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Hakan wrote:

You hit the weak point in linuxcnc Ethercat.
Position feedback from a drive is always two servo cycles behind.
Following error due to this is at least axis speed x 2 x servo cycle time.
You can easily verify this.

 

Not sure how this can be. The servo thread fires every 1 Ms (1000 usec), If you do a trace, It might take 200 usec to execute, then it sleeps for the remaining 800 usec) until it fires gain. The Ethercat thread and the Linuxcnc servo thread are synchronized. We read from lcec at the beginning of the servo thread execution, do our stuff, pids and position adustments etc then write write the result back to lcec then sleep as normal for the remaining 800 usec. How does it lag 2000 usec behind?
  

I have v2.12.1 seems from march 2025, I have email from Robert Ellenberg - Software Team Lead at Tormach from 2 weeks ago, we should have a meeting on the 28th.
Quote:
Hi All,

Sorry for the wait this week! I'd love to do a zoom call and dig into the trajectory planner differences. The S-curve planner PR is an exciting change, and it would be awesome to learn more about it. There are a few times during the week that are good for me to do a long meeting:

Fridays between 10AM-4PM EST (Jan 16, 23, and 30)
Wednesday Jan 28th between 11AM-4PM EST
Thursdays in Jan, 9PM-11PM EST


Given the volume of things to discuss, a recurring meeting might be a good idea to spread things out. If we can get a weekly, biweekly, or monthly time on the calendar, it will be easier to get through all of the material, and also deal with new issues as they come up.

In the meantime, here are some quick answers for Greg C's questions:

Does Tormach have any 9 axis .ngc files they use for testing they could share? We have some test cases, but most of them are not real part programs, rather they just exercise the trajectory planner. Some of them may be in the Tormach linuxcnc fork, I'll look through my archives for the rest.
Does Tormach have any build tests set up that they are willing to share? The tormach linuxcnc fork has extended tests that would be great to include upstream, most of which are subdirectories in the "tests/motion". There are test cases for probing, cutter compensation, spindle synchronization, and a few others.
What changed from trivkins to square3kins, and is any of that worth considering for inclusion in our project? square3kins is an extension of "millkins" i.e. forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-configuratio...kins-or-millkins-xyz . I can discuss in more detail, but main additions are rigid rotation of the coordinate system (correct for table surface not parallel to the motion axes) and atomic update of parameters
Are there any parts of the implementation that were accepted as “good enough,” deferred for later cleanup, or known compromises that we should be aware of? Yes, depending on how stringent your definition is. Most of these are documented in code with TODO / FIXME tags. This is a detailed subject, but one example is how we handle blend tolerances in 9-axis blending. In lieu of solving the kinematics, we basically assume that "deg = inch" when sizing the blend arc. This is suboptimal but generally safe (1 deg is 1 inch displacement on a ~57" diameter part).
If you were implementing this today in a joint-based architecture, is there anything you would change about the overall approach or design? This is another long subject, but the biggest change would be to make the have the trajectory planner work in joint space, and use the realtime kinematics layer only for minor adjustments like squareness comp. To actually do that is a big effort (biggest change is incorporating kinematics earlier motion planning).


Also, to answer an earlier question, the limited jerk method we're using in the Tormach fork is an extension of the current planner. A quick summary of what we did (happy to discuss in more detail in the call):

Filter each axis independently with a moving average filter, and set the length of that filter via the new M59 command (M59 D# in ms)
Reduce the feed rate of high-curvature moves such that the axis filtering does not "round the corners" more than the specified tolerance (M59 H# in length units)
Apply custom settings in certain conditions to avoid lag (tapping, threading, probing)
Change the notion of "done" in the TP to wait for the nominal path to be done + average filters fully drained


The main benefit is the user has control over smoothness, path accuracy, and achievable feed rate. For example, you can do high-load roughing with more smoothing and looser path tolerances. For finish passes, you apply tighter path tolerances. This limits the achievable feed rates, which is generally tolerable on fine finish passes.

Best,
Rob

rodw wrote:

I thought it had already been established that Tormach do not have jerk limiting.
Another possibility would be to run a gcode filter to "normalize" the gcode for performance and jerk limiting. Joco's Monokrom filters out all holes and replaces them with its own optimised code with custom leadins so it can be powerful in the right hands...

Um, what? Where did you hear this?
Pathpilot for the 1500mx has jerk limiting and other g64 features. However the source people have had access to on here (like grotius) was an older version without these features.

So, ask tormach for the source again, it should now be the 1500mx version.

 

For the CSP and similar modes generally the target position is fed directly from the joint pos-cmd output, so it does not go through a PID control to account for error like you might see in a velocity control loop with positional feedback.

NWE wrote:

I have to order one of these. Will probably take 30-60 days to get to me. About a month to cross the Pacific plus 5-10 days in customs plus 5-10 days ground freight....

Message them here lichuanmotor.en.alibaba.com/productgroup...408298/EtherCAT.html

They shipped DHL and got to me across the Pacific in about 4 days for USD $32

I thought it had already been established that Tormach do not have jerk limiting.
Another possibility would be to run a gcode filter to "normalize" the gcode for performance and jerk limiting. Joco's Monokrom filters out all holes and replaces them with its own optimised code with custom leadins so it can be powerful in the right hands...

rodw wrote:

They have listings of sets with the drives on Aliexpress but I messaged them direct on Alibaba to buy the drive. Had it in about 4 days ex China via DHL.

We have to get this going as its soo cheap!
 

I have to order one of these. Will probably take 30-60 days to get to me. About a month to cross the Pacific plus 5-10 days in customs plus 5-10 days ground freight....

I had a Yoga once. I even ran Linux in it. Nice laptop but no wired internet so not suitable for Mesa cards.
Even if it had one, the power savings features and very limited ability to tweak the BIOS would render it unsuitable.
If it had a PCMCIA card ( don't think it does) you might be able to install a PMCIA network adapter

If mesaflash reported that error, update mesaflash
(instructions on the git site or above in this thread)

github.com/LinuxCNC/mesaflash

If LinuxCNC reported the issue, you need t o update LinuxCNC.

(You don't actually have to update LinuxCNC as it will work fine but will complain about the card every time you start LinuxCNC)
 

Whats is your name on the email? (just the name not the full email address)

The 7I96S's are at assembly and should be available in 3-4 weeks

tommylight wrote:

I did check, i can not find anything from Lichuan on Amazon.de, bloody hell, this would have easily been the thing to suck me into EtherCAT, but nooooo...

They have listings of sets with the drives on Aliexpress but I messaged them direct on Alibaba to buy the drive. Had it in about 4 days ex China via DHL.

We have to get this going as its soo cheap!

I'm having the exact same problem, has anyone figured out what's going on?

Tks

I did check, i can not find anything from Lichuan on Amazon.de, bloody hell, this would have easily been the thing to suck me into EtherCAT, but nooooo...

Sorry its from Lichuan. They also have a closed loop one too

Hi guys. I've spent the morning having a go at getting a 4 axis ethercat drive working.
Just the most basic config I could devise from Dominic's sample.
I got movement from the first drive but its not right. just a whine and a bare stutter.
I wondered if one of the phases was the wrong polarity but no luck with that. The same result which was odd.

There is a windows USB config program which let me set the motor amps to 2 amps and I could see the steps/rev was 10000 which seemed high.
Any ideas would be appreciated. They are a good solution if we can get it going at USD $92 + shipping (for 4 stepper drives - $23 each stepper)