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There are quite a few threads on the forum (you can search for 'orient' in the titles) covering this, as well as examples.

In short:

• Using a VFD and induction motor is possible, but is dependent on the motor and VFD.
  • I did not have great success as my motor is a 2-pole and the VFD couldn't orient it to a very precise position.  My solution was a pneumatic shot-pin to lock it in position for the ATC
  • Others have reported perfectly satisfactory results with thier hardware without resulting to mechanical locks
• Using a servo is, I think, likely to result in better performance.  Positional acuracy as well as the ability to hold that position for your broaching should be improved over a VFD.
• The basic configuration is to use two PID loops and switch between them.
  • PID #1 - spindle velocity mode
  • PID #2 - spindle orient mode
  • Switch - uses a mux component to switch between the two PIDs.

I have multiple examples of a spindle/orient available, but they're pretty complicated with other features and would be hard for someone else to follow or decode.  Have a search in the forum and if you can't find anything that makes sense, I'll try to simplify mine for you.

My first guest would be EMI. Do you use shielded cables?

Hi,
i would say hy_vfd component is very specific for huanyang vfds.
I would recommend using generic modbus component, where you specify required basic commands for running your VFD.
github.com/aekhv/vfdmod

BTW I had the same, but modbus comm failed to work for me for no reason (parameters set up correctly but no comms.
So the pricy advice would be getting some proper VFD, or you can try with what you have if it works.

also check this thread: forum.linuxcnc.org/24-hal-components/391...modbus-communicaiton

JusKeepSwimming wrote:

Ok I sorted it, was a setting on the driver... like an stupid one. Thanks heaps everyone, I was going to dark places there. Now I got to sort out the dual motors on 1 axis, some are jogging only one direction, and the scale is wrong. And homing. I got alot to do, briefly seen other peoples topics on these while running around in circles so I will be a while with that. Thanks heaps
 

these are the easy things. I have dual axis and homing (with index) working here: github.com/zmrdko/mesa_7i95t_config
basically getting dual axis only takes to list two joints under one axis in ini file + you have to have all joints set up in hal file.
Jogging in one directions may be wiring issue. You should be able to jog in both directions with proper wiring. Homing is only matter of wiring input pins to home/limit pins in hal and specifying homing speeds in ini file

Thank you again. In the meantime, I went back to the earlier firmware on the 5i23 (having removed and re-seated that), and got a response out of a 7i84. As I was a bit scattershot in trying out combinations earlier in my troubleshooting, I now don't know whether it's the same 7i84, 7i52, or 50-pin card. Going back through combinations now to see if a specific item appears to cause the fault.

A simple loopback test would be to wire:
 
RX0+ to TX0+ 7I52 P3 pin 3- -> pin 5
RX0-  to TX0-   7I52 P3 pin 4 --> pin 6

and then run

mesaflash [card specific stuff] wpo 0x1004=0               #  Set the output latch to 0s
mesaflash [card specific stuff] wpo 0x1104=0xA00000 # Set  TX and TXEN pin to output mode
mesaflash [card specific stuff] wpo 0x1204=0               # disable all secondary functions
mesaflash [card specific stuff] rpo 0x1004                     # read P3 GPIO bits
mesaflash [card specific stuff] wpo 0x1004=0x200000 # set TX data high
mesaflash [card specific stuff] rpo 0x1004                     # # read P3 GPIO bits

If working, you would expect bit 22 (0x400000) = RXData to follow  bit 21 (0x200000) = TXData

You might also want to verify that you don't have T568A cables (which have a different color code)
Your connector wiring is correct for T568B

 

Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who helped, I'm now up and running with my first Mesa card (big step from Parallel )

The machine is faster, feels smoother and just as accurate. 

Also whoever (I think it was probably TommyLight) suggested Dell Optiplex 7050's I was stunned and pleased to find out you can get them on Amazon for $150 and the latest Debian/LinuxCNC loaded without a hitch.  I see all my machines getting upgraded to Mesa and Dell soon.
 

Found one on amazon. Just did my last cuts in Mach4 did 104 circles for a customer. time to tear down this table and start installing the new parts and hopefully fire up Linuxcnc next week sometime.

Hello friends, 

I've got a 3axis mill running the 7i96s card with a servo spindle with an encoder connected back to the controller. I would like to be able to broach splines around vertical cylinders with this machine using a single point cutter. I was thinking that it should be possible to have the controller move the spindle to a specified angle, hold that angle then run the Z axis down, make a cut, move around to the next position, re-angle the spindle and repeat. 

It would also be great to have the machine orient the spindle to a set location when it stops at the end of each cut so I dont have to fiddle around spinning it by hand to line up the wrench for tool holder changes. 

From what I'm reading this can be done using the M19 orient command but, being the somewhat ludditerious fella that I am, adding the necessary code to the .ini and .hal files is a daunting proposition and has left me a bit stumped. 

I've attached my current hal and ini files below, any suggestions on how to get this happening would be grand. 

Thanks! 

 

 Dumb=good. All you need the amp for is transconductance from a low-level command to a current. Encoder should feed to your controller, not the amp.
First thing I do with a modern drive is switch it to dumb torque-mode.
Do you have schematics for the drive? Sometimes the conversion is a matter of a solder-jumper.

I have not stumbled across any schematics yet.  The cage with both X and Y amps is Trak part number 15047, but all I can find are listings for a full replacement.  I'm not opposed to pulling it apart and doing some reverse engineering, but I haven't gone there just yet.
 

TangentAudio wrote:

Tinine,
These are 35 year old dumb servo amps, there's no option to set torque mode on them unfortunately. They take offset PWM in and output +/- DC voltage. The motors have 2000CPR encoders, but they do not connect to the servo amps.

 

Dumb=good. All you need the amp for is transconductance from a low-level command to a current. Encoder should feed to your controller, not the amp.
First thing I do with a modern drive is switch it to dumb torque-mode.
Do you have schematics for the drive? Sometimes the conversion is a matter of a solder-jumper.

If anyone wants to check out the project in github, you can find it from here
ECAT servo

Is there any other card that will support the combination of 7i48/7i84 I am using? Or a way to test the sserial connection via the 7i52, through halcmd maybe?

Oh that's weird, I had replied re the health check but don't seem to have posted successfully. All three gave me the answer 00FFFFFF when I re-ran the test just now. (Oddly, that is not the answer they gave me when I tried previously - that time iirc I got 00001000, 00001004, and 00001008 respectively).

Connector location comes up as P3-5,6 for TXData0, P3-3,4 for RXData0, and P3-5,6:/Ena for TXEn0.

The cable in the photo is one I made earlier today using a fresh CAT5 cable that tested perfectly with an rj45 cable tester before I cut it in half to make the interface cable.

Any further suggestions would be extremely welcome; I have to admit I am at a loss here.

For anyone in the same situation, I figured this out today and solved my problem.

The WHB04B pendant apparently just always uses the units in config.ini that define the machine. I had originally defined my machine in config.ini in millimeters, and so the pendant always used mm no matter what I had selected for display in the Axis gui. All I had to do was duplicate the machine and edit the config.ini to be in inch units. A little calculator work and everything is good. I have 2 machines defined for LinuxCNC for the same physical machine, one named "Mill_inch" and one named "Mill_mm". I just have to choose the appropriate one for the units I am working in at the time. Easier than I thought it would be.