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Hi all,

I run a small CNC lathe on LinuxCNC, and I got tired of writing the same turning, threading and grooving code by hand. So over the past months I built a desktop tool for it: you fill in a form (diameters, lengths, feeds, speeds), watch the toolpath in a 2D preview, and save a ready .ngc file for the machine.

What it does - 12 cycles:
- OD turning, facing, boring, grooving, drilling, cut-off
- Taper (OD/ID), sphere (including concave profiles, e.g. a pulley groove)
- Chamfer / radius (OD/ID, front/back)
- Threading: OD/ID, right/left hand, multi-start, adjustable lead-in / run-out
- Tapered threads
- Archimedean spiral (face spiral groove)

Things that were important to me:
- Live 2D toolpath preview before you save anything
- G7/G8 (diameter/radius mode) with one switch for all cycles
- G32 or G33 threading syntax, with a configurable pitch word (I/K/F)
- Coolant M-codes, tool number, comments, M30 - all can be turned on or off to match your habits and your postprocessor
- mm and inch; English and Russian UI

Most cycles (turning, facing, taper, sphere, threading, boring, chamfer/radius) have been proven by real cuts on my machine, not just air runs. Tapered threads and a couple of others so far only have air / single-block runs - feedback is welcome.

To be upfront: this is paid software. There is a free 15-day trial, no key needed. After that it's $25 for one month (no auto-renewal), or $60 for 3 months and then $20/month. Linux .deb (Debian 11+ / Ubuntu 20.04+, amd64) and Windows.

Site with screenshots of every cycle: turngcode.com
Trial download: turngcode.com/en/trial/

I know there are free options too (NGCGUI, Probe Basic conversational, etc.), and they are great. This one is aimed at people who want a complete set of lathe cycles in one simple form, with a preview, without writing subroutines.

Happy to answer questions, and I'd appreciate honest criticism.

so #5223 is being used in my remap,is it something that I config wrong in the remap or down.ngc ?

Darrell wrote:

Or just delete it I suppose. Doesn't work anyway.

Oh, please don't delete it yet, this looks like it has a lot of potential.

 Ive been trying to figure this out on my own but I am not getting any luck, after using my 3d probe to find Z0 on work piece (down.ngc) then call for T5 M6 for example (tool_change.ngc) both move with no errors but the calculation is off at the moment after T5 touches off the tool setter tip of tool is below Z0 (123 block) but if i move past the 123 block the spindle nose will Z0 off the 123 block.When i calculated the 3dprobe length I touched off spindle nose off the block then used 3d probe to touch off the block to get it length, but the spindle nose distance is moving over to the tool length (I think) dont know what else to do.


 

 

You can try using a USB WiFi dongle, but that is also "hit or miss", so it might work fine or might not work at all or might work intermittently.
I've had very good luck with USB to LAN adapters, so far out of over 10, all have worked fine for connecting to Mesa boards.
This also gives you 2 options for Mesa so you can test what works better for you.

Thanks all. Ground the PSU but this wasn't the cause

I should have known this but turns out the pi cannot use Ethernet and wifi reliably at the same time

I am pretty sure MesaCT does not overwrite them, but been quite some time since i used it.
-
In case you want to prevent overwriting config files that are good and done with editing, you can use the file explorer and set the permissions to read only.

flyingbrick wrote:

 The 7I97T is powered by a Mean Well 5V PSU with no earth connection.

Must have earth connection, on all power supplies.

In general I lack experience in this stuff, ground loops especially are confusing. I didn't want to ground the 5v negative and create some other issue. According to what I could find online, the floating 5v is fairly normal (switch mode power supply).

Yes the case etc is ground, just 5v is floating.

Thanks pcw, will ground.

If you have the mind of an engineer, why don't you test the software's functionality instead of complaining you don't like the colour?
Its very comprehensive and the probing is first class.

No, once you get a working config stop using pncconf and edit by hand.

possibly but if you follow the updated how to sticky thread (1st post) , we don't use the igh repo anymore.

Is there a way to prevent the .hal file from being overwritten? If you manually edit the .hal file, everything gets overwritten by pncconf. Is there a setting to ensure that only the parts that were actually modified get overwritten in the .hal file?
Thanks,
Hans

So, is it best to ground the 5V and 24V negatives?

flyingbrick wrote:

... and I measure about 100VAC between 5V- and cabinet earth.Does anyone know what specifically causes CR7 to latch on like this?

The answer to your question is there in your question, 100VAC is way to much interference, so the grounding is non existent if that is happening inside a metal box.
Does the shop have proper grounding and a ground fault interrupter?
Is the machine grounded through the mains cable, properly on both sides?
Is the power supply grounded to machine/control box ground?