Basic questions about QtDragon_hd and seemingly odd behaviour

It does not really matter what order. But I would match the slave number to joints.
My ECT86 hal file has no mention of x, y or z
I deliberately placed my I/O after the drives on the ethercat bus.
github.com/rodw-au/linuxcnc-cia402/blob/main/cia402.hal

Then the ini file just maps slaves to axes on this line 
KINEMATICS = trivkins kinstype=both coordinates=xyz

I did see in one example that you can add a name to the slave that set the pin names so you could name them J0, J1, J2, IO where IO is your I/O module. This would be a nice way to rearrange them if you can't keep the motors at the front of the bus..

rodw wrote:

It does not really matter what order. But I would match the slave number to joints.
My ECT86 hal file has no mention of x, y or z
I deliberately placed my I/O after the drives on the ethercat bus.
github.com/rodw-au/linuxcnc-cia402/blob/main/cia402.hal

Then the ini file just maps slaves to axes on this line 
KINEMATICS = trivkins kinstype=both coordinates=xyz

I did see in one example that you can add a name to the slave that set the pin names so you could name them J0, J1, J2, IO where IO is your I/O module. This would be a nice way to rearrange them if you can't keep the motors at the front of the bus..
 

Yeah did mine basically similar way. From LinuxCNC to drives first and then to EK1100 and other devices in the future. I have a colleague who used to work for Beckhoff and he told me to avoid giving custom names to slaves if possible. I cant remember the reasoning but he said that it usually is jsut best to go with the order number. The idea of giving them better names than just running number was something I also though first but I guess this is pretty much foolproof until someone rewires this incorrectly.

EtherCAT is very nice way to interface with stuff compared to the Mesa cards that require sooooo much more wiring. 

Hello again!

I updated the LinuxCNC using the buildbot configuration instructions as found from here linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/getting-start...etting-linuxcnc.html (good instructions by the way) and it seems to have fixed the MDI issue.

I wonder if I should do some extra configuration as every time I rune apt update / upgrade and Debian updates itself I also lose all the Realtek Drivers, Moxa Uport drivers and the EtherCAT drivers. They are quite easy to reinstall from the terminal but would be better if I could somehow add them to the repository list or something. I am not very good at linux usage.

I have run into another issue though. I wonder if you guys could try to help me out with this. I am not even sure if this is QtDragon issue or just some general LinuxCNC mistake I made. If I turn on the machine and let it sit doing nothing I eventually get this on the log:

Mon09 01:22: Machine OFF
Mon09 01:22: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:22: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (430.00000) on joint 0
Mon09 01:22: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:22: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 01:22: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 01:23: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (91.00000) on joint 3
Mon09 01:23: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 01:23: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 01:23: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (430.00000) on joint 0
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:12: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (91.00000) on joint 3
Mon09 02:12: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:12: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:12: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (430.00000) on joint 0
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:18: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (91.00000) on joint 3
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:18: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (430.00000) on joint 0
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:18: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (91.00000) on joint 3
Mon09 02:18: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:18: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:18: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (430.00000) on joint 0
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:40: Abort Parameter is [3]
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Exceeded POSITIVE soft limit (91.00000) on joint 3
Mon09 02:40: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 02:40: Hint: switch to joint mode to jog off soft limit
Mon09 02:40: Abort Parameter is [3]

So the machine turns itself off and reports that hard limits are tripped and that X and Z axis have exceeded their positive soft limits. Which is quite impossible as the machine was resting very far from limit switch sensors and additionally if I trip the said limit switches manually by placing some metal object near the inductive sensors I get totally different error message:

Mon09 16:20: Machine OFF
Mon09 16:20: Hard limits tripped
Mon09 16:20: joint 0 on limit switch error
Mon09 16:20: Hard limits tripped

Thanks for the comment about the instructions I wrote. Since then, I made a linuxcnc ISO of bookworm with all of the repos you want in it. Check the readme doc in your home folder after installing,
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...or-linuxcnc-x86-only

Not knowig what realtek driver you are using, it sounds like you may not have headers installed. DKMS drivers are supposed to recompile the driver when you change kernels. Even the realtek native driver compiled from source should do this if fully installed.

eg sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) If my memory is right!

rodw wrote:

Thanks for the comment about the instructions I wrote. Since then, I made a linuxcnc ISO of bookworm with all of the repos you want in it. Check the readme doc in your home folder after installing,
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...or-linuxcnc-x86-only

Not knowig what realtek driver you are using, it sounds like you may not have headers installed. DKMS drivers are supposed to recompile the driver when you change kernels. Even the realtek native driver compiled from source should do this if fully installed.

eg sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) If my memory is right!

I'll have to test that installation package next time I am doing a fresh system or reinstall. I think I followed your initial guide (the one you had in google drive) back in June and installed those headers. Most of my troubles are caused by the lack of understanding of Linux in general but it gets easier the more one fools around.

I have GK41 MiniPC and RL8168 NICs inside it. I actually managed to figure out the EtherCAT issues and wrote a post for others to learn from my mistakes: forum.linuxcnc.org/ethercat/50322-etherc...-issues-with-minipcs

Thanks, I read your post about EEE (Energy Efficient Ethernet) It sounds quite a new feature. I made a note of the kernel params.
I suspect it might solve a few problems.