Re: [Emc-users] RES: Successful Emc2 conversion (happy
Donnie Timmons dtimm...@... writes: Tom I'm glad your up and running. Nice looking part! Could you share your hal and ini files? Seam I made the mistake of going the 5i23 on my machine and the drivers are faulty. No ouputs. So I was looking at starting over with a 5i20 to replace the 5i23 and use the 7i33 and 7i37 I already have. Donnie Hi Donnie, Thanks for the compliment. It took me a year or so to do the research and collect the parts for my conversion. I had some problems such as false triggering of my limit inputs, which I solved with a debounce software hal component. In all cases, the forum members here helped me understand and solve the problem, usually within hours. Peter W. from Mesa was very, very helpful. No one can hand you an ini or hal file that will work perfectly the first time you turn on your machine, since all machines are different. I encourage you to stick with your 5i23 and work with the community by supplying them with error messages and good descriptions of the problem. I will be happy to post my hal and ini files as soon as I can document the configuration that I am using it for. Have you visited Anders Wallins site http://www.anderswallin.net/tag/cnc/ yet? If you explore his site, you will find his hal and ini files some of which I copied in my spindle speed setup. I had to do my Emc2 conversion under a lot of time pressure do to the fact that my old controller broke down in the middle of a job I was doing for a paying customer. The fact that I was able to resume making the same parts very accurately (more accurate actually) after the conversion was remarkable. I will be finished with it in a week, and I will put up a web page or blog with info related to my conversion at that time and alert the community accordingly. good luck, Tom -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machine equipment
Hello Gene, Ahh, welcome! Do you have a machine to use yet? snip EMC was new to me, not machines and their control. in fact, I turned my first automated part (slab of cast iron to make e optical glass grinding lap) some twelve years ago. I have (among others, smaller ones, also sheet metal machines, welding equ. etc.): - a Graziano SAG12 lathe (italian brand), about 220 mm diam., 1000 mm width between tips, with electromagnetic gear clutches, so direction and turning speed can be computer controlled - an old small Steinel vertical spindle knee mill (as you would probably call it, we say table mill here), ca. 600 mm travel in Y, which has been equipped with 3 encoders to give a digital position readout, so far not completed yet - a wonderful litlle combined table top machine called UWG (universal workshop device) which can be converted to a lathe or mill or horizontal boring or tapping or engraving or grinding device etc.etc., high precision (1/100 mm with ease), no backlash, almost no power. -;) See http://www.lathes.co.uk/hommel/ This machine is even able to handle stock much larger than itself; I know of a guy who mounts complete car wheels without removing the tires on it to turn enlarged bearing seats into the flange and re-balance it as a whole. Unfortunately, this machine has become a collector's item so parts prices exploded at ebay. I have been using this machinery mainly to make parts to complete the machinery, but also for the house and for making all sorts of astronomical equipment including an 8 ton all-steel observatory on the top of our house. For the lathe, I used a very powerful british stepper control system from Parker-Digiplan based on the GPIB bus (IEEE) and Quick Basic programming. It meant rather complicated programming since the momentary turning diameter at the tool tip had to be checked at any moment to make sure the optimum gear was engaged (this would be quite a challenge for a HAL, wouldn't it?), to consider backlash (somehow tricky when turning convex disks, the tool coming form the outer rim - cutting pressure working against backlash friction). At the end of last year my first efforts in CNC yielded about a hundred perfect gear wheels for the lathe (Mod. 2) and the UWG (Mod. 0.8) because I had almost none to realize gear cutting etc. I used MS Excel as a programming language which gave me coordinate files the demo program was able to read. This software came with my cheap 3-stepper-card SMC1500 from EMIS GmbH (www.emisgmbh.de/). Now, my idea is to unify all these workshop affairs under one control system and possibly with one computer: - The lathe being equipped with large stepper motors (vegetable can size) needs encoders, preferably linear ones which I picked up from the junk (in case they still work) - the mill, now partly equipped with encoders needs motors - the UWG can be equipped with stepper motors on all axes (linear as well as rotatory ones), but should rather be run with encoders and servo motors. A word to electricity and that: snip It is a fairly large step from high school electricity to the field of cnc machining as you are finding out I think. Not insurmountable for those that want to learn, and I congratulate those that are willing to put forth the effort, and that includes you. snip Well, I didn't stay quite at the high school electricity level - after returning to Germany in 66 I finished high schol, studied physics, married the most beautiful and intelligent woman on earth, got three wonderful children with her, got a job as top technical manager at one of the top German research companies (almost 34 years now) and after all this, I am half retired now and have time to pick up the things I had to leave at the side of my life's path. (This, apparently, was all not unsurmountable.) But I've learned one thing on the way, that is one can't develop everything he needs from the plain wood, we have to learn from others and keep on building upon their achievments. And that's why am on this mail forum. (Circle closed, parenthesis) Best regards from frozen Germany Peter Blodow -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Electrical hazard
snip Hi Peter, Er... I think that was me. 54 years ago I stuck my fingers into the 110VAC outlet down the hallway just to see what would happen. What happened was that I scared the daylights out of my poor parents, and I ended up flat on my back for an hour or so. I guess I was just a curious and naive toddler. Maybe still am, only I can walk in a more self-assured manner now. I was only trying to highlight the importance of good grounding, not scare anyone. So don't worry... I'll survive, and chances are you will too. regards, Tom Hello Tom, I made my mains voltage experiences as an exchange student at the US where, fortunately, this voltage is only 115 volts. It got me a few times, but I learned from that and, luckily, was able to transfer that knowledge to 230 V Europe. But my very first experience was when I was lying in my little ladder bed as a baby - only thing I can remember form the times when I could not even stand - and managed to put one of my toes into a wall outlet (must have been small at the time, eh?). This was out of arm reach from my bed so my parents considered it safe. Can you beat that? Anyway, to all you CNC people: Mains voltage is different than computer signal voltages, so ask someone or read a good book before experimenting with 115 volts (or more) AC or 300 to 500 volts DC at an intrinsic impedance of milli- or microohms... Peter Blodow -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Anders Wallins site
Have you visited Anders Wallins site http://www.anderswallin.net/tag/cnc/ yet? If you explore his site, you will find his hal and ini files some of which I copied in my spindle speed setup. Hello there, I wonder if there were a way to get that servo schematic of Anders Wallin in readable form, i.e., in high resolution so the small characters are recognizeable? Peter Blodow -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] RES: Successful Emc2 conversion (happy
Hello John, I can't understand all that chat about Mesa 5xxx and 7xxx etc. without knowing what these boards are and what they do. I see that Mesa boards and their names are used widely in EMC. Here in Germany I can't even find the brand name of Mesa in ebay. Please supply a link to descriptions so I can go looking for something comparable on the European market. Thanks Peter Blodow At 06:04 18.01.2009, you wrote: Donnie Timmons wrote: Tom I'm glad your up and running. Nice looking part! Seam I made the mistake of going the 5i23 on my machine and the drivers are faulty. No ouputs. Has either Seb Kuzminsky or Peter Wallace told you that the drivers are faulty? If they say it works, it works, and the problem is on your end. If they say it is broken, then it is broken (but a fix will probably follow very quickly). Did you read the message from Seb about num_stepgens? You are enabling a step generator, and the pins it uses CANNOT be used for general purpose I/O. You will have to turn off the stepgen if you want to use those pins. So I was looking at starting over with a 5i20 to replace the 5i23 and use the 7i33 and 7i37 I already have. If Seb and/or Peter haven't had a chance to test your specific case yet, then you shouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions (and spend more money). Regards, John Kasunich -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] RES: Successful Emc2 conversion (happy
Peter blodow wrote: Hello John, I can't understand all that chat about Mesa 5xxx and 7xxx etc. without knowing what these boards are and what they do. I see that Mesa boards and their names are used widely in EMC. Here in Germany I can't even find the brand name of Mesa in ebay. Please supply a link to descriptions so I can go looking for something comparable on the European market. They are made by Mesa: http://www.mesanet.com/ I don't think there's a re-seller in europe, but the dollar is cheap and I got my board by UPS/FedEx quite quickly. (VAT is a problem, depending on your customs you might have to pay VAT when you pick up the packet) If you want something cheaper also with a programmable fpga then look at the Pluto board. AW -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Anders Wallins site
Hello there, I wonder if there were a way to get that servo schematic of Anders Wallin in readable form, i.e., in high resolution so the small characters are recognizeable? Peter Blodow http://www.anderswallin.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dc_servo_schematic_2008jan19.pdf when printed on an A4 the text can be a bit small, but on a computer the pdf allows zooming in. The original is in CorelDraw (12 or 13, don't remember), and I can email it to anyone who asks nicely. Remember this is just my machine, not a recommendation on how to wire cnc-machines, and not a recommendation on how to deal with safety issues or anything! (anyone who has built a cnc-machine should take this as a challenge to publish their more-better-gooder schematic on the web!) AW -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machine equipment
On Sunday 18 January 2009, Peter blodow wrote: Hello Gene, Ahh, welcome! Do you have a machine to use yet? snip EMC was new to me, not machines and their control. in fact, I turned my first automated part (slab of cast iron to make e optical glass grinding lap) some twelve years ago. I have (among others, smaller ones, also sheet metal machines, welding equ. etc.): - a Graziano SAG12 lathe (italian brand), about 220 mm diam., 1000 mm width between tips, with electromagnetic gear clutches, so direction and turning speed can be computer controlled Nice, and 3x bigger than mine. - an old small Steinel vertical spindle knee mill (as you would probably call it, we say table mill here), ca. 600 mm travel in Y, which has been equipped with 3 encoders to give a digital position readout, so far not completed yet Also nice. - a wonderful litlle combined table top machine called UWG (universal workshop device) which can be converted to a lathe or mill or horizontal boring or tapping or engraving or grinding device etc.etc., high precision (1/100 mm with ease), no backlash, almost no power. -;) See http://www.lathes.co.uk/hommel/ Now that machine looks to be even handier than sliced bread! Or bottled beer even. This machine is even able to handle stock much larger than itself; I know of a guy who mounts complete car wheels without removing the tires on it to turn enlarged bearing seats into the flange and re-balance it as a whole. Unfortunately, this machine has become a collector's item so parts prices exploded at ebay. I can well imagine. I have been using this machinery mainly to make parts to complete the machinery, but also for the house and for making all sorts of astronomical equipment including an 8 ton all-steel observatory on the top of our house. I have considered that, but the house itself isn't that solid. I have a Meade DS-10 myself. For the lathe, I used a very powerful british stepper control system from Parker-Digiplan based on the GPIB bus (IEEE) and Quick Basic programming. It meant rather complicated programming since the momentary turning diameter at the tool tip had to be checked at any moment to make sure the optimum gear was engaged (this would be quite a challenge for a HAL, wouldn't it?), to consider backlash (somehow tricky when turning convex disks, the tool coming form the outer rim - cutting pressure working against backlash friction). At the end of last year my first efforts in CNC yielded about a hundred perfect gear wheels for the lathe (Mod. 2) and the UWG (Mod. 0.8) because I had almost none to realize gear cutting etc. I used MS Excel as a programming language which gave me coordinate files the demo program was able to read. This software came with my cheap 3-stepper-card SMC1500 from EMIS GmbH (www.emisgmbh.de/). Now, my idea is to unify all these workshop affairs under one control system and possibly with one computer: - The lathe being equipped with large stepper motors (vegetable can size) needs encoders, preferably linear ones which I picked up from the junk (in case they still work) - the mill, now partly equipped with encoders needs motors - the UWG can be equipped with stepper motors on all axes (linear as well as rotatory ones), but should rather be run with encoders and servo motors. A word to electricity and that: snip It is a fairly large step from high school electricity to the field of cnc machining as you are finding out I think. Not insurmountable for those that want to learn, and I congratulate those that are willing to put forth the effort, and that includes you. snip Well, I didn't stay quite at the high school electricity level - after returning to Germany in 66 I finished high schol, studied physics, married the most beautiful and intelligent woman on earth, got three wonderful children with her, got a job as top technical manager at one of the top German research companies (almost 34 years now) and after all this, I am half retired now and have time to pick up the things I had to leave at the side of my life's path. (This, apparently, was all not unsurmountable.) But I've learned one thing on the way, that is one can't develop everything he needs from the plain wood, we have to learn from others and keep on building upon their achievments. And that's why am on this mail forum. (Circle closed, parenthesis) Amen on that! Each of us is standing on the shoulders of giants on this list. I'm in much that same category, quit school after the 8th grade went to work fixing tv's, eventually getting an FCC 1st Phone went into broadcasting. 2 woman have given me 6 children, but my girls are gone from cancer already. Finished the last run of 18 years as the CE at a tv station here in West Virginia in 2002, but in this business, you are never fully retired till you fall over for good. 74, diabetic now, I could do that most anytime, but I too have managed to catch up on some of what I had to leave behind earlier. As my
Re: [Emc-users] Machine equipment
On Sun, 2009-01-18 at 13:00 +0100, Peter blodow wrote: - a Graziano SAG12 lathe It meant rather complicated programming since the momentary turning diameter at the tool tip had to be checked at any moment to make sure the optimum gear was engaged (this would be quite a challenge for a HAL, wouldn't it?), Is this the lathe with 12 spindle speed gears and electric clutches? I've never seen one switch gears on the fly during a constant surfacing speed cut but that would be a really interesting ability. Rayh -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Override (force) HAL inputs
Hi Thomas it is used on this page http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/emcinfo.pl?Simple_Remote_Pendant John On 17 Jan 2009 at 21:07, Thomas Kaiser wrote: On the other side, the or suggestion from John looks good, too. But I could not get it working till now :-( John, do you have a real live example for me? Thanks and Regards, Thomas -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] Machine equipment
Hello Rayh, the lathe has only 4 speeds and two directions, that makes 6 clutches. It's sure a nice feature squaring off - I'm usually turning by hand - to turn her up as it goes toward the center. She runs up to 2000 per minute. You change gears by rotating the engaging lever. There have been larger models of this brand, maybe with more gears, but they aren't produced anymore. Graziano was bought by Deckel and Deckel was bought by MAHO and MAHO was bought by Gildemeister In addition, I've put a VFD in the supply line to the motor so she can come down to about 8 turns per minute with full momentum. Greetings Peter Blodow At 15:02 18.01.2009, you wrote: On Sun, 2009-01-18 at 13:00 +0100, Peter blodow wrote: - a Graziano SAG12 lathe It meant rather complicated programming since the momentary turning diameter at the tool tip had to be checked at any moment to make sure the optimum gear was engaged (this would be quite a challenge for a HAL, wouldn't it?), Is this the lathe with 12 spindle speed gears and electric clutches? I've never seen one switch gears on the fly during a constant surfacing speed cut but that would be a really interesting ability. Rayh -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
Re: [Emc-users] RES: Successful Emc2 conversion (happy
At 06:50 AM 1/18/2009, you wrote: Hello John, I can't understand all that chat about Mesa 5xxx and 7xxx etc. without knowing what these boards are and what they do. I see that Mesa boards and their names are used widely in EMC. Here in Germany I can't even find the brand name of Mesa in ebay. Please supply a link to descriptions so I can go looking for something comparable on the European market. Thanks Peter Blodow http://www.mesanet.com/ __ Andre' B. -- This SF.net email is sponsored by: SourcForge Community SourceForge wants to tell your story. http://p.sf.net/sfu/sf-spreadtheword ___ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
