How to integrate PlasmaC into a configuration build with StepConf wizard

Hi Gentlemen,

We finally managed to install LinuxCNC2.8 from the Debian distro, after a few headaches. I have run the StepConf wizard to connect LinucCNC to our basic 2-axis plasma cutter (on the parallel port, this machine has run EMC for many years, no worries), using the Gmoccapy GUI. So far so good. Of course it comes up with a screen suited to lathes/mills, but the basics are there. I edited the .ini and .hal files with the variables that we used on the old installation and I can run the plasma cutter. Runs quite smoothly too by the way.

The next step for us is to have the PlasmaC GUI to work with the machine. It seems that the HAL components are very different than they used to be ? How can I transfer the variables of the old configuration so I can use the PlasmaC screen/layout to drive our parallel port driven machine ? Even if I have to comment out any lines that pertain to the Z-axis (torch lifter) and THC, it should be possible to at least actuate the machine with the PlasmaC GUI ? How to connect parallel port pins through HAL to the PlasmaC component ?

If anybody has example .ini and .hal files that would be great or could point me in the right direction that would be great.

I know I haven't been following all the new LinuxCNC stuff that got build over the last 8 years or so, because we have used the old installation for 8 years without really touching it. That's a tip to the hat for all the people who have build LinuxCNC, it's very stable if it works. But to get a new installation working is a bit challenging to say the least, most of all because all the information seems to be widespread or somehow we don't know where to look. Any help again will be appreciated.

Cheers, Peter

Its pretty great that we can refer new people to the user guide and that it should in 98% of cases solve their issues.

CFE wrote:

Hi Gentlemen,

We finally managed to install LinuxCNC2.8 from the Debian distro, after a few headaches.
. I edited the .ini and .hal files with the variables that we used on the old installation and I can run the plasma cutter. Runs quite smoothly too by the way.
.

Cheers, Peter

You actually have the hard part done. Really you just need to run the plasmac configurator and it should do the rest for you..

Hi Gentlemen,

I have been through Section 4 of the Guide, and in a terminal typed : $ python ~/linuxcnc-dev/configs/by_machine/plasmac/configurator.py, but I get an error about "canberra-gtk-module" missing. I updated and upgraded the installation but still the same. Is this some package that I need to install ? Come to that, shouldn't that be included in the ISO image ?

And another question related to HAL and my previous post : which HAL pins connect the Step and Dir signals to the parallel port ? I can't find any example of a PlasmaC configuration which shows Step and Dir connections in HAL. Should they be in the machine.hal or machine_connections.hal. or in which hal file are they located ?

Cheers, Peter

Hi Gents,

The struggle continues, remember we are not Linux programmers or gurus. Here is something for you :

Which ISO did you use?
What is the result of:

$ uname -a

Result :

plasma@Plasma:~$ uname -a
Linux Plasma 4.9.0-12-rt-686-pae #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Debian 4.9.210-1 (2020-01-20) i686 GNU/Linux

So this begs the question : how do I get to run the PlasmaC Configurator ? I read through the documentation and it looks like that would work, if only I can actually start the configurator ? Can somebody point out how to do that ? I followed diverse instructions to try get it started but to no avail.

So I had a go again, working from a BuildBot installation, following the PlasmaC Guide and when trying to run the configurator I get this :
plasma@Plasma:~$ python /usr/share/doc/linuxcnc/examples/sample-configs/by_machine/plasmac/configurator.py
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

Quite frankly this is getting quite annoying, it consumes so much time. What are we supposed to do now ?

Cheers, Peter

Hi Gents,

I thought I keep you posted of the woes I am going through : I managed to fix the "canberra" thing, and even managed to run the configurator properly. But of course I hit the next snag if I follow the instructions on page 214 :

plasma@Plasma:~$ ~/linuxcnc/configs/plasma/plasma.ini
bash: /home/plasma/linuxcnc/configs/plasma/plasma.ini: Permission denied

What's going on here ? What now ? This is not covered in the documentation ?

Cheers, Peter