PathPilot Lathe with 6 place turret

Andy,
Yes that brings up the halmeter , If I look at spindle-encoder-count I can turn the spindle and see the count go up and down. If I look at spindle-index-enable it always stays false while I turn the spindle. I know the encoder index works because I checked it with a led.

Thanks' Brian

If you have a high resolution spindle encoder its quite likely you will not be able to detect the index signal with halmeter
One way to test the index is to sets the signal that carries index enable and then monitor that signal as you rotate the spindle by hand:
halcmd sets index-enable true
( index-enable should go true )
slowly rotate the spindle
( index-enable should go false when index is crossed )

Note "index-enable" needs to be replaced with whatever signal name conveys the spindle index enable in your hal file

here is what is in my hal file.


net spindle-index-enable hm2_5i25.0.encoder.00.index-enable <=> motion.spindle-index-enable

so would i type ?

halcmd sets motion.spindle-index-enable true

Thanks' Brian

no,
halcmd sets spindle-index-enable true

Ok that worked, sets it true and it turn to false after turning the spindle a half round or so. When I try and thread the lathe gets right where it wants to start threading and then stops.


Brian

If the lathe stops at the index and doesn't start the threading pass that often means that the spindle is counting backwards.

Does the encoder count up or down when the lathe turns in the threading direction?

It's counting down.

ok, I changed this

setp hm2_5i25.0.encoder.00.counter-mode 0

to this

setp hm2_5i25.0.encoder.00.counter-mode 1

it seems to be working ,but I'm just air cutting

You don't want counter-mode for a lathe spindle as that means that it won't count backwards in reverse, so you can't do rigid tapping.

Switch counter-mode back to zero and just make the spindle encoder scale a negative number. You should then find that it counts up, and all should be good.

(Alternatively you can swap the A and B phases, but the software fix is easier)

I tried a negative scale and it still counted backwards ,also I did a test cut and it seems to be cutting more threads per inch than it should be (maybe double).

Thanks Brian

It will count differently in counter mode (it basically only watches one channel).

A negative scale will work. But perhaps you changed the wrong number? (also, you need to restart LinuxCNC for the change to take effect)