Advanced Search

totally make sense thanks for your help.

I just went to restart the pncconf and i only have three options when it comes to kinematics: XYZ, XYZA, OR XZ lathe. I believe i am missing some options here in this drop down.

edit: im stupid, trying again now. 

AlexMagToast wrote:

Good that you mention Python. A couple weeks ago I learned how to build custom .comp components and I was thinking about moving the communication and logic Part into one.
But I am not sure how much this would improve anything. I guess the Bottleneck is the USB Serial anyway? What do you guys think?
 

Yeah, problem there is you can only access a serial port from userspace otherwise it would be good. USB you would probably have to throw out the window, but if someone wrote an actual real-time serial port driver it'd probably be great.

I'll probably fork your repo and push my changes for the I2C IO expanders if you want to take a look at that. Could use some work around the ifdef's for enabling the I2C IO aside from the normal Arduino IO but on my Mega setup it's working great.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough interrupt pins when I made that board and I figured they probably wouldn't be necessary for just knob type encoders but that was a mistake. My MPG uses both interrupts and it works fine, my other encoders work terrible. Now I'm trying to resurrect the board I made for a Teensy 4.1 since they are all interrupt pins. Having a bit of trouble with the I2C on that one for some reason.

Just a note, the 7i90, FPGA (not having a go but there is always some that breaks the rules) can be used as smart serial device. Just digital i/o and 3 mpgs, but the firmware that runs on the softcore can be modded for 4
Mpgs. Tho it was a little frustrating to do at first. 

Yeah, you could use those cards for whatever you want but there's no analog IO on the 7i90/7i92 so you can't really call it a control panel card unless it can do a basic potentiometer reading.

I don't have any pots so I was thinking about using a 7i92 I have laying around. The smart serial cards don't work out well for my case cuz they run off the host card. So I'd be mounting PC inside the control panel  and the ethernet host card in the machine cabinet. So ethernet from the control panel to the machine cabinet and smart serial back to the control panel. That's kind of messy and the control panel can't work standalone.

With a 7i92 I'll just tie up the 2nd ethernet port on my mini-pc, but that's probably not a big deal. I've already used modified 7i92's on custom daughtercards so I already have the PCB footprints and schematic symbols made.....

 

Problem there is there's no I2C module for hm2 that I'm aware of so I'd have to remake my key panel again to use spi IO expanders then BSPI is a bit tough to deal with. I got BSPI almost working for the board in the pic because it has 2 small microcontrollers that communicate with the 7i92, one is actually just for reading analog inputs. I got busy and left that project on the shelf too.

I'll probably just stick with the Arduino-connector setup once I get my Teensy 4.1 version working right for now. The mini-PCs I use have the Intel UARTs so if there's ever a real-time serial port solution I can just migrate over to that.

Motor current.

I have a monitor which used to have difficulties to turn on when it was cold, it turned on but then it kept flickering. This was because of bad capacitors in the power supply, after replacing these it always works immediately, even with minus temperatures

@Tntmold

*EDIT*
If you fully built from source, you should be able to recompile the IgH Ethercat part only and fix the problem.

Hi Tntmold...  I started a new thread with the updated instructions as Scott started using Golang and it was not building without the "Makefile" changes.  Sascha's is still doing a few updates to his code, and it works without any changes, but Scott has way more work in his code at this point and what I use myself.

Ethercat build from source instructions - Updated for 2024 - LinuxCNC

If you follow the second post, you don't necessarily have to do the "Makefile" changes as you can just install the "golang" package.  I have it described better in the first post but put that second post up for just the commands to do everything.


I am rarely on here because of work, but Rod Webster (rodw) and Tommy Berisha (tommylight) can help...  Plus, there are many others here too that I didn't list...

Hope it helps,
Robert
 

User_paulvdh_42 wrote:

but a Raspi 5 combined with Remora is an option. This uses an SPI bus to communicate with a microcontroller that does the step generation, but it still needs a low latency communication channel to exchange data with a servo thread. Apparently it's untested or not supported to attempt to use an SPI bus from another SBC then the Raspi 5.

SPI is supposed to be unavailable on regular PC's, but as far as I know it's often available on the TPM module, together with the LPC bus. But I have not seen any hint of LinuxCNC being able to work with those communication channels.

The drivers are made specifically for the RPi3/4 and 5, so they dont use spidev and wont work with other sbc. It wont work on a PC with TPM unless someone makes some kind of hardware driver. If you dont want to use an Rpi, you can try out the remora ethernet board

Hi, I was wondering if someone could teach me about the mechanics of spindle load and how it works?  Is there a special motor and drive required to get the load feedback data or is it generated by a formula comparing the RPM with a multimeter as some kind?  Or is the load just the amperage alone?  Can someone explain it and what all kind of components and wiring would I need to get a spindle load showing in LinuxCNC?  Thanks

Note that I would not edit the hal file at this point as so much is missing.
I would make sure you select the proper kinematics and setup the tandem
axis in pncconf.

It does not look like you setup a tandem axis in pncconf:

[KINS]
JOINTS = 4
KINEMATICS = trivkins coordinates=XYZA

[TRAJ]
COORDINATES = XYZA
MAX_ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 0.50
DEFAULT_ANGULAR_VELOCITY = 0.05
LINEAR_UNITS = inch
ANGULAR_UNITS = degree
DEFAULT_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 0.10
MAX_LINEAR_VELOCITY = 1.00

Note that the stepgen number is completely arbitrary but joint <==> axis mapping
must be setup in the kins/trajectory sections of the ini file in addition to the
hal file.

Here is how I knew Z was mapped to joint 2 and stepgen 4
#*******************
# AXIS Z JOINT 2
#*******************

setp pid.z.Pgain [JOINT_2]P
setp pid.z.Igain [JOINT_2]I
setp pid.z.Dgain [JOINT_2]D
setp pid.z.bias [JOINT_2]BIAS
setp pid.z.FF0 [JOINT_2]FF0
setp pid.z.FF1 [JOINT_2]FF1
setp pid.z.FF2 [JOINT_2]FF2
setp pid.z.deadband [JOINT_2]DEADBAND
setp pid.z.maxoutput [JOINT_2]MAX_OUTPUT
setp pid.z.error-previous-target true
# This setting is to limit bogus stepgen
# velocity corrections caused by position
# feedback sample time jitter.
setp pid.z.maxerror 0.000500

net z-index-enable => pid.z.index-enable
net z-enable => pid.z.enable
net z-pos-cmd => pid.z.command
net z-pos-fb => pid.z.feedback
net z-output <= pid.z.output

# Step Gen signals/setup

setp hm2_7i96s.0.stepgen.04.dirsetup [JOINT_2]DIRSETUP
setp hm2_7i96s.0.stepgen.04.dirhold [JOINT_2]DIRHOLD

cool, please let me know if you encounter any issues!

At line 996.call to retrieve the number of available CPUs

at line 1006. It runs over the cpu list.
then it sets the priority 0-100% for each used cpu.

 

Thanks for your quick reply.

can you enlighten me as to how you found that out? what lines in the hal can i modify to get them correct? Also can you tell me the difference in LinuxCNC between joint and stepgen?

Also, i am fairly certain i added the second Y motor in the configurator, does it not like repeat setups?

The hal file shows mapping:

JOINT STEPGEN  AXIS

0         0           X
1         2           Y
2         4           Z
3         3           A

Both files attached. 

I thought i had mapped the
board step/dir 0 -> X
step/dir 1 -> y1
2->z
3->c
4 ->y2
(i hope this is what you mean by how is it wired).

The encoder i am not even worried about yet i just want the machine to move and everything to register right now.

The tool table should look like this once you add X and Y to the custom_config.yml file: