Advanced Search

Hi Andy,

Good day. From what i have gathered in the user manuals available in the internet and checking the existing connection from the servo controllers to the non-functioning acramatic 2100 controller,

each servo controller (X, Y, Z, and Spindle) has
1) +-10V inputs (i assume to drive the servo motors)
2) An A & /A, B & /B, and Z & /Z encoder outputs.

I was thinking of connecting the +-10V servo inputs to the 7i77 by its TB5 outputs namely, ENA0+-, ENA1+-, ENA2+-, and ENA3+-.

Then connecting the servo encoder outputs to the 7i77 by its TB3-TB4 inputs namely, QA0 & /QA0, QB0 & /QB0, IDX0 & /IDX0, for all axes and the spindle.

If that is correct, my only problem now would be the configuration under linuxcnc which I have no idea where to begin.

As I have already purchased the Plug-N-Go Kit (7i77 + 6i25) from Mesa, I would like to use them. But will look into your suggestion since they have more pins. Also, it would be generally hard for me to purchase additional boards since I am from the Philippines.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Thanks

What version of LinuxCNC?

I don't recall any encoder bugs of that type, is it possible
there is a 32 bit wrap (that's a lot of turns though unless you
have a very high res encoder)

Also could be some kind of failing hardware (PC memory, PCI, FPGA card etc)

The 7i76E is in (or eventually will be) the same enclosure (and same power cord) as everything else, except the PC, which is elsewhere. Putting just it (24V) on a UPS would be a technical challenge.
As for the motors, to keep the encoders powered that means another power supply (16V) in that enclosure that needs a UPS, and I'd have to get around to testing the following-error code
The motor's big power supply has pretty beefy capacitors - so much so that I have a discharge circuit on it's contactor for when I power it down.
My machine homes pretty accurately, at least enough for my purposes (woodworking) so a following error is not much better than a reset.
The spindle vfd is already monitored for faults (modbus).

Now I get to research tiny din-rail UPSs for 24V and 16V...

If you have a Mesa card, then mesa_modbus might let you control it in realtime.
This isn't really worth worrying about with a mill, but ought to be better with CSS on a lathe.

Maybe you could power the 7i76E from the UPS too? The spindle VFD can probably handle a sub-second power interruption on the bus capacitors.
The servos may stall, but there is some chance that they might recover position if the encoders remain powered. And if not, then you will get an f-error report, and still have a live system to recover with.

Hi

when i am running a job and it incolves some 5 axis moves so C axis becomes quote a large count. as there is no unwind code i do a quick G10 L2 calc and run the next part

after running 5/6 parts i get a following error on C axis every time, if i rehome the joint (c axis) and G10 L20 to zero the joint error problems go awayi and i can carry on running parts untill the next 4/5 are done same joint error right at the same program point each time

ia this todo with some max count being reached?
what i have noticed is the raw count pin is counting right but the PID feedback is going from a - number jumping to a + number giving the joint error trigger,
-32767.84 to +32767.86
 

When the EIA485 adapter arrives, I may give your code at try. mb2hal works but it isn't as nice to use as gs2_vfd that your code is based on.

I'm waiting on a RS232/EIA485 adapter for the Commander SK. The GS2 is nice in that it has dip switches settings to work with either.
While waiting, I tested out GS2-VFD.ini that allows me to control the GS2 using mb2hal. Now that I understand mb2hal it shouldn't take long to test out my CommanderSK.ini.

This is pretty much a drop in replacement for the gs2_vfd component. gs2_vfd is nicer as it doesn't need some conv_bit_s32 conversions and some scaling. gs2_vfd also handles braking which would need additional transactions to implement. 

When the adapter arrives, I will post a working CommanderSK.ini for mb2hal.

I will try that, thankyou. The material is 15n20, it’s the steel used to make large bandsaw blades and I cut knives out of it for knife makers.

 

Other than sourcing a 240v/50a UPS, what should I be doing if I'm using my CNC in an environment prone to power flickers?  We had a short outage this morning due to high winds, and often have sub-second "flickers", and I'm worried about running long jobs.
Note: my system was built with forum advice, where a 24v power supply feeds contactors for the motor and spindle power, with estops on the positive side and software-controlled relays on the negative side.  I don't know how long each of the supplies will last without power, but I assume that no matter what the specific value is, eventually there will be outages both shorter than and longer than that
I do have a UPS on the PC running linuxcnc, but not on the power that runs the Mesa 7i76E board.  I figure worst case, the PC will stop and tell me the line number it was on before all hell broke loose

So is there anything I can do or change to make dealing with such power flickers/outages less stressful?

(more info: the motors are servos but the drivers are step/dir, and the spindle has its own vfd.  The setup has a single power cord with internal breakers for each power supply)

Here are all the files i think from my old installation. if i'm missing any please let me know and i will upload the missing ones. thankyou 

 

FYI in contrast of what some in this topic said, it's possible to connect a controller via SPI with the spider driver. I did some tests with a TangNano9k with Riocore and it works great over SPI with the vendor kernel 6.1.75

Not sure whats going on, possibly a hardware issue on the PC?

Does dmesg show anything?

Reboot,  LinuxCNC untill you get an error and then:

sudo dmesg > log.txt

and post log.txt here
 

Hi!  I have been looking to upgrade from my existing cheap parallel port BOB and while reading the docs on the amazing Remora firmware was surprised to see mention of the Panucatt Re-Arm board as "Under Test" as I just happen to have one of those lying around.  Is there any status update or additional docs available on using Remora with these boards?  I believe I was able to get my board flashed with the LPC1768 firmware from github, at least after boot firmware.bin was renamed to firmware.cur.

What are my next steps?  I have the ethernet widget for the board, but the link light only flashes, it never maintains a solid link.  I have an available RPi 4 and 5 so I believe SPI should be an option, but right now I'm just guessing on the pinout.  Then I will need a step/dir config and again kinda guessing on the pin names.

Any documentation available that I might have missed or am I better off going a different direction for driving my 3 axis CNC mill?

Thanks for any input!