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Yes, I understand that, but I still need some hardware that can do the following:
1. Interface with other peripherals such as relays, emergency stop button, endstops (unless I use sensorless homing), VFD
2. Have ethernet
3. Host a raspberry pi
4. Ideally offer photocouplers for some inputs

So I guess at the very least, I'd need some kind of a breakout board for Raspberry Pi that is known to also work with Linux CNC. Does it make sense? I'm really lost in this whole topic. Ideally it would be something proven that people have already tested in a similar configuration that I require. I just know that if you have something like Sinumerik controller or even Acorn Hicory, it's kinda what I wrote above, minus the Raspberry Pi and I thought I will need something similar to run LinuxCNC on and have the IO exposed.

Lately I started looking with great curiosity into LinuxCNC, because it seems to be one of the nicest and most affordable options to get EtherCAT and recently even s-curve acceleration control! In other words, as far as I know, it's the only solution on the market that offers such badass features as well as full configurability at a fraction of the price of other devices.
My current experience is with Mach 3 and UCCNC, but in both cases I was dissatisfied with motion planning where the machine would stutter a lot with complex toolpaths or with larger error allowance, it would run smoothly but it would mess with the surface finish.

My biggest hurdle right now is finding the right hardware. I saw countless solutions and configurations to get this done and I'm looking for something well proven that's not too hard to set up and doesn't look like spaghetti.
I was looking into Mesa boards, but even that got me a bit confused and I don't know what I should get. What's important for me is that the board offers screw terminals for interfacing with endstops and VFD and ideally it has its own computer - i.e. Raspberry Pi.
Could I ask someone for some recommendations? 

Hello everyone,

I'm a noob when it comes to Linux CNC. I currently have some Leadshine L8 servo drives (identical to EL8?) and I am trying to set up Linux CNC. I am using a raspberry pi 5 and installed the "LinuxCNC 2.9.4 Raspberry Pi 5 OS based on Debian Bookworm Raspberry Pi 5 Uspace" iso

So far, i have :
-Followed Rodw's post on installing Linux CNC from repositories
-Copied the Github repository by Marco Reps
-Compiled cia402.comp, el8_homecomp.comp, and always_homed.comp

Now i need to configure the hal, ini, and ethercat-conf.xml files and the files from Marco Reps repo looks overwehlmingly complex.

Could anyone help me figure out what are the basics needed to launch Linux CNC and understanding more what the content of those files mean and what do I need to modify.

Here's the Mesa interface snippet from /etc/network/interfaces, note no DNS nor Gateway as mentioned previously.
Sorry for the delay in answering.

RPI5 with a 7i96, and after some time I get a solid red INIT light on the mesa card, and obviously at that point have to reset the card to continue.

If the init light turns on when LinuxCNC is running, (with any Mesa Ethernet FPGA card)
it means you have a watchdog fault, likely because communications have been lost
for longer than the watchdog timeout setting. This is likely due to a network latency issue.
No reset is needed, though LinuxCNC will have to be restarted.

There was a user having an issue with gmoccapy locking up, but this issue was related to zram, which was discussed earlier in this thread.
I've had my RPi 5 sitting there with Axis open connected to a "cobbled together" 7i92 and after a week and a half have only dropped one packet.
When I get a chance I'll look into the ethernet setup. For some basic advice, do not have a gateway nor DNS server entry for the NIC that the mesa card is connected to, it generates unwanted traffic on that interface.
TBH I'm not up on the meaning of the LEDs on the card you are using.
It maybe worth checking the manual and searching the forum for that answer.

Good day,
Adding a voice here as I think I saw another user having this issue: RPI5 with a 7i96, and after some time I get a solid red INIT light on the mesa card, and obviously at that point have to reset the card to continue. I cant make heads or tails of this just yet, but it might be related to idle. It may be specific to the 7i96 given the other poster also commented on that. I have 7i76EU on its way so will be able to test this and post back whether I experience anything similar. Currently the Mesa is on a 5v3A wall plug, and the RPI5 uses a somewhat official USBC RPI wall plug.

I need hardware suggestions.  There seems to be a gap in my knowledge, and in my research.

I just got a new CNC router, and it came with a Grbl-based controller.  I always used LinuxCNC in the past on my DIY machine, and I can already tell that I'll probably be happier if I switch to LinuxCNC on the new one.

The most recent incarnation of the old machine was driven by a Raspberry Pi and a Mesa ethernet card.  The Mesa was connected almost directly to the limit and estop switches, and the step/dir lines went to a quad stepper driver board I got from Sparkfun a long long time ago.  The wiring was a horrible rat's nest of jumpers running between pin connectors glued upside down to a plank.  (I'm not exaggerating.) And I don't want to use the Sparkfun board again, for various reasons.

At some point I'm going to want to use the Mesa card with the new machine.  But what I'm picturing, that I don't have, is the "interface" board.  It needs to take 24V power, and have 3 or 4 of those little 16 bit stepper driver modules.  And it needs to have a bunch of screw terminal strips, set up to logically simplify the 6 or 7 pairs going to switches, the 3 or 4 connections to the motors, and all of the interconnect to the Mesa.  Basically what I want is an XYZ CNC router breakout board, with drivers.

But all I can find is complete controllers:  all of what I described, hardwired to an ATMega328, or ESP32.  Or, all of what I described, in the form of an Arduino hat.  Better, but still not very Mesa-friendly.

Can anyone point to the product I'm looking for?  Or tell me (nicely what I should be looking for instead?
 

Well, that thread helped me before but i somehow did not notice the "Basic Mill Config Using hal_gpio" ...would have saved me a lot of time... anyways - works fine now - Thank you!

forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...only?start=10#321296

WTF would you use AI ?????????


BTW Just about everything to do with the Rpi5\4 images is in the thread linked above, rather than waste time with AI read something, a lot of work has and is going into that thread.

Hi, i have a similar problem with my RPi5 and GPIO but I think I/(the AI that helped me) screwed up with the .hal-File. Do you (or anyone) mind to put your working .hal here so I can see how it is done?

Hi folks,

The time has come!

I've owned a Bridgeport VMC760 for the last 4 years. It's been used in my prototyping/fabrication shop here in Australia. The Heidenhain 370 control and Siemens drives have served me well in this time, up until yesterday, when one of the servo drives went bang.

While I'm looking into replacing this drive, I'm also entertaining a retrofit. The machine is a 97' and I fear that I'll be tipping further money into the those drives at some stage. I've never tackled a retrofit of this level, but I've had experience building CNC machines in the past with my business. A couple of one-off 3/4 axis machines for client's specific manufacturing and a home-brew 'Datron' like router we used heavily before the VMC (and still use for high speed spindle applications).

Ideally the retrofit would look something like this:

New axis servos and drives (Interested in Leadshine's newer offerings, but I've had good experiences with DMM, Delta's and Clearpath in the past)
New spindle motor and drive (I've been looking at SVC VFD and encoders to handle orientation, rigid taping etc)

Preference to Ethercat communication for flexibility and wiring
Linux control with a touch screen and a few machine specific buttons up front
Full closed loop control on all axis
Very interested in running this from a Pi5 

Ideally retain the original auxiliary control boards (the boards running the contactors for lube, coolant, tool change etc)
These boards look like the take simple logic signals from the Heidenhain.
Retain full operation of the carousel tool changer. Fairly typical Geneva drive style of the time with AC motors and inductive sensors.

The major gaps in my knowledge (I'm sure there are plenty to be honest) are regarding the following points:

I've never worked with Ethercat, but flexibility and lack of wiring are intriguing. Can an Ethercat system run full closed loop control?

Spindle sytem. Originally this machine had 9kw of continuous (11kw peak) power and 76Nm of torque (93Nm peak), 6000rpm max. I'd like to keep such performance. Is a large SVC VFD AC setup with linux/software based spindle synchronisation the right avenue?

Running LinuxCNC on a raspberry Pi. I've only every run it on old scrap PC's with parallel ports back in the hobby days. Latency was always an issue!

I understand most people would suggest binning the machine or just fixing what's there. CNC machines, even on the secondhand market are not as plentiful or cheap here in Australia. It's a decent sized machine that's produced some great work for us in the past and most importantly, it's already in our workshop!

I'll post some pictures when I'm in the workshop later today.

Any input on these topics is very welcomed and appreciated!!

Thanks,

John
 

Hi All
Please can someone suggest next steps to try to get this to work.
I am a novice at this, so it must be something obvious, it’s just not obvious to me

Please see hal, ini, io attached.
I have a gantry X Y Y Z (two y motors)
I am using a Mesa 7i92TM connected from P1 to a Mesa 7i76U.
I have tried latest linuxcnc images on both Raspberry pi4 and on Intel NUC, and get the same outcome.
I used current version of mesact

The Linuxcnc dro counts on the screen, but the actual motors don’t move.
It looks like It counts in all axis until the software limits are reached, then errors.
When switched off, you can move gantry by hand in any direction.
When switched on, the gantry is rigid.
Stepper drivers are all DM556T.
Green led shows on all four of the stepper drivers (no red led on any of them)
I have wired from 7i76u to stepper drivers in differential mode, and in single ended mode with common ground, it made no difference, no axis moved.
The watchdog led in middle of Mesa 7i76U is green, and flashes approximately every second.
I have four inputs. Limit switches on the x and z axis, and proximity sensors on both ends of y axis.
In halshow, all four inputs are yellow, and go red if you trigger any of them.
Please can you suggest where to look next, or what config changes to try.
Many thanks

ErwinCNC wrote:

Hello
I put my pi 5 into operation yesterday.
Unfortunately I get the locale error with Pconf

I tried to use the same settings as you.
My keyboard is german

Do you have an idea?
 

I *think* you have to set the localle etc from menu-config - mine was not set for me.