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File -> Edit Tool Table
You can manually enter the offsets of any tool.
(don't forget to reload it after editing)

The part that confused me is that the tool offset is not the offset of the *tool*, but how much you have to move the *spindle* to make the tool tip be in the right place.

That's why when you measure a longer tool, you get a bigger number, so people think it's "tool length" but internally it's not. My laser has X and Y offsets too, so when I switch to the laser the whole machine moves to put the laser in the right spot.

Yes, very familiar withTool length setting and setters, including those with RFID chips in a production facility, but my machine for sure has no way to straight forwardly attach a gauge to a non moveable part,
In fact that's an interesting question, if say I had an iso30 tool length setter, that measured the tool tip to taper gauge point, where exactly would you store that number in Linuxcnc?

Anyway, All the bits I'll ever make are more or less one offs, and every tool set will be unique, so for now I'll use the method I have worked out until it bites back.

did you turn on power to the Mesa card before starting linuxcnc?

1. Suggested pullup is 2.2K 1/2w for 24V. The only disadvantage of the pullup is the wiring nuisance.
10K will not work.

2. Enable on simple step/dir drives is not of much value safety wise as it's very unlikely to have a runaways
without the control generating step/dir pulses (and step generation will stop on a LinuxCNC or communication fault)

3. Its important that the default state of 7I76EU outputs be the safe state as all outputs will return to the power up state on
communication loss. This initial state is all outputs open circuited (this is true even if the outputs were set to push-pull mode)

Well, I can't recommend the servo reference run!
The problem is that it is not monitored. If an axis does not move, Linuxcnc does not notice. It happened to me again today. During homing, a Y-axis does not start moving, even though I waited until all axes were OP.
I will switch back to Linuxcnc homing.
It's a pity that the servos do not output the Z signal. 

Hi Chris,

I am working on document gladevcp-panels.html .
github.com/zz912/linuxcnc/commit/82dffc8...3c20d188c83819948735


How to avoid duplication information?
What information should be in Readme.md?
What information should be in gladevcp-panels.html?

Is it possible to link from one document to another?

I would prefer to leave Readme.md as is and add only the usage instructions to gladevcp-panels.html. But it has to be linked to each other.

I don't know how to link them.

Added1:
I tested your new "Available built-in VCP Panels" list and it return [CRITICAL] . Is it OK?

 

For a knee mill, right, you'd need a reference measurement each time you move the non-cnc-controlled part. If both the quill and knee are controlled by linuxcnc, you should be able to combine their locations into a single "virtual" fixed table measurement.

Or, don't put your toolsetter on the moving part of the mill

The important thing to remember is that tool lengths are relative to *each other* so as long as your technique knows that, it should work. You can't just measure a tool against something random and expect it to work.

In big shops, tools are measured outside the machine, relative to the seating plane of the tool holder - which means every tool is measured relative to (essentially) a fixed point on the spindle itself. Win! You could do this too, if you have a way to accurately measure the stick-out of the bit relative to a fixed point on the quill.

rodw wrote:

Life has got more complicated. With proper kernel tuning, latency can be better with Debian 13. I am in the process of publishing a second video about this on YouTube. Please refer to my channel. www.youtube.com/@MrRodW
The yet to be published video should be watched before the current one.

My apologies and thanks. A beginner in these things missed something; I thought it was just copy and paste, but it's all different. My processor only has 4 cores, how could a number 7 be working? But now I think I understand, and I did some tests changing the isolcpus values. I stress-tested two YouTube videos and one video on the PC plus 8 glxgears and got this result.

I am really glad, you most certainly deserved it.
Congratulations.

A real, metal medal on a ribbon even.

openuk.uk/honours/

 

Hey everyone, 

1.5 years ago i bought a CNC mill. It was a used portal cnc (barely used) with chineese base and german splindle, table, controller and linear rails upgrade by a manufacturer in Germany. It was based on CNC Graf and I always had issues with it. Either Fusion to cnc gcode was faulty, did not execute all commands etc. etc. etc. 
I grew and also wanted to build a large scale foam cutter for 1:1 RC plane replicas. So i said its the perfect time to retrofit the old cnc and to build the new 4 axis foam wire cutter and build it with linuxcnc and on the base of mesa7176EU. 
I bought all parts for the wire cutter and some upgrades for the existing cnc (touch probe, hand wheel, two tool measure sensors). 

This is the wire cutter design i made. 
https://imgur.com/a/XOdKh2n

I had so many issues even getting linuxcnc up and running for the mesa ...  Of course due to my limited experience with debian but also since there are so many unknowns on the mesa world as well.
I thought I will share my project (s) here and also post the wiring diagram and the configuration as i am continuing. 
Right now i finally got the motors spinning and hal machine enabled properly and am working on setting up the limit switches for the axis. 

The first questions that are right now open are in this direction. I will post later the configuration right now for the portal CNC. The wire-cutter is build in parrallel but priority has of course the retrofit of the portalCNC to get at least one thing back online. Wirecutter:

1. How do I configure multiple Y and Z axis in axis configuration for wire. I have two L legs basically so i need to control 4 Axis. In the linuxCNC setup i only saw the configuration for the XZY and XZYA. It should in the end basically have two heads .

Portal CNC

1. We have NPN NO sensors and are connecting them to a mesa board that has “sinking inputs”. I understand that a pull up resistor is required for it to work, but is it the “good way” or would it be better and safer to use a PNP NC Sensor.  Bear in mind that our sensor is a limit and homing switch for each axis. And if a pullup resistor is okay to go with, then will the difference between 2kOhm and 10kOhm  be important for accuracy ?
2. Stepper driver DM556 ENA+ and ENA - with mesa 7i76eu.
   The default for them is to be left not connected when using different controls(STEP+- and DIR+-), but are there any long term downsides to it? any way to use them for improving safety of cnc operation.
3.  If I understand correctly, reversing inputs/outputs in HAL makes changes operational only when the linux cnc terminal is operational and connected to the mesa board, in any other state the outputs will be “as they are” not “as set up” ? Or some of the configuration (In systems like(PC(Linuxcnc) - ethernet - mesa) is stored on mesa? If so, then what are the good practices about what should be done hardware wise and what can be safely done software side.

andypugh wrote:

So, are you saying that
"addf pwmgen.make-pulses base-thread"
Causes the PC to shut down and need a reset?

Is it possible that your base-thread period is shorter than the base-thread latency?

Yes, disabling that line makes everything work except for the PWM spindle.

Which parallel port breakout?

Can you post your hal/ini files?
 

To echo what rodw said:

Create a simple configuration with pncconf or MesaCT

Test this configuration by launching it from the command line

if there are issues you cannot resolve, post your error messages,  hal/ini files here

XY2-100 needs at minimum 3 differential outputs
(X data Y Data and clock) so you would likely need some
kind of daughter-card like a Mesa ENC422 that converts
single ended TTL level signals to differential signals.
in conjunction with the 7I97Ts parallel expansion port

(The converter is really just one chip (26LS31 equivalent on a small PCB)