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thanks for your help. i have now comment one more line to use the io tool-prepared.

when i now push the button after M6 Tx it justfires a small pulse to the atc_zylinder and then it shows the correct toolnumber in linuxcnc.


BUT the small pulse is to short to insert the tool / unclamp. I think that pushing the button fires the tool changed and then tool-change is not active anymore.

Maybe a way could be to watch the button rising and falling edge??
or could it makes more sense to tr the hal component "manualtoolchange" out?

Hi all, its been awhile sorry, not had much time for anything of late and I've just been quietly using my linuxcnc converted bridgeport, but it seems I finally will get to play again.
I decided I have need for a cnc plasma table, so I started to put together a list and get parts.
So far I have:
Usual old PC for control,
Mesa 7i76e for control,
Mesa THC-5,
3x 3Nm closed loop steppers with drivers + psu's, the closed loop function is handled inside the stepper driver so they look like normal open loop steppers to the mesa, I hope they dont get affected by interference...
A 200mm travel z axis
Various limit switches
4 HGR20 rails with trucks and ball screws for x & y
P80 plasma torch suitable for z axis mounting
 

For a table, I have a used very old JCB backhoe chassis that had become damaged in a roll over incident and had to be cut up
I rotated the backhoe chassis and started to cut off extra bits, and put it on heavy casters to roll about already, and am in the process of cleaning it up to mount the rails directly onto it via tapped holes then I'll shim the rail->chassis where needed. 
A chassis for a digger weighing 8t is going to be plenty rigid & I can move it round with the fork truck if needed without worrying about it distorting. I'll mount the control electronics inside the section of the frame at the front that used to form the machine's diesel tank, so it will be good for sheilding + heat dissapation.
 
I'm posting this because I'm a bit hazy on the details how to connect a THC to the plasma unit.
I have a mesa THC-5 ordered, but I'd like to use my Stahlwerk Cut60 because its 380v tri-phase and I have a amp limit to run the table + compressor.  Someone from Stahlwerk told me when I enquired that it was scratch start and I'd need to buy a later model to get HF start, but if you hold the tip near the work you can see a small spark jump before it establishes the plasma and it doesnt need to touch to establish so perhaps something was lost in translation.
I read that the stahlwerk plasma cutters need modification to get some of the signals out for cnc use, my search is failing me for finding more info on what's specifically needed to be done inside this plasma cutter itself, any links?

Also I have only one ballscrew for the table long axis (2m), is moving the gantry axis from one side only going to be ok? I'm a little worried that rapid moves will cause it to go out of square. I dont mind slowing it down a little if that can help eliminate this, I dont care if I have to wait a bit longer for parts.

Looking forward to finally making progress on making something again, and your comments.
 

Now I have wired the button to an Input Pin and the ATC-Valve to an Output.
So I did the configuration now like this in .hal (atc_button is and2 instance):

when I now type "M6 T5" as MDI I can push my button and the ATC valve is acting.
BUT after changing the tool by hand Linuxcnc (gmocapy) still says T1 is inserted.
How is the procedure here to commit the change?

Are the nets  "tool-change-confirmed" and "tool-number " needed somewhere? Or are they just in as a standard for user adjustment / routing?!

By the way: "I have no idea how it´s done usually - cnc newbie"

I've gone through this thread and used the script, made the obvious mistakes of not having irqbalancer installed and having the wrong ip (10.10.10.1 instead of 10.10.10.11) in the script.  I've fixed all that, but I am still having a near immediate error when I start of Unexpected realtime delay on task 0 with period 1000000 followed by a hm2/hm2_7i76e.0: Smart Serial Port 0: Doit not cleared from previous servo thread....

I can move the machine around and run the spindle (modbus issues resolved with group admission change), but after a short while I get an error finishing read and the machine goes in to fault.

The hardware was all working with 2.8, so I don't think there is something that has died as it will all still work in 2.8, it's just this realtime delay issue.  I hate to bug anyone with this as I feel like I just haven't done enough due diligence, but this thread seems to be hitting all the high spots related to latency and I have not managed to resolve it.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Sam

That did the trick Thank-you!

I have a CL57T closed loop stepper driver with alarm output. I have the alarm wired to input 4 and 5 on my 7i96s and it works fine.

Lines 257-267 in HAL:
#  ---estop signals---

net estop-ext     =>  iocontrol.0.emc-enable-in
net estop-out => hm2_7i96s.0.gpio.045.in_not

# --- drive ALM ---
net x-fault => joint.0.amp-fault-in <= hm2_7i96s.0.inm.00.input-05
net z-fault => joint.1.amp-fault-in <= hm2_7i96s.0.inm.00.input-04

net x-fault => joint.0.amp-fault-in halui.joint.0.unhome
net z-fault => joint.1.amp-fault-in halui.joint.1.unhome



My issue is resetting the alarm after it triggers. At the moment, I need to close Lcnc and reopen it to get it to send a new "net x-enable     <= joint.0.amp-enable-out" signal. I attempted to follow This Post but couldn't get it to work. Could I get some direction with this?

polskleforgeron wrote:

 I only have one question though. With the Stahlwerk's HF starts, could it fry the THCAD ? It didn't seem to affect much my multimeter when I tried it.

Also, is there a way to upload directly a video on the forum ? I'd like to show you the machine !

 

The THCAD can handle 500 volt overvoltage which is higher than your plasma cutter will generate so you won't damage it unless you connect >5v to the encoder side (Ask me how I know, 24v is enough to kill the encoder input, but I could use another encoder input on my 7i76e from the plasma firmware)

Upload your video to Youtube and link to it

Yeah, you could be right, that the problem is outside LinuxCNC.
My though was it´s linuxCNC (config) because of I copied the Z Axis by hand in the Ini-File (X and Y which are working are created in PNC-Conf) AND moving the Z Axis DOWN there seems to be no difference in way of moving.

I also have on X, Y and Z the same Servo Drive (Kollmorgen S346 with Firmware 3.89). Maybe the drives have different Hardware configuration - I will recheck. Motors are slightly different on X/Y and Z. Motors have Multiturn-Encoders connected to the Drive and they are in closed loop (drive and motor). So if something should be wrong it only can only be the step / dir signal between Mesa 7i76e and Servo Drive.

Servo Drive is rated at 1,5 MHz frequence for the step / dir interface. Cable is 30 cm.
I will recalc everything and give it a try on the weekend to change the timing for test, even if this timing is working fine on X and Y Axis...

I also noticed the resistor in the rs485 line - at the moment I havn´t insert this end-resistor. Could be an issue too.

Ich habe meinen Rechner von Debian10  Linuxcnc 2.8.2 auf Debian 12 Linuxcncn 2.9.2 upgedatet..  Mein Rechner ist 4 Jahre alt, verwendete Mesakarte 7I76E
seither kommen immer wieder sporadische fehler wie, z.b. motor Positionsfehler, manchmal sofort bei start, manchmal erst nach 15min laufzeit bei Fräsen, manchmal kommt die Fehlermeldung  RS485 Fehler  und noch weitere.
Dann habe ich das Problem das Erweiterung die in Phyton 2.7 geschrieben waren nicht mehr funktionieren. habe diese auch schon als leihe versucht  auf Phython 3 mit einem Programm  zu modivizieren, dann lies sich linuxcnc wieder starten doch bei der Ausführung des Macros kammen doch fehlermeldungen das er irgenwelche links nicht findet.

Noch ein weiteres Problem das meine im G code geschriebenen Unterprogramme nicht mehr laufen.  Hier kommt dann die Fehlermeldung dass er das O wort nicht findet,  habe das mehrmals jetzt geprüft und müsste passen (hatte ja hier uach nichts verändert).

Die Frage nun, hat hier jemand ähnliche Erfahrungen gemacht, bzw. hat mein PC ein Problem, vorher lief alles super..
Kann mir hier jemand weiterhelfen, das wäre super.

 

Ok yea awesome then I think I should get a mesa board too then. Should I get the mesa 7i76ed or the mesa 7i76e or does it matter? It would be nice to ditch the parallel port and run ethernet. The machine is pretty old but it had never been used till I got it. I’m going to school for advanced manufacturing and I think this stuff is fun, so had to buy one. That and it was a good deal, I think. Also is running a Mesa going to make it any easier to configure an Allen Bradley ULTRA 3000? I’d think the other original motor drives in the cabinet would still be perfectly good too since they are S&D controlled. Also, I went and downloaded both the user manual for an Ultra 3000 and the Ultraware configuration program. It looks way better than what came with my pos spindle machine information wise. But I think I could figure it out and the cables shouldn't be that much trouble from the looks of it. Might need some special connectors and maybe a crimp tool but I’m up to the challenge. Ill keep you posted on its progress in between shipments of the stuff. You are creditable for all I've learned so far on this stuff, thanks man… Oh, but one other last question before I go and kill my wallet. Does it matter which CUI encoder I'm going to want to run just as long as it fits the 8mm shaft and has the correct bolt spacing? Dose it specifically have to be the AMT31 Series to communicate with the Ultra 3000 driver? I looked at the pinouts between the driver and the different encoders and they all kind of looked the same except some had 4 pins and others had up to 17 pins. Anyways I’m going start with buying the Mesa board and the Ultra 3000 then the encoder last. Let me know if I'm being an idiot lol, thanks

das habe ich gesehn. aber dann müsste ich wieder verkabelung und konfiguration ändern... das wollte ich eigentlich nicht. von daher suche ich ausschließlich eine 7i76E

Es gibt keine im Deutchland
www.welectron.com/navi.php?qs=7i76
oder im Portugal
eusurplus.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=7i76
Aber die 7i96S mit ein 7i84 ist die selbe wie 7i76E
www.welectron.com/Mesa-Electronics-7i96S...thernet-Controller_1
www.welectron.com/Mesa-Electronics-7i84D...ard-Sinking-Output_1
etwa 10 tage
oder
eusurplus.com/index.php?route=product/pr...t_id=159&search=7i96
eusurplus.com/index.php?route=product/pr...t_id=104&search=7i84
beide im stock

Hallo, ich bin auf der suche nach einer Mesa 7i76E vielleicht hat hier noch jemand eine zum verkaufen.

Meine ist leider kaputt gegangen, wird zwar repariert soweit möglich aber eine 2. auf Ersatz wäre nicht schlecht.

 

 
This video of mine will help.


Its for the 7i76e but its all similar.
 

This is why I moved away from the colorlight boards and used a FPGA dev card (only had to change the EEPROM out) to run Mesa firmware. It was far, far less hassle and if I used 7c81 or 7i90 firmware Linuxcnc has proven drivers that work, and the Mesa firmware is tried & proven. So far I have only used SPI & EPP interfaces but am looking at an Ethernet based on Mesa's hardware. Also it gives me the option of using Smart Serial interface cards or Mesa DB25 cards such as the 7i76 (not 7i76e). Also I can directly interface with common run of the mill parallel port break out boards.

In the past when using a Beagle Bone black I made some breakout cards the did the 3.3v to 5v translation. The only thing is the connector is not wired up as per std parallel port numbering, this had to do with the board that fitted to the Beagle Bone Black. Although it may give you an idea of how to use 74lvc245 & 74hc\ls540 in this application. These are very very basic but I used them for a good while.

github.com/ozzyrob/pp_bob_input
github.com/ozzyrob/pp_bob_output


I have nothing against these projects, they are awesome, but I decided to take a different path.