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Hello everyone, hopefully this is the right place to post this, and I'm sorry in advance for the long post.

To start my name is Adam and I have a custom cabinet/furniture shop that I run alone.  It is just me, from the Janitor to the CEO.  Well, I'm wanting to increase my production and the best way for me, would be a full size cnc.  Unfortunately I lack the funds required for such a purchase, so I'm thinking of retrofitting an older machine I came across.  For some background, I do own an xcarve, (small 30"x30" cnc, which uses a dewalt router) and laser cutter, have done designs and generated some g-code in fusion 360, but my primary cnc experience is with Easel, which is Xcarve's own web based processor for the cnc, and illustrator and lightburn for the laser.  Basically they are both extremely user friendly.

So that's the background, here is where I'm currently at...

I will say that diving into the world of building/retrofitting a cnc is like drinking from the fire hose.  I've read and watched so many youtube videos my head is spinning...  So that's why I'm here.  I believe I have settled on using Linuxcnc for the cnc control, but that's as far as I've gotten.

What I'm wanting to do:
Years ago my dad purchased a machine from a government surplus sale.  It came from Clemson University and is called a Data Technologies DT9066.  It was built in 2000.  Good luck finding information about them.  Anyway it, for all intents and purposes, is a cnc machine, but doesn't have a z axis or spindle.  It is a machine that was used for prototyping cardboard packaging.  It has a drag knife, creaser, engraver, etc.  It's working area is 90"x66", and has a vacuum hold down table.  I am thinking I can modify the gantry to move it and get a full 96" of working area out of it.  I'm going to have to modify it anyway to have a z-axis, as the gantry only sits about 2" from the bed.  Currently I do not have photos of it, because it's covered in junk as it's become a catch all in my shop, since it was essentially useless to me.

When we assembled the machine in my shop years ago, we connected it just like it was at Clemson when we got it, and it worked as far as moving around, so the motors and amplifiers are working.  The problem is the computer that controls it is incredibly old, and from what I understand the "motion controller" for it, is built into another computer tower, and the internals make absolutely no sense to me.  There's a tag that says "Gaudax" on one of the boards inside of it, but I couldn't find any info on that.

What I do know is it currently has 3 Servo's and amplifiers.  They are Magmotor servos with encoders on them.  They are driven through Copley Controls model 303, and 306 amplifiers, which is the start of my predicament.  

I know I will need to add another either servo or stepper for my z axis, that's obvious, but I was looking at various control boards, or break out boards, or motion controllers, and have seen some that will work with either analog, or digital step/dir but not both, so I think I'm going to have to either stick with an analog servo for the z axis, or replace all of the electronics with steppers and drivers.  On one hand, it may be easier to stick with all servos, because I've read good things about them, on the other hand it may be easier to start from scratch with new steppers and drivers, I mean the stuff on there is already 24 years old, and on the other other hand, maybe there's digital drivers for those old servos now, who knows?

I just don't know what to do next, so I am looking for advice.  If there is a mesa board that will function with the old analog amplifiers, will it also be upgradable if they go out and I have to replace them with newer digital drivers?  Would it be better to replace everything? (I said mesa because that is what usually comes up when I'm researching linuxcnc)  

Oh, and when considering board options, ideally, in a perfect world, and not neccessarily all at once, I'd like to have an ATC spindle, and eventually a rotary, since I'll be processing sheets 48" wide, but my work area is 66" wide, I figured I could put an atc rack down one side with a rotary in front of it, if that makes sense.  That way the machine will be able to do anything I could ever want it to.


Sorry for such a long post, but I figured it'd be best to get all the information I could out at once, so please let me hear your comments, suggestions, advice, etc.  I am in the very early "planning" stage of this build, so I am open to anything.  I just want to keep costs down as much as possible, but am willing to spend a little more if it will make for a better end product.

Thank you,
Adam

I hav ebuilt printNC machine and now I'm into configuring linuxcnc for it. So far all config is done via stepconf, no ini or hal edits. I have configured all but spindle control. The problem is when I add Spindle PWM on pin 1 in stepconf linuxcnc crashes on startup. Sometimes it crashes linux alltogether.

I'm adding my ini and hal. Also, I'm adding crash report, but I'm not sure if it helps because crash report is different every time.

Please, help me figure it out.

rodw wrote:

I think you are doing it the hard way.... Use the linuxcnc iso and follow the sticky...
 

I'm not using rtai....I'm just asking if you've checked the new kernel 6.10.9-1....linuxcnc in my 6.10.1 kernel installation works fine...it's not linuxcnc that worries me.....
regards

Ok everyone thank you so much for your help, we now have a home all button and no error messages. I added the code that was suggested for final_vel. The main problem was that the homing needed sequencing which i have done but ommited the A Axis, filled this out on the INI file and hay what do you know. Now we need to work out how to change the speed because when we ran it in air it took off at 90 miles per hour
Thank you all

Can't see Joint_3 but for the Home_All you need to define a HOME_SEQUENCE number for every joint you have configured.

Probe Basic Develop version will become the stable release soon before 9-23-2024. this means that the new stable branch and the develop branch will have a short window of overlap until new changes are made and added to the repository. if you are still on the "current stable" version, this means that the next update to probe basic after the change will install what is currently the "Develop" version and the old version will no longer be available for installation via apt. old debs can still be used for installation, but we strongly encourage you to make the change as there are important update made to imporve functionality and add features. the new documentation we have added to the ProbeBasic website will be geared towards the most recent version. We gave everyone several months to make the change that pops up on gui startup update page and hope you have made the necessary updates. if not, the new documentation would be an easy way to accomplish this by reviewing the "Machine Configuration (ini, hal, files)"section showing what needs to be changed over. running apt update in develop mode will supply a new folder in the linuxcnc config folder that has the necessary updated files for the current develp version to work. please see the link below for guidance in transitioning into the latest release!


kcjengr.github.io/probe_basic/machine_config.html

Tommy, i have moderator privilidges in here and have already unpinned what needed to come down, this should remain indefinitely to give users a place to easily navigate to for the docs i think, my intention was to leave it here.  the old post was a nightmare to edit with all of the images and formatting that i had applied that broke everytime i tried to edit so having an offsite location with easier to edit docs being built from within the buildbot for probe basic seems like the better solution.

thanks,

Chris

removed 5210 from subs, i think it was a remnant from a long time ago and you are correct it should be removed, thanks! subs on latest commit will reflect the change!

AWESOME!! want to share and see about possibly adding to the PB repository as an option?

We have been working on the Probe Basic documentation and have it up in one location now so it will be easier to use for installations, user interface use and setup and Machine configuration instruction and guide.  It is updated with the currently latest of everything (9/18/24).  Please have a visit and leave your impressions and replies regarding what is there.  We know everyone would like MORE documentation and it is being worked on albeit slowly when time becomes available, but if you have input on what we have recently added which seems to be where the bulk of questions come from please let us know! including typos, mispellings, hard to understand sentences etc.. my eyes are crossed and i have pushed maybe a hundred or so commits the last 2 days trying to get things cleaned up so there are bound to be some booboo's..  /o\

Thanks all!

PROBE BASIC DOCUMENTATION - CLICK HERE!

please feel free to add more information after this

So I am starting this topic because I am 300% sure I fucked up somewhere in the start of the installation of linuxcnc ethercat from repositories....
first advice would be to check this topic untill the last grain of information because there might be something there that will save you a lot of time trying to figure out why your project doesn't work.... 
first tip i can give after that one would be .... 
Ethercat only works when everything is neatly organized and everything is spelled correctly and all stuff is called the same
Ethercat also likes perfect order in stuff, you can not to make disorder in the way ethercat READS stuff and WRITES stuff...
look at the examples how in the XML folder the read/write is written in the start of the XML

Problem is that the kinematic model in scarakins.c is for a scara with 3 angular joints and a linear joint and also two angular joints that move the table. You could easily remove those last two (ie j4/a and j5/b) from the kinematic as they are just looped through. J3/c however is part of the calculation so to remove that you will need to have a closer look at the forward and inverse kinematic model.

Todd wrote:

Maybe I was miss reading your posts, and you've resolved your issue and loading the parport_pc module as a kernel mod at start up was the solution?

+1
Hence the "thank you" under the post.