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found a meldas 300 controller with most of the parts. got it working and initializing a MR-S11 drive. hooked up a logic analyzer and it looks fairly straight forward... next, i need to get the motor spinning and rig up some kind of an interface board...

Don't worry about GND or Power when counting inputs. Just the actual input itself.

Wow
It worked,
Kudos to you, Robbbbbb

Yes that's it, openly is only version 2.1 mesa 22.3.6
Can I just upgrade this?

rodw wrote:

the new GUI's you are considering are more touch friendly than Gmocappy which has a lot of tabs you need to open all the time . eg jogging.
QT dragon has a lot flatter UI but still has plenty of tabs but the jogging controls are always exposed.

Yeah, I just had another look around and found a very short video of Probe Basic being demo'ed with touch on a 21.5'' screen which actually looks like a nice size for me. Still a bit "far" from end to end, but I like the bigger text, icons and sliders. 
I'll be buying the screen secondhand, so what's available will also be a factor.

Cant do this anymore bye all wrote:

Simplifying things.
DIgital has 2 distinct states either 1 or 0 , using 5 volt logic as example:
5v = Logic 1
0v = Logic 0
A simple on off switch would give you these 2 values.

Anlaogue on the other hand... would have an infinite amount of voltages between 0v & 5v, ie any voltage between 0v & 5v.
A rheostat or potentiometer will give these voltages.

Turning a knob on a rheostat gives you an analogue signal. eg like a old school light dimmer, the like will go from dim to bright
Flicking a switch on & off gives you a digital signal. eg a light switch, will turn the light on or off.

 

That was a great explanation, thanks:)

Now, a question to properly cement my ignorance. Let's say I have a Dig signal coming into the MESA, like a probe or tool setter - how many pins will it take up? Is it two pins? Is one of them ground and if so, can the ground just go "anywhere"? Would it be the same for analog?
I am trying to get my head around how to actually count how many IOs I will be using in total and how many pins it will take up...

I am looking to buy a used mini/micro PC to run my router via a MESA board. 
I've looked through more posts and latency lists than I care to admit and the more I look, the more confused I am getting.  
What stuck with me were mentionings that newer generation PCs can be more trouble in terms of bios settings and killing "features" but I don't know what constitutes "newer" or if there's any hard rules on this. 
On the other hand, since I only have one other computer for my work, private stuff and my Fusion endeavors (a Mac laptop), I thought it would also be nice to go with a slightly newer mini PC in case my Mac dies all of a sudden while I have to CAD/CAM some stuff. So, basically, the machine PC could be a backup for Fusion work. Doesn't have to be a powerhouse, just something that would work in a pinch. 

I've made a list of what I can get my hands on pretty easily from 2014-2019, all mini PCs. All USD 60-80 so not enough difference price wise to worry. I am sticking to Dells and Lenovos for now - enough rabbit holes as it is with this build, haha.
Any of these that you think I should stay away from, any you like more? 

Lenovo Thinkcentre

• M93p, I5-4570T, 1 x 8GB, 128GB SSD, 2014
• M93p, I7-4790T, 2 x 4GB, 120GB SSD, 2014
• M900, I5-6500T, 1 x 8GB, 256GB SSD, 2016
• M910q, i5-7600T, 1x8GB, 256GB M2, 2019

Dell Optiplex (Micro Form Factor)

• Dell 9020M, i5-4590T, 8GB, 240GB SSD, 2014
• Dell 3050MFF, i5-6500T, 8GB, 256GB NVME, 2017
• Dell 5070MFF, i5-6500, 8GB, 256GB NVME, 2019

the new GUI's you are considering are more touch friendly than Gmocappy which has a lot of tabs you need to open all the time . eg jogging.
QT dragon has a lot flatter UI but still has plenty of tabs but the jogging controls are always exposed.

I would love me some "real switches" but I know LCNC in itself will be a big enough rabbit hole to start with.
I already have a folder with snaps of consoles for inspiration, but I am trying not to look at it. Trying to stay simple for now with a touchscreen and a keyboard.

This is also my first CNC so once I have run it for a while, I'd have a much, much better idea of whether I wanna take on a panel project and what I would actually like to have on it.

Hi Rod,
Thanks for weighing in:)
It might very well be an older post of yours that got lodged somewhere in the back of my mind as to the larger movements larger screens would need.
I'll strike 24'' off the list.

I tend to think, just from looking at screen grabs, that ProbeBasic might like a bit more real estate whereas QTDragon might still look alright on a slightly smaller screen.

My eyes aren't what they used to be which is another reason, I am willing to aim a bit bigger and I think 17 might be just a wee bit too little for my liking. Maybe 19-22'', then.

Aciera wrote:

You really should give Ethercat a try!
It's not for lack of interest. Seems to be the way things are headed but I'm usually in need of all kinds of different digital/analog IO, encoder inputs and generally more unconventional setups. When you factor in support for such things MESA hardware is just really hard to beat.

Work on it! Ethercat does add more complexity because you need to configure it as well. All of the IO you want is available and there is a lot less wiring.. Encoder inputs are pretty expensive via Beckhoff but there is one user using a catio chinese module which has it all.. I use RS485 to control my spindle and skipped the encoder as thread milling works. I almost decided on using a PWM outputs on my IO module to control the spindle. I just have to finish off a Mesa control box over the next couple of weeks before I sort out internal homing which should simplify wiring again.

"I'll need to update the firmware with the absolute position feedback and spike filter like we've done in the NVEM / EC300 / EC500 firmware and in the dev version of the original Remora. Solves those following error spikes. "


Hallo Scotta, did you have it time to update the firmware?
Thanks!

I have 15.6" which is a tad small. 17" would be my choice. Go too big and you have to move your hand too far between elements. Thats what I found with 24" on my first machine using gmocappy

Why we don't go all the way and design a RISCV Linuxcnc SoC ? I think I can pay anyone willing a cup of coffee, just bear in mind I ain't Elon Musk (actually I can't even afford to replace my old car that had to go to scrapyard). hahahahaha

All lscpu gives is info on the cpu, nothing else is reported, and it's really not the info needed.
You haven't given any indication of your error your error, I skipped mind reading & ESP classes at school

Please upload the error Linuxcnc is giving and all the files, ini, hal & xml & any extra files your ini file loads. Screenshots aren't really much help, ever tried using grep to look for a string in a screen shot ? Just a little joke there mate.

Put up the right info and you'll get the help you want.