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Yea, I looked at that right after you registered and it looks pretty cool.

and welcome to the forum.

John

Yeah, I'm willing to give it a swing but I need to finish my other EMC project first:

ckcnc.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/arduino-e...ration-how-it-works/

I was hoping for a simpler way, but thank you, that should work.

You can use the xenable signal as many times as you like and combine that with and9 component to turn off your parallel port pins...

John

Sounds like a good idea, you should give it a go.

John

That's already connected to stepgen.X.enable pins, and doesn't make stepgen turn the phase pins off:

net xenable axis.0.amp-enable-out => stepgen.0.enable

You could use axis.n.amp-enable-out as it is on when EMC is powered up and off when you power down.

www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html//man/man9/axis.9.html

John

I haven't had a chance to test this yet but the concept is absolutely awesome. One of the things I liked most about Mach was the Wizard facility, and this goes a long way to making subroutines as nice for end-users as the Mach wizards.

To that end, I have a few ideas for ways to make this friendlier or more powerful:

1. As someone said earlier, it would be a nice option to be able to populate an input based on "Current Machine Position." Maybe you need three buttons for Machine X, Y, Z, etc.

2. Tool parameters: I'd like to set things like feed rate, plunge rate, RPM, and depth of cut on a per-tool basis and use them as defaults when populating a subroutine. Ideally I could either set these directly and see what they equate to in SFM, feed per tooth, etc. or vice-versa.

3. Graphic legend: Allow the subroutine programmer to attach an image which visually explains the parameters. Sometimes it's easier to put labels on a picture than explain things with words, especially as the number of params grows. Mach lets the wizard designer place the inputs directly on top of a graphic, but I think that's superfluous.

4. Saving parameters in a single part file: This one might be a bit complicated but I think it could be really powerful. Let's say you have a bracket which consists of a surfacing op, four drilled holes, and a rectangular pocket. You make one, but find that the pocket needs to be shifted 0.050" to the right and milled 0.050" deeper.

Right now, I could go into the gcode program, delete the pocketing routine, run the pocket sub with the new parameters, and paste the output. It's not bad, really, but it requires switching to an editor and it's easy to miss a line of code and ruin the program. I think it can be made much better:

1. When the user first opens NGCGUI, allow them to select or create a new "Part File." I could see doing this as its own file, e.g. an XML file, or embedding the information in G-code comment blocks in the final program.
2. The part file would contain a definition block for each part feature. A feature would be an instance of a particular subrotuine, i.e., if I run the "drill a hole" subroutine four times to define four drilled holes, my part program would have four feature definitions, with user-defined labels like Hole 1, Hole 2... Hole 4.
3. If I chose an existing part file, the gui would have a dropdown with all the features of that type. I.e., if I choose the rectangular pocket sub, then open a part file, it would show me all the rectangular pockets on that part, plus the option to create a new one
4. If I choose an existing pocket, it would load all the parameters, and then I could modify the specific ones I want, and save them.
5. At some level, the user would get the option to "run all" which would run all the individual subroutines (of all types) based on their saved parameters, and spool the outputs into a single program file

When you combine this with the full toolpath preview in Axis, I think it would make for an extremely awesome user experience. And I don't know if my description makes it sound really complex to implement, but the way I'm seeing it I think it should be--mostly--pretty straightforward.

Sure, that would introduce a deviation. But since I don't have encoders, I've already enabled VOLATILE_HOME=1 in my ini file, so I need to rehome the axes after every machine off anyway. Turning the pins off at machine off would do fine.

Is there a simple way to do that?

It is normal for steppers to get hot when standing still with holding torque applied. Smart drives reduce the holding force after a period of time. You could do what you want using HAL and hijack the pins before going out to the drive... not sure if that would solve your problem or not. Imagine if your on a half step and every time you stop you go to the nearest full step or something like that, it wouldn't take long for EMC to loose track of your actual position without feedback from encoders like servos use.

John

My stepgen runs drives in step_type=10. That involves four phase pins per motor (or in my case, per axis, but that's beside the point). It runs, but there's a problem.

When the drives are moving, everything is fine and they're nice and cool. But when a drive is held in a stationary position for an extended period (which, with stepgen configured like that, is any stationary position as long as the power to the controller is on) it starts to heat up, which, I imagine, can't be good for them. I imagine there would not be a problem if I could expose an enable pin from the controller that would cut power to the drives, but my parallel port is fresh out of output pins. (4*3=12, poof)

Is there a way to make stepgen set all phase output pins low if the drives are not moving, or failing that, when "machine on" pin is low?

axel88 wrote:

Can you please explain what changes are necessary? I'm trying to make a postprozessor for Unigraphics NX6 perhaps this could help me.

Axel

hi Axel

there is not alot to edit if you have a good standard fanuc post, just check your cycles, and G80 line on end of cycles like drilling, as fanuc can take G80 Zxx EMC likes G80 G00 Zxx

cutter comp drive lines is also worth a check.

Lathe wise there are not many cycles there so most of it just system output code
should not take long if you have a good starting ground and know how to edit a post.

rob

Thanks john, I'll do a bit more reading. I figured as much but couldn't be sure.

I'm trying to use the Inkscape plugin that is referenced in the CAM forum here, I'll ask there how they handle that sort of thing.

That is something you do in the CAM program or if you write your g code by hand you have to do it. I have some lathe subroutines in the subroutine section here that are a big help (to me) with one off's on my lathe.

John

I'm finishing getting the MaxNC T2 lathe repaired/configured and have both axis working (spindle to be finished when I get some parts)

If I where to program a simple profile that has a depth greater than I can cut in one pass does EMC do multiple passes?

You can tell I don't know anything about CNC