Path Pilot HAL Extensions

Hi Everyone,
I thought I would send this out for general replies, as it might be of interest to share information/experiences in this regard. I recently upgraded to Path Pilot and at the same time took the opportunity to change over my lathe and router from Mach3 to standard LinuxCNC. I must say that I really like them both so I will stick with them.

Some time ago I made a control box with joystick, keypad, MPG, etc. that I used for Mach3, and I wanted to get this working in LinuxCNC as well. I hit the books and learned the HAL programming, and now have it working in conjunction with the MESA 5i25 and 7i76 cards.(NOTE: The 5i25/6i25 are the cards distributed by Tormach. The 7i76 is a general IO and encoder card).

So the next step was to get it working in Path Pilot. I have made some progress but also hit a few bumps in the road.I was wondering whether anyone else has looked into modifying the HAL and INI files to extend Path Pilot to external controls. I disabled the automatic MESA flash in the login script, and have PP running with the 6i25/7i76 combination. With some straightforward modifications to the hal files, I have some of the external controls working (joystick, MPG, a few buttons).However, it appears that Tormach does not distribute all of the standard HAL components with the Path Pilot distribution (e.g., kbmatrix). Has anyone compiled the additional components?

More generally, would anyone like to share their experiences "tweaking" path pilot.

Finally, I'd like to complement Tormach on their apparent willingness to allow such modifications. It is relatively easy to get at the linux prompt and configuration files, which are all very well commented. I realize that this will put me out of support, but it is great to have the ability to experiment and extend functionality to keep using all the accessories that we have built up over the years.

As I remember when I read the EULA at the last update regarding to the licence Tormach will send you their sources on request. The EULA was just shown at the update and I didn't find it anywhere else...

Hadane

What flavor of Linux did you use for your router. I am looking at a X-Carve router that I would like to run using LinuxCNC. My problem is that my only exposure to Linux is on my 770 and Path Pilot and you do not even see the OS when using PP. I have been searching the net for info on Linux and LinuxCNC and so far it is all greek to me.
I have a computer in the shop that I can experiment on. I just need to figure out how to experiment on it. I have a pair of Gecko g540s that I can use and 4 nema 23 stepper motors.

Dave

@Hadane - have you tried hidcomp/hidconfig? I have these links in my "stuff to try" set web I finally find time to attempt to get my pendant working with Pathpilot...

hidcomp - EMC/LinuxCNC USB HID interface component

Please give the way to get to the Linux command prompt.

I messed around w/ the HAL extensions and have had some luck. PathPilot doesn't come with the linuxcnc-standard hal_input extension, so I compiled and installed it. So far it works fine for my xbox controller. I also compiled and installed a third party extension (hidconfig), but it didn't see my xbox controller, so I just stuck with hal_input. I didn't try too hard to get hidconfig to work though. I did this under a virtual machine and never tried on a real pc. It may work fine.

Jerry, there are three ways I know of to get to the command prompt.

- hold shift and alt during boot (this will take you to the gnome desktop)
- hit control-alt-x (this will bring up a prompt in it's own window. Hit alt-tab to switch between windows)
- hit control-alt-F1 (this will switch you to a full screen prompt. Hit control-alt-F7 to switch back to PP)

Justin
With the hal-input extension installed can you now configure PP to run a non tormach machine such as a CNC router?

Dave

Dave,

I don't know linuxcnc/PP well enough to answer that question with 100% confidence, but I'm pretty sure you could. It would probably be harder to configure than the base linuxcnc though.
Justin

I'm no linux expert either, but HAL-input has nothing to do with configuring PP for another machine. Hal-input is for configuring input devices. To getting PP or LinuxCNC in general configured for another machine is done elsewhere. I suggest you read the mesa configuration section of the linux cnc manual (assuming you are using a mesa card since this is the pathpilot forum and that is how tormach implemented the PP control)

http://www.linuxcnc.org/docs/2.6/pdf...ng_Started.pdf

Justin
Thanks for the command prompt info in note #6. I used unix and linux in a previous life and it is interesting to have a command window.
Jerry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JustinHoMi

I messed around w/ the HAL extensions and have had some luck. PathPilot doesn't come with the linuxcnc-standard hal_input extension, so I compiled and installed it. So far it works fine for my xbox controller. I also compiled and installed a third party extension (hidconfig), but it didn't see my xbox controller, so I just stuck with hal_input. I didn't try too hard to get hidconfig to work though. I did this under a virtual machine and never tried on a real pc. It may work fine.

Jerry, there are three ways I know of to get to the command prompt.

- hold shift and alt during boot (this will take you to the gnome desktop)
- hit control-alt-x (this will bring up a prompt in it's own window. Hit alt-tab to switch between windows)
- hit control-alt-F1 (this will switch you to a full screen prompt. Hit control-alt-F7 to switch back to PP)

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Justin-
I know this is an old post but could you help me with a couple questions? I am looking for the HAL_input installer and I can't find anywhere to grab it. Is that something that should be available or is it something I have to acquire from another linux cnc machine that already has it? Also, is there anything you have to do after you install HAL_input? Do I need to edit an ini file or anything like that?

Sorry if these are total noob questions. This is my first run at linux. I feel like its a bit of a foreign language at the moment and I'm having trouble finding other folks who have hooked an xbox controller up to a Tormach. My machine (used) came with mach 3 and the xbox controller was working. When I installed the newest path pilot, that control went away.

Thanks,
Greg