Mach3 -> Camtronics -> Parallel P Replacement

Currently when sending G01 X.5 F1 the X servo sits there and jitters.

Today...

I "think" my best strategy is to take the generated pncconf file and mash it to the converted working mach3 config file using stepconf.

Attached are results of the hal latency test.

What number should I enter for "Actual Server Period".

Reading the LinuxCNC 2.8 HTML Stepper Configuration Wizard 4. Latency Test.
Figure 3. and what is stated below 9075 does not make sense to me.

pncconf help mentions to "choose the servo period"
The LinuxCNC / HAL Latency Test has a row "Servo thread (1ms): and the column Max Jitter in (ns)

Am I supposed to come up with a different number than 25977 for the "Actual Servo Period"?

When starting LinuxCNC it fails with that number. Setting it to the recommended 1000000 it starts with no errors.

in 99.9% of cases, there is no reason to use anything but the default
1 ms servo thread period

After merging the pncconf generated ini/hal with the generated stepconf generated ini/hal file from the working mach3 xml, attached is what I have so far.

Launching linuxCNC and clicking "Home Axis" for both X and Z, not sure where to disable that need, I entered a MDI code
G01 X.25 F1

The results are less than desirable and are not smooth by any means.

When ~.25 is reached as far as linuxCNC is concerned it continues to pulse the servo as if it is searching to be exact and can't reach this.

I have no idea how to better describe the end result.

Yeah that's a early pncconf bug perhaps compounded by setting the servo thread
too fast in the initial configuration. To fix, in the hal file replace all statements like

setp pid.x.maxerror .0005
to
setp pid.x.maxerror 0

and in the ini file, set all PID P terms to 1000

I would have had zero idea how to go about fixing this. Changing these values helped tremendously.

Next on the integration list.

The camtronics control box had a custom wire made to go from the computers USB port to a manual switch Engage/Disengage.

The wire coming from the USB ultimately ended up going to the three G203v stepper drive pin (Disable).

This used to work to disengage the motors.

With the introduction of the 7i76e the motor windings are always engaged no matter if the power coming from the USB port is enabled or disabled to the G203V stepper drive.

Is there something that the G203v (Disable) pin should go to to emulate this engage/disengage on the 7i76e?

Is enable/disable a 5V signal?

I believe so. This is coming from the G203v user manual.

"TERMINAL 7 Disable
This terminal will force the winding currents to zero when tied to the step and direction controller +5V"

OK so if you have a free step/dir output (these are 5V signals),
you can have this under software control, That is, if you do not
enable all 5 stepgens, the step/dir pins can be used as general purpose outputs.

for example:

setp hm2_7i76e.0.gpio.008.is_output true
setp hm2_7i76e.0.gpio.008.invert_output true

net x-enable hm2_7i76e.0.gpio.008.out

(gpio8 = Dir4)

I picked up this Taiss/AB 2 Phase Incremental Rotary Encoder 360P/R DC 5-24v Wide Voltage Power Supply 6mm Shaft 360P/R

white = A phase, Green = B phase, red = power +, black = V0

To connect and use this for the spindle speed with the 7i76e would this be correct?

Encoder	->	7i76e
Red	->	TB3 Pin 6
White	->	TB3 Pin 7
Green	->	TB3 Pin 6
Red	->	TB3 Pin 8
Black	->	TB3 Pin 9

After confirming this I will dive into the hal config.