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Yeah, I commented those out to get LinuxCNC to start so I could look at the halui component in halshow, to see if maybe the pins were numbered differently than I expected or something. With those lines uncommented LinuxCNC won't start, since the mdi-command-NN pins don't exist.

Thanks for mentioning it though, I've certainly had forest-for-trees errors like that before where another pair of eyes spotted the problem immediately. 

Just in case you are not aware that in the # Syringe section in your postgui.hal everything regarding mdi-command is commented out.

I’m aware of how it’s _supposed_ to work, my question is what I’m doing wrong in my configs that make halui not expose mdi-command-00 etc pins despite the presence of MDI_COMMAND entries in the [HALUI] INI section, and HALUI=halui in the [HAL] section?

Hello all,

I'm a basic user of LCNC - I know it reasonably well, but don't use a tool changer, only have a basic through tool Z probe which gets occasional use - you get the idea: my set-up is pretty rudimentary but I get good results and productive use out of the software.

When I need to find the centre of a circular feature I've been touching a dowel off at three points around a circumference (fag paper or multimeter method) and feeding three sets of X,Y coordinates into a spreadsheet which then works out the centre for me, like so:





Here's the sheet in OpenOffice format.

It works, but I was wondering if there was a way to incorporate a simple centre finder tab into the interface, something that would look a little like this:

 

The first three buttons to touch off the three positions on the circumference and the 'FIND CENTRE' button to perform four ops:

Calculate the X,Y centre coordinates
Lift the Z axis to its G53 0
Move to the calculated X,Y centre
Set G54 (or current WCS) X,Y to 0,0

So I guess there would need to be six variables that get written using date from 'current position' numbered parameters #5420 & #5421

POSA_X
POSA_Y
POSB_X
POSB_Y
POSC_X
POSC_Y

And then the two calculated variables that are used in a subroutine to lift and move the spindle to the centre and zero out X,Y at the new position

CNTR_X
CNTR_Y

I get that this is still clunkier than using a probe, but I honestly have little need for one!  If I have to keep punching the numbers into the spreadsheet then that's fine, but to have this in a tab would be cool.  Am I thinking about this in the right way?

How would you tackle it?

Many thanks.

Wal.

If anyone stumbles on this looking for a solution I was able to work it out in hal using wcomp and some and, or, not components. Basically I used the wcomp to check the startup position from the last_position.txt file, then using a bit of funny logic I made it so after the joints hits the home switch in the positive direction, the wcomp keeps the home switch closed for the remainder of the positive direction travel, then in the negative direction I used the min wcomp output to disable the home switch input for the remainder of the negative travel. So the home switch only properly works in a narrow joint position range. With this setup the normal homing routine does exactly what I need. When the joint is in the positive direction it backs off until it's in the proper range and in the negative direction it ignores the physical switch until it's in the proper range. There's some silly logic with some and/or/not comps which I'm sure could be made more elegant, but it does work.

An MDI command can be executed by using halui.mdi-command-00
Here is an example showing how it 's done:

linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gui/halui.html
 

I found a few lpf files.. like the one litex generates, and the one here:
github.com/ZeroMips/Colorlight-5A-75B-gp.../master/gpiotest.lpf

However, when I program the bitstream, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Even a simple led blink. 

Opening the lpf in Lattice Diamond, I notice that these lpf files show errors in the spreadsheet view.. so I think Lattice is ignoring the pin assignments all together?

 

W8 must be down

To see the 5ABOB specific pinout:

mesaflash --device 7i96 --addr 10.10.10.10 --dbname3 5abob --readhmid

For posterity, I have managed to solve this by writing a little HAL component  that works by switching between OR and AND depending on whether the machine is over the tool setter with the touch probe loaded in the spindle. Feels a bit like redneck engineering, but hey, if it works it works.

There's also a simplistic probe crash protection, I was actually surprised when I wasn't able to find this feature elsewhere.

thank you for the help, I did a fresh install using the latest image and got mesaflash to work, the proper firmware is now on the board.

I have a few more questions before I fry my card

when connecting the bob o the 7i96 in what position should W8 be?

what is the correct adress for the P1/PWM pin on the bob?