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Hi all,I’m building a large vertical machine for laser cleaning and automated spray painting of heavy equipment (excavators, cranes, large fabricated parts and enclosures).Motion concept is a raster-based process:

• Z axis performs the working stroke (up/down) where laser cleaning or spray painting is applied
• Y axis is used only for slow stand-off distance control (surface following)
• X axis is used only between strokes for step-over / overlap indexing, then the next Z stroke starts
  
  For painting, we use automatic air spray guns (not airless / not AAA), since painting is done in a general workshop area without a dedicated spray booth. Typical overlap is around 60–70% between strokes.Current and planned hardware:
  • Mesa 7i96S (Ethernet, step/dir drives)
  • THCAD-2 for isolated analog-to-frequency input
  • Keyence distance sensor (starting with IL-1000, possibly upgrading to LK-G3000 series later)
  • Current: manual air spray gun 
  • Planned: automatic air spray gun 
  • Typical speeds:
    • Z working stroke: ~15–40 mm/s
    • X step-over between strokes: index only (no distance control)
    • Y axis: slow stand-off correction only
      
      Environment is electrically noisy (industrial equipment, welding, laser), so isolation is important.My questions:
      1. For this type of slow stand-off control on Y, is using THCAD-2 into the 7i96S encoder input a reasonable approach (non-plasma use)?
      2. If I upgrade to a faster sensor (LK-G3000), does THCAD-2 become a bottleneck for meaningful improvement?
      3. If I want proper fast isolated analog input, which Mesa hardware would you recommend to add ADC capability to a 7i96S-based system?
      4. Any practical tips for filtering, deadband, and loop rates for a ~10 Hz sensor like the IL-1000 in this application?
         
         Thanks in advance for any advice.

I've had good success with generic fanless industrial mini-pc's in aluminum housings. One had a Celeron N5105, another had the J1900 CPU, both seemed performant for my applications. I was not running anything graphics intensive.

I tried a $90 USD UXX and a $110 MinsForum, with intel N4020 celeron CPUs, gave up on both of those. The one couldn't be configured to boot automatically when the power is switched on, both had insurmountable ethernet power-save features that interfered with ethercat.

I was asking  about:

From here there is only "board not found"

What program printed that message?

As Unknown mentioned, posting your hal and ini files would help diagnosis.

Note that pncconf cannot currently make configuration files for the 7I97/7I97T
so the options are to use MesaCT or start with a sample 7I97 configuration
and modify it to suit your hardware:

 
 

.3 is from the starting poin. If you're .15 from the edge it's only going to move .15 past the edge. Step off should be adjusted until you comfortably clear the edges.

If you're still having issues you can check your car file to see if your are correctly updating.

Yes, I have the probe tip dia set

My start position was well inside of the .3, it’s pretty small stock. All the outside corners behave the same, I didn’t check the inside.

.3 pretty small unless you have it real close to the corner when you start. Do you have the probe tip diameter set in the tool table?

Do the other corners behave the same?

pretty sure i have all the setting correct as that was my first suspicion. I have already calibrated the probe and used it to find the center and z height of the stock.. I don't think that would have been possible with bad values? Or am i wrong? I will check again tomorrow. I used the original PB for several years so I am pretty familiar.  Also, the pictures are confusing; the second pic the probe had already completed the x measurement and moved into position for the Y.  the probe did step off the correct .3" in the x direction.

I'm interested in trying this out. Where can I get the Arduino source code?

Step off width.

Read the probe help on the probing page for explanations on how probing settings works.

Thank you I got it working. Today I attempted to probe a top left outside corner and noticed that when the routine went to probe the "Y" side the probe does not move over enough to the positive X to probe the material.  It does like it should when it probes the X.  It does the same on all outside corners.  It probes the center position just fine.  I attached a pic of the probe start position and where it fails to move over enough. Any ides on what to look for?

Aciera wrote:

I'll try to have a look at the '9D' branch later. Thanks.

which I got not much feedback..


Just as a word of caution from my own experience:
You mustn't expect to much from a forum thread like this. Few people will even read a post that long, fewer still look at the code and hardly anybody will even try to understand it. I know of at least one long time contributor, since retired, who got quite bitter about trying to get sustained and involved feedback here. Even from the very people asking for the specific feature.

I will do it because I want to, don't need cheering up much, although it is nice, it is more about doing something that I can share with everyone, and we are all roughly on the same page, as to what has to be done, but I will do it regardless, and then it can stay in a fork, or merged, we will see...

Does mesaflash see the card ?
Usually in these situations it is help to attach your ini & hal files and the error reports from when Linuxcnc fails.

I am not sure I understand your question?
This is my last attempt to make it work after having spend days trying to figure out how to configure Linuxcnc to work with my Mesa 7i97T.

So far it has been a nightmare -expensive in time and money.

I opened another thread and have them posted there.