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Is there much to say about it? Both Mesa and EtherCAT work, and work well.

We do miss an EtherCAT documentation page linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/.
Much info is scattered here in the forum and at a few github pages. This could be better.

It's not uncommon to have some configuration issues, specifically with the ethercat-conf.xml file.
This adds to the complexity. Mesa has a pncconf tool, there is nothing similar for EtherCAT.
The forum people can come to help if you get stuck on that.
Once configured, my impression is that an EtherCAT system just runs.

Both parallel ports and Mesa have their weak points but people have worked around them for many years and don't see them anymore.
EtherCAT has one unique weak point  forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/58227-how-go...trol?start=10#341798
which isn't to difficult to work around.

Your Leadshine EL8 drives have several digital IOs that you can use for general purposes.
This may make the Beckhoff components redundant. Worth checking.

 

Ismacr63 wrote:

Would it be possible to configure the parallel port in "in" or "x" mode to have more ports?

The only way to know for sure is to test it, most will work, but some will not.
And you can not get more ports, the limit is 17, but you can choose between more inputs or more outputs:
OUT = 12 out 5 in
IN = 4 out 13 in
X = 8 out 9 in
Be aware that pins 1,14,16,17 require more current to trigger when set as inputs.

A D-200 would have come with a 3hp Porter Cable router or the optional engraver head. Either way you will need to fabricate mounts for what ever spindle you choose to get. The D-200 is also very limited in vertical travel so you will be limited to mostly sheet material. These machines were made for primarily for sign making and are really just suitable for milling wood and light aluminum, They are quite light compared to a real metal working milling machine.

You might be able to make an adapter sleeve to fit the common 80mm diameter 2.2kw spindles sold on ebay and elsewhere to fit the 4.2inch hole for the Porter Cable router.

Don't rule out the possibility that there are electrical issues with the stepper motors/drives. A bad connection between the motor and drive can often cause problems or even kill a drive. Also make sure that the screws turn freely without any binding. Start with slow accelerations and max velocities and longer step timings increasing until you find the limits of the machine, then reduce to give you a safety margin.

On the flip side, all the electronics are in the drives so there is no control board to fail so you could argue Ethercat has fewer failure points do more reliable. I do like Mesa but Ethercat is easier to wire. Hers is a Ethercat plasma control box somebody shared with me today.

 

One small Chinese IO module and a Proma plasma THC

Seeme like Linuxcnc is set up assuming premeasured tools in a magazine. HOweer you can do this with repeatable tooling or adopt TTD in your MT3 or R8 spindle. When I set up QtDragon, I bought a tool setter and the tiny marble plate with a hole in it from Tormach. I measured all my tools in the toolsetter Including the 3D probe as tool 99.So after touching off with tool 99 with the probing routines, QTdragon asked me to change the tool manually and continue. This worked very well as you could run out a singlee gcode file instead of running  out seperate files for each tool the eold fashioned way!

Yes, I completely agree, it could be more dangerous than practical. Do you think any alternative would be to install a physical button on one of the ports to activate the spindle?

I have a parallel port with all the ports occupied. Would it be possible to configure the parallel port in "in" or "x" mode to have more ports?

The xml settings for the spindle using an EL8-1000 are:
<code>
      <!-- Spindle Leadshine EL8 1000 servo drive -->
    <slave idx="4" type="generic" vid="00004321" pid="000010c4" configPdos="true">
      <dcConf assignActivate="300" sync0Cycle="*1" sync0Shift="0"/>
      <syncManager idx="2" dir="out">
          <pdo idx="1601">
              <pdoEntry idx="6040" subIdx="00" bitLen="16" halPin="cia-controlword" halType="u32"/>
              <pdoEntry idx="6060" subIdx="00" bitLen="8" halPin="opmode" halType="s32"/>
             <!--  <pdoEntry idx="6098" subIdx="00" bitLen="8" halPin="homing-method" halType="s32"/> -->
              <pdoEntry idx="6071" subIdx="00" bitLen="16" halPin="target-torque" halType="s32"/>
              <pdoEntry idx="6071" subIdx="00" bitLen="16" halPin="target-torque-dummy" halType="s32"/>
              <pdoEntry idx="607A" subIdx="00" bitLen="32" halPin="target-position" halType="s32"/>
              <pdoEntry idx="60FF" subIdx="00" bitLen="32" halPin="target-velocity" halType="s32"/>
          </pdo>
         </syncManager>
         <syncManager idx="3" dir="in">
             <pdo idx="1a00">
                 <pdoEntry idx="6041" subIdx="00" bitLen="16" halPin="cia-statusword" halType="u32"/>
                 <pdoEntry idx="6061" subIdx="00" bitLen="8" halPin="opmode-display" halType="s32"/>
                 <pdoEntry idx="6064" subIdx="00" bitLen="32" halPin="actual-position" halType="s32"/>
                 <pdoEntry idx="606C" subIdx="00" bitLen="32" halPin="actual-velocity" halType="s32"/>
                 <pdoEntry idx="6077" subIdx="00" bitLen="16" halPin="actual-torque" halType="s32"/>
             </pdo>
         </syncManager>
    </slave>
</code>
 

Very nice enclosure!
I am also building a Samurai 120 with Leadshine EL8's and LinuxCNC.
My own enclosure is made from aluminium extrusions and is nowhere near as nice as yours.

My solution to the spindle drive problem has been to use a Leadshine EL8-1000 drive and a Leadshine ELM2-1000 motor for the spindle, replacing the original motor and drive. The new drive and motor are 1000W instead of the 1200W of the original Samurai but the motor is a straight drop-in replacement (same mounting holes and hardware, slightly shorter motor overall) and seems both very well built and with a decent overload margin so I suspect the final performance will be very close if not the same, and sticking with EL8's throughout means only one learning curve for manufacturer quirks etc.

When you do that, the same Marco Reps LinuxCNC servo scheme works for driving the spindle, except that the EL8 settings are slightly different to his Metronix spindle settings (for example Leadshine does in PDO idx 1601 a lot of what Metronix does in PDO idx 1600). You also need to factor in the belt ratio from motor to spindle to get the right RPM.

I am also adding small pneumatic cylinders to pull up a bit on the spindle carriage and take the Z-axis weight load, mounted with some sheet metal brackets I ordered from PCBWay that attach around the Z-axis motor atop the column.
 

Der grundsätzliche Unterschied ist, dass du bei EtherCAT keinen Lieferanten hast der Support anbietet. Wenn bei Mesa was nicht geht wird Mesa helfen können sowohl bei der Hardware wie auch bei der Anbindung an LinuxCNC. Wenn aber bei EtherCAT was nicht geht bist du auf Goodwill hier im Forum angewiesen weil Leadshine sich kaum für deine Probleme interessieren wird.

It does load in master now, but it takes a long time to get Qtdragon to show.

Lots of messages about un found widgets:

I'll now look at work flow to see what I can produce
 

If you get counts when there is no activity, that sounds like a noise issue

Is the encoder filter bit set true?
 
setp hm2_7i97.0.encoder.00.filter true

(for channel 00)

Probably, but I'm not sure what the best way to do it would be. I really hate using the keyboard for things like that because it can be dangerous under some conditions. I use a touch screen and it's easy the way the ui is setup to just use the on screen controls for that type scenario. the risk of accidentally turning something like the spindle on while typing scares the crap out of me. The focus of the ui components can alter keyboard behavior so if you think your in a lineedit but focus is somewhere else in the ui you could easily trigger the spindle inadvertantly. How many times have you typed something only to look up and see no text in the box because I had not set focus on the entry when I thought I had. Bad scary..lol

Glad you got it sorted!

Got it, thank you