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Retrofit: Maho MH400E naar LinuxCNC

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently started converting my Maho MH400E to LinuxCNC, and I’d like to share my progress here. I was inspired by RotarySMP—his posts gave me the courage to take on this project. Initially, I tried to get the original Philips control system working, but unfortunately, I couldn't get it to function. That led me to take the plunge and retrofit the machine with LinuxCNC.

Understanding the machine
To better understand how everything works, I fully translated the original manual into English. This has made it much easier to follow, especially when cross-referencing signals and system behavior.
Additionally, I’ve been diving into the control cabinet wiring and schematics, making sense of the machine's logic and how it all ties together.

Mesa hardware choices
RotarySMP used PCI-based Mesa cards, but since those are becoming outdated, I went with a different setup. After some research and trial and error, I decided on the following Mesa cards:
✅ 7i94T (Ethernet FPGA card)
✅ 7i77 (Analog servo interface)
✅ 7i84 (I/O expander)

So far, this combination seems to be working well, though I'm still troubleshooting some issues.

Current LinuxCNC setup
For now, I'm running LinuxCNC on an old laptop. It works, but eventually, I plan to upgrade to a dedicated PC.
As for the user interface, I’m currently leaning towards QtDragon, but that choice is still open for discussion.

What has been done so far:
1️⃣ Completely cleaned the machine (it was necessary!).
2️⃣ Organized the wiring in the control cabinet—technically not needed, but very satisfying.
3️⃣ Removed the original Philips CNC controller and monitor.
4️⃣ Translated the full machine manual into English.
5️⃣ Started analyzing the control cabinet logic and making sense of the schematics.

Current status of the Mesa cards/LinuxCNC setup:
✔️ I successfully established a connection with the 7i94T, which is in turn connected to the 7i77 via ribbon cable.
⚠️ However, I’m currently facing an issue, for which I have an open question on the forum.

I’ll be adding some photos of the machine and the Mesa cards soon. Looking forward to sharing more progress and learning from the community!

Did you figure it out? I want to use a Rust library in my VCP, but I only know how to install it as a package in a virtual environment.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been stuck on this issue for quite a while now and I cannot figure out what’s going wrong. I’m very new to LinuxCNC, but I’ve been programming for quite a few years (and I feel like a junior dev all over again! ).

I’m getting an error when trying to run LinuxCNC with my linuxcnc.ini file. I hope someone can help explain what’s going on and how to fix it.

Here is the output when I start LinuxCNC:

Has anyone encountered this before? I suspect it’s related to the motmod module, but I’m not sure how to resolve it.

I’ve attached the relevant configuration and log files:







Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Got the new version, built and tested. This one works as well, no big difference from the previous version.
Maybe the linearity is a bit better, it goes to zero Volt now when there is no voltage.
 

View from initial test.
 

I just upgraded from a 2019 version of PlasmaC to the current QTplasmaC on a new SSD. I now am having massive issues with latency/jitter. I’m running a BRIX mini pc that’s sporting a J1900. In the past it was fine but now it wont even run. I went into the bios and disabled everything like I did in the past and disabled Wifi. I think befor my max jitter was like 20k but now the max jitter is Max Jitter (ns) 129316 / 106580

Am I just out of options with this older mini pc? Is it time to look for a more powerful cpu mini PC? 

thanks for all your help. 

For your coolant flood, you would use the "toggle2nist" component.
It has 4 hal pins:
toggle2nist.N.in Would connect to the output signal from your button input.
toggle2nist.N.is-on Would connect to the output signal from the hal pin "halui.flood.is-on".
toggle2nist.N.on Would connect to the input signal to the hal pin "halui.flood.on".
toggle2nist.N.off Would connect to the input signal to the hal pin "halui.flood.off".

There is not any pre defined pins designated for lube or spindle release. You must build your own logic to handle these functions.

Often machine integrators will set up custom M-codes (M100-199) that turn the required hal pins on or off. Then implement special logic (Hal or PLC) to prevent or enable the states as necessary. Such as preventing the tool from being released if the spindle is running.

The issue is that the disk is not listed there.
Motherboard is MSI. I will try something else later today, but does not look promising.

I would consider integrating a drive using RS485 a more advanced subject.

Start with reading the Linuxcnc documentation, and begin with a basic configuration for running your machine without spindle control. Then after you have a better handle on Linuxcnc, and the basics of Hal programming, try to integrate the modbus spindle control into your configuration. There may be an existing modbus driver compatible with your drive. (I don't know, never used one.) If so that would probably make integrating RS485 control much simpler. But if not you can always make the generic Mb2hal driver work, but this is a bit of a chore to set up and configure. (I have done this before.) The generic RS485 drivers are a lot of work to set up because you must research all of your drive's modbus settings and communication parameters, and every drive (even different models from the same manufacturer can) have different parameter arrangement, there is no "standard" way drives do modbus.

If you are following steps which I have desribed somewhere here at the forum... It has to working properly every time on startup.. I am running profibus, profinet and canopen on single koppler in same time over ethercat

After koppler restart have a look at command -

sudo systemctl restart ethercat.service

... But U are decribing other type of problem... I am currently working on C# console app which will generate us configuration from ethercat slaves && ethercat pdos commands ... I have beta version but it is not too adult to outcome on public... Do U have a TC3 project?

@Lcevette,

that is awesome!!
We hope so.

I had to add extra logic to the arc-helix.
When the arc-helix is trimmed at the front, i had to update the center point.
As the old center at the front is off plane after trimming.

The result looks ok now. Helixes in plane G18 & G19.
Deviation = 5.
 

If there are shorter segments, the clothoid fillet previews to be tinyer.

Also working on the look ahead now.

Press F11 or F12 or on some PC's F8 after power on, see if you can select that SSD to boot from and also notice if there is more than one entry for it, usually the name of the SSD as one entry and another with UEFI SDD, try both.
-
Edit:
Is it an ACER?
those require setting a BIOS password to be able to disable secure boot.

that is awesome!!

Thank you for the reply.
I did what you suggested, before my post, and the motherboard does not recognize the SSD. Strangely it displays a very fast message that I was able to see:

There is no vBIOS support detected in this card.
'BIOS CSM/UEFI Mode' settings in BIOS will be changed to 'UEFI'

and automatically it moves to the BIOS screen, and the previous changed settings are converted to UEFI again.
Note that I do not have a separated graphics card.

Disable "secure boot" in BIOS.
Also enable "legacy" or CSM or both.
-
Changing from MBT (should be MBR or Master Boot Record) to GPT will destroy any info on the drive, so to do that would require cloning the partition (not the drive) to another drive, switching partitioning and then cloning back that partition. Either way you look at it, very dangerous and not much chances of working properly.
And more importantly, that is not the reason for failing to boot.

hello,
Thank you for your answer.
Sorry for the late reply. I've been a bit ill and didn't get a chance to test it.

I have changed the line as described.
It actually seems to be working better now.
I still have the problem that when I restart the coupler it doesn't work right away... it only works after I have loaded the configuration once with TwinCAT. I think I'll have to see which CoE register might have a different value.