Advanced Search

@auric, Don't be afraid to ask on your own thread. Sometimes thats best so we can follow your journey.
Some of the Intel stuff is a bit dated now as we worked to make ethercat easier for you. The simplest way to get linuxcnc and ethercat right now is to download the 2.94 ISO from Linuxcnc's download page and install it on a PC from a thumb drive
Then follow the steps in this thread to get linuxcnc and ethercat going. This will give you Debian Bookworm and linuxcnc 2.9.4 which is only missing a couple of minor bug fixes in the latest 2.9.7 
forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/45336-etherc...-how-to-step-by-step
Today, the linuxcnc ethercat hal driver is hosted on the iGh ethercat repository. There are some licensing reasons preventing us to install the ethercat master on our ISO so we do the next best thing and est up the system files so you can install their ethercat master with a single command..

Anyway, back to hal, Linuxcnc's hardware abstraction layer. Linuxcnc is always the motion controller so it has the full power of your PC st its disposal instead of on an emasculated embedded PC like some other CNC systems on Windows use. This requires using the PREMPT_RT real time kernel. Linuxcnc runs a real time servo thread synced to ethercat which fires 1000 times a second. The hal file  (a text file) defines how all of the parts of a CNC machine are connected together. eg where are estops, home and limit switches connected etc.  The Hal file also loads the ethercat hal driver with  an XML file for ethercat to define your ethercat slaves, PIDs. MIDs etc.  The linuxcnc ini file defines the actual physical hardware. eg how many axes, is it metric or imperial, what gui is opened, encoder resolution per rev, max velocitiy and accelleration per axis, the kinematics model etc.

To see what hal can do, go to our documents  linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/ and click on the expand man pages button and review the hal components that can be loaded in your hal file. If that's not enough, you can write your own custom components in a C like environment that can be compiled and installed into linuxcnc with halcompile. Once your custom components is installed it is treated as if its part of the linuxcnc core! 

Oh and Sitner's original ethercat hal  driver has been taken over by Scott Laird, modernized and extended including automated build processes that publishes any changes in the code to the iGh repository. Since then, the uptake of ethercat has exploded as its no longer necessary to modify and build anything from source.
 

I apologize for posting here; I couldn't find a more suitable topic, and I was afraid to start a new one. I've become interested in EtherCAT, and I think I've even figured it out at some level. I often work with CNC, but I haven't worked with LinuxCNC yet. I've become intrigued by how users connect the hardware and the CNC itself (after all, EtherCAT has already made significant inroads into drives and other areas). A simple search for "LinuxCNC EtherCAT" yields several interesting topics. First, I wanted to understand the HAL: am I correct in assuming it's a set of specific instructions that configure the CNC itself so that a task is sent to another process that handles EtherCAT? Or is it not just settings, but also a process or driver of some sort?
What is most often used to connect the CNC and the servo drives themselves?
I found this page while searching: eci.intel.com/docs/3.3/development/tutor...enable-linuxcnc.html. If I understand correctly, it suggests using the IgH EtherCAT Master Stack and the LinuxCNC EtherCAT Driver. I'm confused, because the IgH EtherCAT Master is an open-source development from etherlab.org. What does Intel have to do with it, and why is it sometimes referred to as the ECI EtherCAT Master Stack? What does the LinuxCNC EtherCAT Driver (github.com/sittner/linuxcnc-ethercat.git) do in the bundle? And what does Intel Edge Control do then?

I would just use pncconf to setup a G540 configuration (config page): 

 

And the setup the pins on the P2 tab: 

 


The main thing that's awkward is the mapping of GPIO pins for things like  limit/home switches

and spindle-on, but you can list the GPIO/G540 correspondence with mesaflash:
something like:

mesaflash --device 7I92T --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid --dbname1 g540 

ChatGPT is just a time sink here

Hi there. Any chance you still have your ini or HAL?

I’m having issues with my 4 axis with when I release the clamps the table “bumps” abit and then goes into joint error. I’m also not fining any Info on the scale settings for it.

Thanks Rob. So it will make sense then to force the eth0 irq to the last core?

Yes I don’t do that. Machine always off.

Yes I’ve done that also in pnconfig. Then you can just select XYZ /XYZA


The TRK6 4-U uses its own internal Tacho system/signal it just receives an external 0-9V signal to power the spindle. Now I don’t know if people tap into that 15V Tacho signal somehow. I know of Marc’s post there was someone that retro fitted an encoder on the spindle motor, assuming that’s for being able
To tap?

Chat GPT is uesless for more things Linuxcnc related.

Googling "linuxcnc 7i92 g540" (the TF denotes a different fpga but it functions the same)gets me this (possibly the most in depth one, I dont think too much has changed in pncconf since 2023):
forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-configuratio...and-g540-combination

This one has some simple hal files to look at:
forum.linuxcnc.org/49-basic-configuratio...indle-encoder-issues

forum.linuxcnc.org/39-pncconf/29692-can-...re-mesa-7i92?start=0

Some of them are a little old, hopefully PCW will chime in with some up to date info.
I think the first link has some screenshots of PncConf.

chomp

Are you using a centered home position with + and - in each axis?

Read the probe help yeah to understand all of they parameters.

Hello all. I have been trying to get this setup running forever. I'm embarrassed so say how many hours I've spent googling, typing in terminal commands, letting Chatgpt hallucinate answers, and reading 'official' web pages. The official page for PnCConf shows me completely different screens than the ones I see, with the latest version installed. 

Is ANYONE using this configuration? If not, what would you recommend that actually works? I went from Mach3 on an ancient XP machine with a DB25 serial port. I was told this would be the upgrade solution that just works. It's done anything but. 

I have the proper firmware flashed to the 7i92TF for the G540. The computer is able to ping the Mesa card. 

I cannot figure out how to configure PnCConf for this setup. I cannot find any directions that show me the screens I actually see. 

Any help would be immensely appreciated. I am ready to give up and walk away from 2 years worth of design work done during the pandemic, because I cannot get some seemingly simple hardware to talk to each other. 

Scott Jennings
Route 66 Guitars 

Solved: MAX X/Y value of 110 was too high for my small machine.

I was able to do probe calibration by significantly increasing my axis min/max values for X and Y

However, this doesn't solve the issue as I cannot do any regular probing of parts anywhere on my travels without these artificially increased values. Does anyone have any ideas on what offsets might be causing this? My probing was working previously.

I am reclaibrating my probe due to issues I was having in a separate thread, this time using a gauge block. Previously I calibrated it using a 5mm gauge ring and the calibration cycle worked fine. However, every time I try to calibrate on this gauge block I get an error saying I am exceeding either X or Y's negative limit and I can't seem to figure out why this is happening. I am not anywhere close to my axis travel limits. I am attaching pictures of my tool and probe settings. They seem fine to me? I have tried varying the stepoff and nothing changes it. It seems like there is an offset / ini issue that is colliding with the way the probe cal works but I can't figure it out. I currently have my X min limit set to -8 but I tried adjusting it to -16 and I am still getting the same error.  


The picture shows a step off of 20 but I tried reducing it all the way down to 6 incase my min axis values of 16 were somehow messing with it and it did not fix the issue

EDIT I just realized..even if I go back to my old probe_cal value and try to probe a boss, I am getting the axis limit issues as well so it seems like something strange has happened

I was using a mix of ChatGPT as well as YouTube and this forum, ChatGPT works well for more specific but simple issues but as you said, it’s often not 100% correct but for a novice like myself, it gets close enough.

I was using the XYZ congfig as I thought I was the most similar to what I wanted as I will eventually have a third axis. My main issue is I can’t work out how to make it use scara kinematics as I don’t think it’s an option PNCconfig so I think I’ll have to manually edit the files. I am also using the Axis GUI but I’m not sure if I maybe am running into issues with joint vs world mode. My current setup is a 1:2 scale 3d printed model with no homing or anything so I’m really just trying to have a proof of concept. I can make my motors spin. Scara exists in linuxcnc, now I just need to combine them together.

Alright I think that puts us on the right track.

I wasnt really too attached to QtPlasmaC, I just saw the word "plasma" and selected it. Also thought it looked nice.

I did previously create a config with Axis GUI as well but it was more so for testing the motors out, so I will switch back to that and see what I can do.

Thanks! Hopefully my next post is of a finished machine.