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1x Universal Stepper Controller
1x Universal PWM Controller
4x PWM Servo Amplifier
1x Spindle DAC
1x PCI-e card + cable
For specs visit: picosystems.store/shop/

 

Price: 350eur + shipping in EU (from Slovenia).
tomaz_ti1(at)hotmail.com

In my opinion it does not make the mesa cards obsolete. yes digital servos don't need the step/dir or analog interfaces of standard mesa cards. But that is not the point. In my opinion mesa cards are not used in professional of the shelf solutions anyway. So it is the hobby and semi professional market mesa is addressing.
When your controller of an old machine breaks do you replace everything? or do you replace the broken parts with new stuff. Here having the option to go with ethercad would be great.
When you build your own machine you most likely will only use a digital spindle servo and not one on all axes to keep the cost down.
When you want to add stuff for automation the ability to add steppers is huge due to the low cost. And everyone has them laying around who works with automation. I once hacked together a system which pneumatically unlocked a clamp and advanced a square profile for the next part with two rubber wheels and two steppers. Cheap and fast.

Right now my main motivation is linear encoders.

Hi,
I'm using linuxcnc since a while. I upgraded a few weeks ago: Now I'm using a Rpi and a MESA 7C81. I'm having 3 axis and a fixed vertical spindle motor and a separated a-axis. All 4 axes are running with stepper motors.

I'm using inventor-hsm for creating G-code which works pretty good. Unfortunately, it is very limited, when using it in connection with the A-axis. Although the software is able to unwrap a geometry I can only run it to mill out closed pocked (also when it is wrapped). Very frequently I need to reduce a diameter and there is no operation available for this. I can only do this in indexed mode (several phi-angles and slicing in z). 

Luckily the software can also produce code for turning machines, so I could create code for such a machine. The only thing I need to do is to turn on a horizontal spindle, you see my idea?

So my question: 
Is there a possibility to configure linuxcnc in such a way that I can use my A-stepper axis for running as horizontal spindle?

What I need is a G-command turning the horizontal spindle on in a certain speed and a G-command for turning it of, during the turn-on the stepper needs to run continuously. I know its a bit absurd

Georg  

As the OP said, the missing piece in an Ethercat build is affordable encoder inputs for spindles. There are very few options outside of Beckhoff. I have some Beckhoff I/O but have not bought an encoder module.

There are a few I/O modules generally with 16 inputs and 16 outputs. There must be a cheap Ethercat chip they use. Examples from Deiwu and Rtelligent (I have both). Rtelligent includes some PWM outputs.

But lets face it, the main reason one goes with Ethercat is to use Ethercat servo and stepper drives so the Mesa cards with analog and step/dir interfaces are not particularly useful any more.

Using Ethercat drives reduces the need for I/O because most drives have some included I/O for home and limit switches and brakes etc. These can also be used for general I/O.

Whilst using hm2 over Ethercat should  improve network latency issues with Mesa cards due to the more efficient transport layer, adding the additional complexity of Ethercat just for this does not make sense to me.

Perhaps Mesa could look at an Ethercat 7i92 equivalent that supported some existing daughter cards to give I/O, encoder, counters for MPG and analog voltage by adding a THCAD2 with its Calibration data stored in Ethercat registers? Perhaps this card would include some  smart serial interfaces too?

Anyway, I'm gonna go back to fiddling with Ethercat internal homing now...  After a long hiatus, I got my homing lab working last night and homing commenced as it should. I just have to work out why it didn't respond to the homing switch when it came on...

Im an electronics technician located in Denmark with an hobby interest in mechanical design, cnc milling and additive manufacturing.

A couple of years ago I bought an cnc router with zero experience in the field. The building and electrical parts where a breeze and the grbl controller that I bought back then was an easy thing to flash with fluidNC and get going. 

Now I'm going into more advanced features and adding an self designed atc system hereby arose the need for a more capable controller. The choice settled on the Mesanet 7c80 due to form factor with the rpi and the number of i/o without the need for an daughterboard.

I have experience with rpi/arduino/esp32 projects and have worked a limited bit with commercial fpga cards before.

I have never worked with Linuxcnc before but settled on this environment and the mesa board due to:
1. active community 
2. Full customization

So the big question is, where do I begin? What would be a good course of action to get going in an orderly manner? 

The hardware:
clossed loop steppers and drivers
XYYZ + AB (possible used to manipulated the ATC later)
inductive sensors on all axis
several solunoidvalves (mist and air)
several relays (pumps and spindle light)
surface probe
tool lenght sensor
several failsafe and e-stops
ballscrews on all axis

The atc system will be an add on later and will not be a part of the initial setup.

The electrical part is going to be an non issue for me I have already planned this from the drawings in the 7c80 manual.

Thanks in advance



 

I am attaching all the files of my 5-axis machine with the ability to work only with stepper motors, motors and an ecoder and in ClosedLoop mode. Spindle control via RS485 with a frequency converter. Additionally, the xhc-hb04 remote control is connected.