Thank you Steve! Thats more like it! I feel at home now - peace and bliss,
the universe is in harmony...wait a second - now this feels like work...my
doctor would not approve... :) (Don't worry - he's more worried about the
documented rise in my blood pressure when dealing with my boss and I need to
keep my BP down this week so the procedure they performed can take hold - this
is enjoyable to me an he said to keep my mind stimulated so the blood flow was
normal).
a.. I'll adjust the colors - not much web design experience I confess - I'll
try some different combos to find one that is easier for all to read - that
magenta is dark ain't it...
b.. You are correct, the current version of EMC2 is 2.2.5 but the current
Live CD ISO is 2.2.2 - I'll make that distinction a little clearer.
c.. I'll recommend being connected because I think you are right - if I
recall when I first installed 2.2.1 (or maybe when I blew away 2.2.1 because it
didn't have stepconf included and installed 2.2.2) without the internet it did
link to the 2.1 repository not the 2.2 so it didn't see the updates when I
connected - thankfully I was savvy enough to find the repository link
definitions - not sure if that got changed with 2.2 but better safe than sorry
- as easy as I can make it for new hesitant people the better.
d.. Invert comment - will do that hadn't occurred to me. As mentioned in
previous posts my mill is converted and running and this tutorial is kind of
something to keep me busy while laid up on doctors orders so some things that I
learned/just knew slipped my mind as I did a dualboot on my desktop and lie in
bed writing this up on the laptop - irony is I hardly ever use the desktop
anymore and the latency results of my desktop are much better than what is in
the garage right now...I smell a swap coming...
e.. Units dependent on previous selection - easy enough.
f.. Good point on soft limits - I should have known better - I don't have my
switches installed on my mill yet - if I was allowed to run around I'd be
working on that so my soft limits are disabled because in early stages I lost
steps and the machine thinks it is somewhere way off in the weeds when really
it's dead center so as a workaround till I get the limits on I did that as
opposed to diabling the limits completely (right now they are just inverted so
that when I install them I only need to uninvert and no extra setup is needed).
g.. Ah that's right - I forgot that is a signed number will note that.
h.. I had a feeling there was something wrong on the homing - it was getting
late when I wrote that and I didn't grab the manual to get it right. Will
correct.
i.. Thats right - only one realtime unit at a time - good warning for folks
(and fyi IIRC it just locks things up or causes an error saying hal had a
problem and then I think I needed to reboot to get EMC2 to start again - I
admit I read most of the manuals but not everything - luckily that was on the
bench before it ever saw a connection to the machine but I'd hate for a noobie
to damage something or hisself and blame me/EMC)
j.. Join the club - I don't understand where the parameters come from but I
understand what they are looking to do. Maybe I'll just tailor it for what I
would do on my machine - that way it's correct for mine when I get around top a
PWM spindle control. The text is almost copy and past from section 4.3 of the
manual "Determining Spindle Calibration" - maybe someone can enlighten me on
PDM so I can address that also.
Thanks Steve - thats a nice comprehensive list from which I learned, everyone
on this list probably learned, and many noobies (I hope) will learn from. I'm
finding spelling errors that CoffeeCup missed and some grammar errors - I'm not
as concerned with grammar as spelling - when I make the PDF version I'll let
InDesign do a spellcheck and make those corrections back in the the .html
files. Coffee Cup took nearly a minute to replace a word - something didn't
make sense there. So for now I'll pass on that check :) I'll add your and
other's corrections into the sections and then proceed with making the
individual pages as suggested for ease of use.
Greg
www.distinctperspectives.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Stephen Wille Padnos
To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 3:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Emc-users] EMC Basic Setup Tutorial - draft
Greg Michalski wrote:
> Just a quick note to those who gave feedback - everyone seems to be
> almost apologetic about their criticisms. Don't worry about it - 1) I
> asked for them so it can be the best and help the most people across
> the most levels of experience as possible, so don't apologize -
> multiple sets of eyes and brains are better than just my somehwat
> underperforming brain :) 2) Come work for my boss - I'd have 15
> handwritten pages of changes on this (if he knew a lick about what
> this was talking about - plus I would have had to print it out for
> him...) so the minor comments provided are almost a joke to me -
> pleasing you guys will be easy! :)
Well, in that case ... :)
I noticed that the link colors are hard to see, both visited and unvisited.
The current version is 2.2.5 (though it may not have been when you
started writing the guide :) )
I don't know if this is still true, but I think it used to be much
better to have the PC attached to the internet during the install. I
think some of the software repository setup is different than when you
install disconnected.
You may want to point out that the "invert" checkbox is used when the
inputs/outputs are active low. You'd be surprised how many questions
we've seen asking about that.
Note that for machines configured as metric (mm), "Leadscrew Pitch" will
be in mm/rev instead of revs/inch.
I think it would be better if the section on table travel didn't suggest
"disabling" soft limits. Soft limits are still useful with physical
limit switches - they should prevent the machine from ever hitting a
limit switch. Limit switches should probably disable the motors, which
will cause a loss of position for any stepper machine and some servo
machines (those using step-to-servo drives without running the encoder
feedback into the PC).
You may want to note that the home search velocity is a signed number,
if the machine goes the wrong way when homing, make the number negative
(or positive, if it was negative). Incidentally, there's a typo there,
that should be "Home Search Velocity", not "Home Switch Velocity".
I think the description of Home Latch Direction is incorrect - maybe a
cut/paste error or something. With "Same" selected, EMC should move
onto the switch, then back off until the switch opens, then approach in
the original direction until the switch closes again. If the direction
is "Opposite", EMC will first approach the switch, then back off slowly,
latching the home position when the switch opens. It won't go back to
re-close the switch. The second approach will be slower, stepconf
calculates a slow rate that is guaranteed to capture the position to
within one step (this way, you can do the first approach at relatively
high speed, and the second at the low speed for better accuracy).
You may want to mention that you can't run more than one of
latency-test, "test this axis" or EMC at a time, or your computer will
explode (or crash or something :) ).
I must confess, I didn't really understand your method of getting the
spindle parameters. You mentioned a working range of 4000RPM on a
spindle that can do 8000, but then there are magic numbers of 1600 and
2800RPM for testing. I don't see where 1600 and 2800 came from. If
you're just picking two numbers so you can get 2 points on a line, then
I'd suggest points that are closer to the ends - like 500 and 3500, or
even 200 and 3800. Those should give a better answer, since the slope
calculation divides by the difference between the PWM values (so you
want that to be as large as possible). This whole thing may be a
nitpick now - I just noticed that you say "for example" in that section :)
Thanks again for the work. Let me know if you want a nitpicky
grammar/spelling evaluation :)
- Steve
> Greg
> www.distinctperspectives.com <http://www.distinctperspectives.com>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Greg Michalski <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> *To:* Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> <mailto:emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:41 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Emc-users] EMC Basic Setup Tutorial - draft
>
> Thanks for all the comments - I'll try and incorporate as much of
> this as possible - I'll think I'll make a separate PDF link for
> someone to download and print off to combat the black background
> issue - IE7 always inverts the page for me but I have a BW printer
> at home so maybe it's the printer being self aware and cutting
> down on toner usage. In reality these steps are mostly covered in
> print form in the current users manual - though I'm sure a noobie
> wouldn't dig through the manual to find those pages and print them
> off. Personally I have a binder for each of the manuals and was
> grabbing them from time to time when I was setting up the actual
> mill.
>
> I understand on the going off topic - I'm kinda medicated and my
> thought processes are not as focused as normal. With a new day a
> new read through will probably reveal more issues to me that I
> don't like :) Thanks for pointing that out so I can be aware to
> keep focus.
>
> Thanks again everyone!
>
> Greg
> www.distinctperspectives.com <http://www.distinctperspectives.com>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* Emory Smith <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> *To:* Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)
> <mailto:emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net>
> *Sent:* Sunday, August 03, 2008 12:44 PM
> *Subject:* Re: [Emc-users] EMC Basic Setup Tutorial - draft
>
> Well done! I don't have much to add that hasn't been covered but,
> when CoffeCup expires, give SeaMonkey a try. I use it for my
> Q&D web stuff.
> Available for Win, Lin & Mac and can be configured to always
> come up
> in html edit mode.
> And it's free at http://www.seamonkey-project.org/
>
> Also search for 'loos' and change to 'los' where appropriate.
> (As in steps ;^)
>
> The black background was mentioned. I like it and have no
> problems printing
> anything with any background. It would be simple to copy &
> paste everything
> into OO's word processor and export as pdf and put up a link
> to the pdf.
>
> Keep up the good work,
> Emory
>
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