Brother TC-211

When I start linuxcnc I can manually move all the axis one at a time. If I set the position to projected ?? (I think) it will show movement. When I have it as actual nothing moves at all in the read out, even though the axis is moving.

And shipping wars. its a show on discovery. Jared breaks almost everything he touches, or is really really late.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: When I start linuxcnc I can manually move all the axis one at a time. If I set the position to projected ?? (I think) it will show movement. When I have it as actual nothing moves at all in the read out, even though the axis is moving.

I still don't understand what you are describing.

Does the actual, physical, machine move?

If the machine moves and the "actual" position in LinuxCNC doesn't move then that means that the position feedback isn't getting through from the encoders to motion controller in the software.
This might actually just be a HAL problem.

Sounds like the Linux side (not a drive, or mechanical) issue, like the Z axis is not being seen as a "real" axis. If one just installs and configures LinuxCNC they can jog axis's and see numbers move on the monitor.....

Ran into something like this Monday on a Citizen machine. I forgot I had the Z2 axis turned off after taking out the servo for repair. Put the motor in, tried zero-returning, and there was no physical axis movement but the control showed movement and did not care about real feedback... Granted that is a Mitsubishi control but the principle still applies.

Where is the Z axis physically? Have you worked with any ATC stuff, or are you going to do this manually?

Have you tried sending an "enable" signal to the Z-axis manually?


Where are you at currently with this? I do quite a bit of CNC service work and am familiar with Brother stuff (very easy to work with). If your really really stuck, shoot me a PM or email


FYI you will prob never get better results with a half-arse CNC machine than a real one, not to mention a brother. This is just a small hump to get over.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: And shipping wars. its a show on discovery. Jared breaks almost everything he touches, or is really really late.

Ah. That explains it. Television reference. I don't watch very much television.
Just the news, PBS ev'ry once in a while, and maybe an odd blue moon gander at something else from one of the educational show.

scuba steve, I'm in ct. If you are willing to do a weekend service call I would be willing to pay for your time and travel. The machine works fine with the brother controller. Only thing is that I need it to read g-code. Its a 1986 machine and 100 percent conversational, hence the transfere to linux. Just send me an email at mblaszkiewicz@yahoo.com and I would be willing to discuss payment if you are able to do the job.
or call me at 860 924-6374

Just gave you a ring, no answer

I'm in the midwest.... and not in a position to do a trans-continental service call for something I cannot garuntee... but phone help is free! Or very close to free

I'm vaguely familiar with that vintage brother and controls. Can you re-post the servo drive make and model, and a copy of all your settings on the Linux-side of things?

Sorry Steve phone died. I will call you tomorrow

For anyone else. I have motion on the table. I can move it in x y and z. I can turn the spindle on. In manual mode and commanded position the dro show position Movement. In actual position the dro stays at zero.

mblaszkiewicz wrote: For anyone else. I have motion on the table. I can move it in x y and z. I can turn the spindle on. In manual mode and commanded position the dro show position Movement. In actual position the dro stays at zero.

That sounds very odd. It also sounds like a very minor problem which should be easy to fix.

Do you get a following error eventually? (what are your f-error limits?)

What this ought to mean is that the encoder feedback is getting back to the PID components, but not back to the motion controller.

If you look in Halshow (Machine, show HAL configuration) what is shown linked to the axis.N.motor-pos-fb pins?

I found the axis lines. What do you mean linked to it. I have
9. Float. In. 0.axis.0.motor-pos-fb (an arrow)
X-pos-fb

mblaszkiewicz wrote: I found the axis lines. What do you mean linked to it. I have
9. Float. In. 0.axis.0.motor-pos-fb (an arrow)
X-pos-fb

Does X-pos-fb (spelt exactly like that) appear anywhere else in the HAL file.

I suspect that the encoder is linked to a different signal (X-pos-fb is the "signal")