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I finally managed to sort it out and update my .ui file to GTK+3. I wish there was a better guide for the various LinuxCNC-specific components and the migration necessary.

Groovecooper1 wrote:

I may need to just upgrade the whole thing and start from square one.

I would not, unless it is really required.

Ahh, I missed that

As far as the spindle speed changing goes, it would probably be helpful to
disable the PID/feedback, in case there's something odd going on there.

Disable the feedback by setting all PID terms to 0 except FF0 so the
PID component is just a pass through.


Another thing for debugging would be to dump all the hal pins when
things are working correctly and when misbehaving:

halcmd show all > ok.txt

halcmd show all > bad.txt

and post the results here.
 

Yes that beautiful thing has been moved around to different places and has grooved well over 10,000 pairs of drumsticks (200k+ in gross sales) in nine years with no issues. Never had a problem with the software or anything until just recently. I know it’s an old version but it’s always worked. It’s just having a few issues. I may need to just upgrade the whole thing and start from square one.

Has it ever worked?
Why LinuxCNC 2.5? That's really rather old.

PCW wrote:

Can you post your hal/ini files?

Might help with more eyes looking at them

 

I found some configs posted earlier in the thread: forum.linuxcnc.org/26-turning/52640-old-...-cnc?start=60#326830

Thanks rodw, I will add that note in with my install disk. And also Thank you to all the LinuxCNC devs that
continue to make LinuxCNC possible.

Made the first toolchanges today!
Altough, taking a tool from the ATC is not yet working optimally.

I was customizing the M21 and M22 subroutines to get it working, but in the end found ''toolchange.ngc' which is also playing a part.
I probably need to add some movements specific to my atc to toolchange.ngc instead of to the M22 subroutine.





Other than that pretty happy it's doing its job!
 

rodw wrote:

When this feature was developed, the feeling was the pierce delay should still be used. Does it work for you if you try it?

I forgot to mention Stefan (who's forum name escapes me ATM) was the chief tester on this and he cut countless full sheets of 16mm into small parts without needing to reset the pierce delay.

thank you very much! now all I have to do is run the stepper and I can gain some experience with linuxcnc.

When this feature was developed, the feeling was the pierce delay should still be used. Does it work for you if you try it?

In the ini file the HOME_SEQUENCE determines the home order on a home all. If two axes have the same sequence, they will home together. The exception is joint axes on a gantry which must home seperately.

Hi folks,

The time has come!

I've owned a Bridgeport VMC760 for the last 4 years. It's been used in my prototyping/fabrication shop here in Australia. The Heidenhain 370 control and Siemens drives have served me well in this time, up until yesterday, when one of the servo drives went bang.

While I'm looking into replacing this drive, I'm also entertaining a retrofit. The machine is a 97' and I fear that I'll be tipping further money into the those drives at some stage. I've never tackled a retrofit of this level, but I've had experience building CNC machines in the past with my business. A couple of one-off 3/4 axis machines for client's specific manufacturing and a home-brew 'Datron' like router we used heavily before the VMC (and still use for high speed spindle applications).

Ideally the retrofit would look something like this:

New axis servos and drives (Interested in Leadshine's newer offerings, but I've had good experiences with DMM, Delta's and Clearpath in the past)
New spindle motor and drive (I've been looking at SVC VFD and encoders to handle orientation, rigid taping etc)

Preference to Ethercat communication for flexibility and wiring
Linux control with a touch screen and a few machine specific buttons up front
Full closed loop control on all axis
Very interested in running this from a Pi5 

Ideally retain the original auxiliary control boards (the boards running the contactors for lube, coolant, tool change etc)
These boards look like the take simple logic signals from the Heidenhain.
Retain full operation of the carousel tool changer. Fairly typical Geneva drive style of the time with AC motors and inductive sensors.

The major gaps in my knowledge (I'm sure there are plenty to be honest) are regarding the following points:

I've never worked with Ethercat, but flexibility and lack of wiring are intriguing. Can an Ethercat system run full closed loop control?

Spindle sytem. Originally this machine had 9kw of continuous (11kw peak) power and 76Nm of torque (93Nm peak), 6000rpm max. I'd like to keep such performance. Is a large SVC VFD AC setup with linux/software based spindle synchronisation the right avenue?

Running LinuxCNC on a raspberry Pi. I've only every run it on old scrap PC's with parallel ports back in the hobby days. Latency was always an issue!

I understand most people would suggest binning the machine or just fixing what's there. CNC machines, even on the secondhand market are not as plentiful or cheap here in Australia. It's a decent sized machine that's produced some great work for us in the past and most importantly, it's already in our workshop!

I'll post some pictures when I'm in the workshop later today.

Any input on these topics is very welcomed and appreciated!!

Thanks,

John
 

Forgot to mention whatt the docs don't say. To square the machine, making marks in each corner of the bed with the spindle and measuring diagonals is the most accurate way on a large bed. Adjust until equal.
Me, I just measured each side with a dial indicator from a common reference. 

Squaring the gantry is done during homing and relies on the HOME_OFFSET for alignment.
It is super easy to do if you read the most important part of the documents, homing configuration
linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/config/ini-homing.html
Except you will probably need to read this page 3 to 10 times....