Wow Michael,<div><br></div><div>That's awesome progress!</div><div><br></div><div>--S<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 4:42 PM, Michael Wright <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mike@smallip.com">mike@smallip.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">Hi,<br>
<br>
So in playing with it Tuesday night, it looks like we actually have a<br>
MaxNC 10 CL (closed loop). Each stepper motor has an external<br>
sensor. From what I can tell this means it does accept Step and<br>
Direction inputs, if it fails to make the requested move it turns on<br>
one of the other pins so the computer knows.<br>
<br>
After running the Jitter-Test program on the computer I have the<br>
sinking suspicion that the machine we're trying to use isn't good<br>
enough to send step and direction commands. Basically the results I<br>
got from the jitter test were about 10X the highest value the EMC2 UI<br>
will let you set as allowable. I did get PWM output on the Spindle<br>
Drive to work, though it was way way way more surgy than I'd ever want<br>
to use for actual machining. This does fit with that particular<br>
computer just not being sufficient for the task.<br>
<br>
It's important to note that whereas everything else we use with a<br>
computer has buffering built in, the CNC mill is controlled by the CPU<br>
turning individual IO pins in the parallel port on and off.<br>
<br>
My current thinking is to test this evening with one or two loaner<br>
boxes and if that can be made to work sort out getting something<br>
usable surplus or donated.<br>
<br>
In terms of online research, it looks like Mach 3 claims to support<br>
our mill. It's windows, but the free version supports like 500 gcode<br>
lines.<br>
<a href="http://www.machsupport.com/" target="_blank">http://www.machsupport.com/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
I found a copy of the XML config file they use with Mach 3 for the<br>
MaxNC 15 CL, here's the part that seems most useful. It looks like<br>
this file assumes no A axis, and from reading other posts from their<br>
site it looks like pin or port 0 means about the same as /dev/null.<br>
I'm not sure what they mean by DirNeg, but I suspect that means<br>
inverted logic.<br>
<br>
<YStepPin>4</YStepPin><br>
<YDirPin>5</YDirPin><br>
<XStepPin>6</XStepPin><br>
<XDirPin>7</XDirPin><br>
<ZStepPin>8</ZStepPin><br>
<ZDirPin>9</ZDirPin><br>
<br>
<XDirNeg>1</XDirNeg><br>
<XStepNeg>1</XStepNeg><br>
<YDirNeg>1</YDirNeg><br>
<YStepNeg>1</YStepNeg><br>
<ZDirNeg>1</ZDirNeg><br>
<ZStepNeg>1</ZStepNeg><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
more verbose list:<br>
<br>
<AAxisOn>0</AAxisOn><br>
<PWM>1</PWM><br>
<BAxisOn>0</BAxisOn><br>
<CAxisOn>0</CAxisOn><br>
<XAxisOn>1</XAxisOn><br>
<YAxisOn>1</YAxisOn><br>
<ZAxisOn>1</ZAxisOn><br>
<SpindleControl>1</SpindleControl><br>
<Port2On>0</Port2On><br>
<Port1On>1</Port1On><br>
<Port1Add>888</Port1Add><br>
<Port2Add>632</Port2Add><br>
<Activate1In>1</Activate1In><br>
<br>
<XDirPort>1</XDirPort><br>
<XDirPin>7</XDirPin><br>
<XStepPort>1</XStepPort><br>
<XStepPin>6</XStepPin><br>
<XDirNeg>1</XDirNeg><br>
<XStepNeg>1</XStepNeg><br>
<YDirPort>1</YDirPort><br>
<YDirPin>5</YDirPin><br>
<YStepPort>1</YStepPort><br>
<YStepPin>4</YStepPin><br>
<YDirNeg>1</YDirNeg><br>
<YStepNeg>1</YStepNeg><br>
<ZDirPort>1</ZDirPort><br>
<ZDirPin>9</ZDirPin><br>
<ZStepPort>1</ZStepPort><br>
<ZStepPin>8</ZStepPin><br>
<ZDirNeg>1</ZDirNeg><br>
<ZStepNeg>1</ZStepNeg><br>
<ADirPort>1</ADirPort><br>
<ADirPin>8</ADirPin><br>
<AStepPort>1</AStepPort><br>
<AStepPin>9</AStepPin><br>
<ADirNeg>0</ADirNeg><br>
<AStepNeg>0</AStepNeg><br>
<br>
Useful URLs<br>
<a href="ftp://www.artsoftcontrols.com/XMLs/" target="_blank">ftp://www.artsoftcontrols.com/XMLs/</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=69477&d=1226511572" target="_blank">http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=69477&d=1226511572</a><br>
<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On Oct 1, 2009, at 1:30 PM, Jonathan Foote wrote:<br>
<br>
> Thanks seph, that's excellent info. I confirmed the pinout (there were<br>
> a couple different ones floating around the net) and Ani said they got<br>
> the tool motor working with EMC2 (yay!) -- albeit from the CD-ROM and<br>
> not a native disk install.<br>
><br>
> I'll be there this afternoon with some free cycles and would like to<br>
> poke at it some more. Any advice on getting the native install going?<br>
> Is that just a matter of finding a disk that works?<br>
><br>
> Cheers,<br>
><br>
> -J<br>
><br>
><br>
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2009 at 7:35 PM, seph <<a href="mailto:seph@directionless.org">seph@directionless.org</a>> wrote:<br>
>> Hi all, I'm a boston person. I've been lurking, and love the idea.<br>
>> If I<br>
>> ever make it back to SF, I'll visit. Meanwhile:<br>
>><br>
>> Ani Niow <<a href="mailto:v@oneletterwonder.com">v@oneletterwonder.com</a>> writes:<br>
>><br>
>>> In the shop we have a small blue CNC only mill that would be<br>
>>> wonderful for<br>
>>> making custom circuit boards and machining small metal parts. No<br>
>>> one has<br>
>>> been able to figure out how to run it however. A group of us tried<br>
>>> getting<br>
>>> LinuxCNC (<a href="http://linuxcnc.org/" target="_blank">http://linuxcnc.org/</a>) to connect to it but the trouble<br>
>>> is it<br>
>>> doesn't support the controller used in the mill.<br>
>><br>
>> I assume this is a MaxNC OL mill? I just dealt with this.<br>
>><br>
>> They work okay, the mill itself isn't great, but hey they work.<br>
>><br>
>> I don't know what controller you have, but the one I have is pretty<br>
>> cheap. It's a kinda cruddy board, with a bunch of transistors on<br>
>> it. It's got a parallel port on it, and a pretty straightforward<br>
>> wiring<br>
>> setup.<br>
>><br>
>> You can get emc2 to work with it. It's just that all the emc2<br>
>> examples<br>
>> are for step+direction controllers, where this is a<br>
>> wavedrive/phasedrive/whatever you want to call it. Totally works, but<br>
>> took me forever to figure out. HAL is powerful, but baroque.<br>
>><br>
>> I suspect it's fastest to use emc2, though if your motivated, there<br>
>> are<br>
>> lots of interesting upgrade paths. (Replacing the spindle motor, the<br>
>> steppers, the controller...)<br>
>><br>
>> Anyhow, since I don't have a blog, I've dumped a gif with the pinout,<br>
>> and my emc2 configs up at<br>
>> <a href="http://www.directionless.org/tmp/maxnc/maxnc10ol/" target="_blank">http://www.directionless.org/tmp/maxnc/maxnc10ol/</a><br>
>><br>
>> have fun<br>
>><br>
>> seph<br>
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>><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Shannon Lee<br>(503) 539-3700<br><br>"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."<br>
</div>