="AnnoyingMutt" post=131135And to be fair as a lot of open source projects, most people are involved on a voluntary basis.[/quote]
I am not questioning that. Still grateful to be able to think that I can have a working cnc machine.

[quote="AnnoyingMutt" post=131135I'd like to see examples of the Fan Boys and those that are trying to keep it to themselves. Or if that was just said out of frustration ignore this [/quote]
Was more a feeling I got after asking for help the last couple of months. With 'keeping it to themselves' I meant that not all people are able to transfer knowledge at different levels and give up helping. So there is frustration on both sides.
And I will say it again, I am grateful for all the help I have been getting.

Maybe I am just wrong about LinuxCNC, and it is not what I want it to be. I want it to be a tool, just like I need a router bit I need LinuxCNC to make stuff.
It is nice to know how a router bit is fabricated and what it is made of. But is that really necessary knowledge to make something?

Not going to repeat myself, but there are some area's that can be improved on.

• Documentation, everything is there but when you do not know what you are looking for you will likely not find it.
• Examples, all the stuff out there is old. The 'nice' things are hidden in a pre-release version.

English is not my first language, so there might be some subtle nuances lost in the translation. I mean well.

rodw wrote:

With respect, you can't wire up your own machine without looking at the detail.

I never said I do not want to know about details. You are putting words in my mouth. I do not want to become an expert just to be able to get work done, subtle difference.
You helped me quite a bit when I was setting up my gantry with pre 2.8, you gave me enough information to get it working.

And be serious, this is not helping:

"Easy, you connect the PWM pin from the Mesa board to the A1 pin on the VFD, the ground pin to the ground pin and the 10V output from the VFD is not connected anywhere. Mesa boards ( 7i96 included ) can provide 5V from it's IO pins and the VFD's can work at full speed with 5V input. "

rodw wrote:

Tommy's given you some good advice and I learnt something from it but you don't want to know.

Again, where did you get that idea from?

rodw wrote:

Forum members can't help you if you don't want our help.

Wow, we must live in a parallel universe.

rodw wrote:

If you want a plug and play solution, buy a complete machine.

Again, never said that.

The thing, there are so many machine configurations, so many hardware configurations, so many options for drivers (stepper or servo) it's a bit hard to have a simple solution.

Like anything that has a lot power and flexibility it can have a steep learning curve. You gotta hang in there.

Language, especially subtleties of language, can make things harder than what they should be.

AnnoyingMutt wrote:

The thing, there are so many machine configurations, so many hardware configurations, so many options for drivers (stepper or servo) it's a bit hard to have a simple solution.

I know, but some basis is always handy to get started. There is for example a 7i96-2.8.zip file hidden on the mesa site that does help a lot getting things to work. But if it was not for one of the forum members I would never have know of that file. Maybe that is a Mesa thing, but it sure would be nice to see that file mentioned somewhere on the Wiki pages.
A lot of people learn best by example, changing a working setup is always easier then getting something working from scratch.
btw: isn't the reason pncconf and stepconf excist because of this whole many different and options thingy? If pncconf would support the 7i96 this whole discussion would not have been started (at least not by me).

AnnoyingMutt wrote:

Like anything that has a lot power and flexibility it can have a steep learning curve. You gotta hang in there.

I had my curve one and a half year ago. Got my gantry machine up and running with the help of a lot of people here at the forum. I switched over from Chinese parallel bob's to an 7i96 card and that is when the trouble started. Machine was working good, pwm, auto squaring, gmoccapy, auto tool setting, air and suction.

AnnoyingMutt wrote:

Language, especially subtleties of language, can make things harder than what they should be.

Thank you. Good to see that you understand.

its only a parameter settings
on the vfd
if it takes 0-5V
some dont like that