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Nice!

Photo of my toothed wheel with three encoders and planned update if I ever get around to it.
 
 

If anyone is itching to check it out, you should be able to run my sim config from github.com/tangentaudio/linuxcnc-bridgeport

Look in configs/sim.qttangent in that repo.  Start LinuxCNC with qttangent.ini

 

however the caveat for using momentary buttons being that without some way to know which mpg momentary button is active you would need to remember the last setting, check the screen setting or repress the momentary button increment you desire for each move or you could crash from using a larger increment setting than you intended to use. some of the usb mpg's have a display which might show the user what the currently active increment setting is.

Here's a demo video of what I have so far.  It's intended primarily for a 1920x1080 touchscreen though I am demoing it here with a mouse so the demo is not quite as fluid as it could be.  The design is somewhat influenced by PathPilot but it isn't a 1:1 clone of it (that's another potential project...)

I am first going to be using this on a converted Bridgeport mill, and my goal is something of a manual-automatic hybrid workflow.  Ultimately I'd like to have something like NativeCAM baked in, so it can kind of function like a ProtoTrak system.

I also intend to use this with a physical HMI panel that will replace some of the onscreen controls like feed/speed overrides and cycle start/stop etc. buttons.  But for now I'm leaving them in the UI to make it more generally useful.



As for developing so far - yes, I have a sim config directory and I just have a handler.py and my .ui file in there.  As you know, I've also developed some new widgets for Qtvcp for this GUI, and those are merged into master now.
 

that is strictly determined by what you are trying to accomplish. any mpg that works with linuxcnc will work with probe basic really, but if you want to tie the increments in the ui to the mpg and have true bidirectional support, then whatever mpg you use will need to be able to change the physical state of the switch for increments.

in other words if you use an mpg with a rotary switch, its a static output based on the rotary switch position. if you change the ui increment setting there is no way to physically change the rotary switch's position so it become unsynchronized. if you use an mpg with momentary buttons for increment settings, then there is no static constant output which means it could remain synchronized regardless of where the increments are physically changed by the user..(ui buttons or mpg buttons).

personally i use very basic mpg and my increments setting in PB is pretty much always set to jog for long travel moves where don't want to ring the mpg to death.

you may be able to use a usb style mpg and tie the increments to the ui with halpins or perhaps even if the existing mpg code has provisions already simply set it up in the mpg software. but no there is no PB specific mpg.

You can get a quadrature signal using the same slots and offsetting another detector approx 1/2 the spacing. It can be a little finicky to adjust but gives you 4x resolution and lets you track direction too. ( Important if you want to use spindle like a dividing head)

I added another detector to pick up index, missing tooth should be fine.

I expect the omron install will be a lot easier. I could probably just wrap a belt around the spindle shaft. The omron encoder spins with imperceptible drag to the spindle just about any belt or string is enough to spin it. I also have an omron encoder that I can position on my mill drawbar for rigid tapping. Janky but functional. It worked with a rubber band while I waited for a gt2 belt. After the mill install I ordered another for lathe but haven't gotten around to installing it.

Hi All,

it seems that i found the issue by accident   : it seemed that some part of motion still checks the home-switch-in even if they don't have a direct influence on my homing-procedure. (that is completely outsourced to pokeys, i just await the home status, the home-switch information is there but more or less for informative purposses. i didn't use these switches at all, but it seems theres some part of motion which checks that in background)

Hi,

this is on Almalinux 9 (RHEL9 clone), kernel 5.14.0-503.23.2.el9_5.x86_64.

Ethercat is from github, release 1.6.3.

Ethercat was built from source, loads correctly and shows something meaningfull with the command "ethercat master". Other than that, nothing was configured yet. 
Ethercat master alone is stable, but when two slaves are present on the same network, it crashes after some time.

Crash:
[  719.621831] BUG: TASK stack guard page was hit at 000000009ee0e10f (stack is 00000000e1d2d8c3..00000000a409be87)
[  719.621834] stack guard page: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
[  719.621837] CPU: 1 PID: 722 Comm: EtherCAT-IDLE Kdump: loaded Tainted: G           OE    

---

 ---  5.14.0-503.23.2.el9_5.x86_64 #1
[  719.621840] Hardware name: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. NUC14MNK-B1/NUC14MNB1, BIOS MNADLCPX.0009.2024.1006.0803 10/06/2024
[  719.621841] RIP: 0010:ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x10/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.621885] Code: 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 0f 1f 44 00 00 41 55 49 89 fd 41 54 49 89 d4 55 <53> 8b 2a bb 03 00 00 00 48 69 ed 70 03 00 00 48 03 af 90 07 00 00
[  719.621886] RSP: 0018:ffffc004c0d1c000 EFLAGS: 00010286
[  719.621887] RAX: ffff997f0ae55b90 RBX: 0000000000000003 RCX: 0000000000000004
[  719.621888] RDX: ffffc004c0d1fe7c RSI: ffff997f0ae55820 RDI: ffff997e86d6c000
[  719.621889] RBP: ffff997f0ae55820 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffc004c0d1fd20
[  719.621889] R10: ffffc004c0d1fd18 R11: ffffffffb9de93e8 R12: ffffc004c0d1fe7c
[  719.621890] R13: ffff997e86d6c000 R14: ffff997e86d6c6d8 R15: ffff997e86d6c080
[  719.621891] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9981ef880000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[  719.621892] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[  719.621892] CR2: ffffc004c0d1bff8 CR3: 00000001019e8000 CR4: 0000000000750ef0
[  719.621893] PKRU: 55555554
[  719.621894] Call Trace:
[  719.621895]  <#DF>
[  719.621896]  ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1c4/0x2df
[  719.621900]  ? show_trace_log_lvl+0x1c4/0x2df
[  719.621902]  ? ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.621927]  ? __die_body.cold+0x8/0xd
[  719.621929]  ? die+0x2b/0x50
[  719.621931]  ? handle_stack_overflow+0x49/0x60
[  719.621933]  ? exc_double_fault+0x14b/0x180
[  719.621935]  ? asm_exc_double_fault+0x1f/0x30
[  719.621938]  ? ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x10/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.621961]  </#DF>
[  719.621961]  <TASK>
[  719.621962]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.621984]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622006]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622028]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622050]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622072]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622095]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622119]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
[  719.622142]  ec_master_calc_topology_rec+0x6d/0xa0 [ec_master]
(many more such lines)

Now i am a newbie to Ethercat and to Linuxcnc, so i may be doing something wrong here.
So i have some basic questions:
- is ethercat master to be used on a separate ethernet port, so do i need two NICs in my linuxcnc computer? Or does it coexist with the rest of Linux/IP ?
- is the "daisy chain" ethernet cabling mandatory for ethercat? During the crash, i had everything connected to a mini-switch.
- how do multiple ethercat slaves get distinguished? Do i have to assign some slave-ID?

 

I've been doing some research but I'm not sure what I'm doing.

Is there any mpg compatible with probe basic?

I edited a post above to indicate that the three BOBs have now been fully tested. Previously I had checked all the paths with an ohm meter, powered up one of the boards and checked some signals.

 

All three boards have been powered up and tested. All inputs were connected to 3.3v or 5v. The corresponding output was checked for a high (5v or 3.3v). The input of the line being tested was then connected to ground, and the corresponding output checked for a low. The input was again connected to 3.3v or 5v, and the corresponding output checked for a high. Every input and output was verified to work correctly.

I have 100% confidence in the BOBs. If anyone purchases all of these components for $500, and the BOBs don't function properly, I'll refund $100.

Best, Gene
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ok, i got it to build.
RHEL9 seems to have some stuff backported from kernel 6.x, so ifdef macros go the wrong path.
For me a quick fix was to just remove the ifdefs, like this:

*** cdev.c.orig 2025-03-02 10:05:18.704523437 +0100
--- cdev.c 2025-03-02 10:06:13.589430791 +0100
***************
*** 227,237 ****
EC_MASTER_DBG(priv->cdev->master, 1, "mmap()\n");

vma->vm_ops = &eccdev_vm_ops;
- #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(6, 3, 0)
vm_flags_set(vma, VM_DONTDUMP);
- #else
- vma->vm_flags |= VM_DONTDUMP; /* Pages will not be swapped out */
- #endif
vma->vm_private_data = priv;

return 0;
--- 227,233 ----

The same problem was in module.c.

Now the driver builds and loads into the kernel.

OK ping times look OK

Make sure the servo thread period is set for 1ms (1000000 ns)

What actual error do you get from LinuxCNC?

 

did you sort it out? the issue i saw with external controls being tied to the ui was a synchronization problem. the only thing i think that would work would be momentary buttons for each increment. a rotary switch such is on most mpg's could not remain synch's with the ui if changed in the ui.

that may be the latest already, if you run sudo apt update doers it update probe basic and qtpyvcp?