Thank you!

It's true its my biggest project so far and in the beginning it was tremendous and overwhelmingly big. But with time and money i got an overview of the whole machine and all the things that need to be done. In retrospect thats how it always was when i started a new project. First my 3/4 axis mill, then the lathe and now the big mill turn. I like a challenge and i'm not afraid of making mistakes. They are a good teacher.

I learned so much in therms of scraping/painting/adjusting/planing. Its quit a lot of fun.

But to be honest i would not be so motivated to do this project without the help i recieved from you. So thanks to you as well!

Also my girlfriend helped and supported me a lot with lots of understanding and also alot of physical help.

 

 

hi all

used live cd to make a new install and update a old machine , it has a 5i20 card  in it. but on the new install there is no firmware installs in /lib/firmware

locate hm2 does not show any .bit files 

on startup you get
Debug file information:
Note: Using POSIX realtime
Could not locate firmware "//lib/firmware/hm2/5i20/SVST8_4.BIT". (No such file or directory)
hm2/hm2_5i20.0: firmware hm2/5i20/SVST8_4.BIT not found

the manual says
"search for hostmot2 in the Synaptic Package Manager."
but there is no such package any more

what is the correct fix or this? 

just copy old .bit files from old installs?


 

Good day,

So i would like to do a status update. I'm nearly finished with the geometry overhall.
Z Axis is complete
Y Axis is complete (But the Ballscrew is rough. Maybe it gets replaced later)
X Axis is in the process of scraping and aligning.
Sand blasted and painted a lot of parts
Cleaned the machine even more (but still a mess, just less



Spindel is still in progress.
The KM63 interface is fixed with new bearing and preload adjusted. But the clamping discs that clamp the spindle for turning/broaching is bend and needs to be reground. For now i will use it as it is to get the machine into alignment and if everything works with the original Maztrol i will start the conversion to LCNC and fix the rest of the spindle.

For now the progress wont be as fast as it used to be, because my son was born recently.
 

tuxcnc wrote:

viewsat wrote:

I'm showing four sets of drivers in the photos, but only this inexpensive DM542 has a problem
A long time ago, 3xTB6560 drivers were popular and I had them too.
There, PC817 supported not only dir inputs, but also step inputs. There were problems with this, but the chips were in sockets and it was easy to replace them with selected ones and it worked somehow.
So there are only two options:
1. Your driver is faulty.
2. This type of driver is poorly designed.
Either way, the cause is not to be found in riocore.

1.This DM542 was taken from my CNC engraving machine, which I'm currently using, for testing.
2.Although this DM542 is very cheap, I have used about 1,000 units, and its failure rate is very low, less than 1%. Most of the problems can be found as soon as they are powered on for testing.

meister wrote:

I believe you; I understand your problem too.
You could try measuring the voltages at the DIR pin (which can be held at a constant level) and comparing them.
Better still, use an oscilloscope to see how steep the edges are.
Otherwise, I’m out of ideas.

 
Meister, thank you for your enthusiastic response! 

 

I believe you; I understand your problem too.
You could try measuring the voltages at the DIR pin (which can be held at a constant level) and comparing them.
Better still, use an oscilloscope to see how steep the edges are.
Otherwise, I’m out of ideas.

DIR/PULSE issue resolved, thank you!! (2026-08-19)
Using a Mesa7i92 + 74hc245 (5V) + dm542 (unmodified dir input pc817), the zero-point return is correct and without error. This is why I raised the issue of the Riocore + Tang Nano9k + 74hc245 (5V) + dm542 (unmodified dir input pc817) failing to return to zero.

I’d guess that with the Mesa card, the voltage is slightly higher than that of your level shifter, which produces a more stable pulse.
It must be right on the limit, as some pulses get through and some don’t; even 0.2 volts could make the difference.
All in all, I’d recommend not using the drivers – not with Mesa, anyway – as the threshold is too close to the limit.
Or you’ll need to switch to 12/24V so that the driver is triggered reliably.

If you have a variable power supply, you could try increasing the voltage to 5.5 V and see if that helps; the level shifter should be able to cope with that.