[mhackney]

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it now.

By the way, I was going to email you, I am converting my G0602 with one of Billy's kits. Just ordered today. I'm seriously thinking of using a KFLOP with it since I'll be starting from scratch and this might be a good opportunity to get plugged into KFLOP. I also want to use an all-in-one touch screen computer that does not have a parallel port so I need a USB or ethernet interface. Does the software require Visual Studio or can you compile with LLVM or GCC?

regards,
Michael

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with it now.

By the way, I was going to email you, I am converting my G0602 with one of Billy's kits. Just ordered today. I'm seriously thinking of using a KFLOP with it since I'll be starting from scratch and this might be a good opportunity to get plugged into KFLOP. I also want to use an all-in-one touch screen computer that does not have a parallel port so I need a USB or ethernet interface. Does the software require Visual Studio or can you compile with LLVM or GCC?

regards,
Michael

Michael,

To just bring up a KFlop, nothing is needed - it comes with a basic IDE and the necessary compiler (from TI). If you want to do development of a PC application using KFlop, you need VisualStudio 2008 - it doesn't work with later versions.

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

Having no experience, what does it man to develop a PC application? I presume that would be the UI part of the control application? In that case, is a shell/generic application provided?

Setting up a VS2008 environment might be a bit tricky. I suppose I could create a clean VM on Fusion and install there.

Regards,
Michael

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Michael,

Just to use the KFlop, running either Mach3 or the DynoMotion KMotionCNC controller, you don't need VisualStudio. Everything you need is included with the KFlop, and lots of help in writing the C code you need to provide to customize to your machines requirements is available through the Yahoo DynoMotion group, or the DynoMotion forum on the 'Zone. If you want to develop your own CNC controller application (which is what I did - I have not used Mach3 in several years), then you need VisualStudio 2008.

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

Ray, have you looked at any of the other USB motion controllers out there like Smoothieboard or UC300? There are others. I use a Smoothieboard on one of my delta printers and have contributed to the open source project for it. It's a nice board and you can get it w/o the built in stepper drivers so it can drive larger ones.

Cheers,
Michael

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Michael,

Had not seen the Smoothieboard before. My big concern with any motion controller would be the quality of the plug-in, and other software/firmware, and the level of support. I know the KFlop is very solid and reliable, and if a problem is found, it WILL get fixed within days. That was not my experience with the SmoothStepper, and I've read horror stories on some of the others. To me, KFlop is in a whole different league from the others in terms of robustness. I have literally never had mine screw up, even a little.

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

I installed the software and compiler today and it looks pretty straight forward. I need to figure out what I'll use for drivers. Have 2 NEMA 23 570 oz steppers from Keling that should do fine. Matt used those on his awesome G0602 conversion. I watched the KFLOP constant surface speed lathe video - that was pretty impressive. This machine is mostly "just because" and not really something I need for heavy production. I've been interested in KFLOP since you first mentioned it so it makes sense to go for it on this build. I need a non-parallel port interface anyway so it's just the ticket.

cheers,
Michael

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I installed the software and compiler today and it looks pretty straight forward. I need to figure out what I'll use for drivers. Have 2 NEMA 23 570 oz steppers from Keling that should do fine. Matt used those on his awesome G0602 conversion. I watched the KFLOP constant surface speed lathe video - that was pretty impressive. This machine is mostly "just because" and not really something I need for heavy production. I've been interested in KFLOP since you first mentioned it so it makes sense to go for it on this build. I need a non-parallel port interface anyway so it's just the ticket.

cheers,
Michael

Michael,

If you like, I can provide you with some code as a starting point - things like homing, probing. spindle control, etc.

Regards,
Ray L.

[pippin88]

Consider LinuxCNC with Mesanet boards (hardware stepper pulse generator). For about $200 you'll have an industrial class controller.

[mhackney]

Thanks pippin88, I took a look at mesanet.com. It's one of the most difficult to use web sites I've seen in a while. They are not doing themselves a service with their website. After 15 minutes it was not clear what board/s I could use. Several data sheets "were not available" and/or the controller was only rated at 3A - too low for my application. Googling for examples turned up very little and the few that I found were for specific Mesa products that are not actually supported by LinuxCNC.

I'm going to stick to the KFlop for the lathe conversion.

cheers,
Michael

[pippin88]

Yeah, the website is not the greatest.

I just reread your posts above about an all-in-one PC. Mesanet do have ethernet based products, but I'm not 100% sure where LinuxCNC implementation is up to. I think it's working but requires a little fiddling (nothing as major as writing your own interface program)

Mesa offer a few classes of product:
Hardware pulse generation (equivalent to smoothstepper) = Anything I/O FPGA Cards
IO interface (think breakout board) = Anything I/O Daughter Cards
Drivers

Most often people use a Mesa hardware pulse generation board and an IO interface, then use drivers from elsewhere. There is absolutely no need to use Mesa drivers with their other boards.

The store has a specific category for LinuxCNC supported boards: LinuxCNC Supported Boards

A few selected products:
FPGA cards (pulse gen)
5i25 - PCI based FPGA card. 34 I/O bits (17 per connector). DB25 (Parallel port) connector output - can interface with their DB25 cards or a standard breakout board. For example you could have 5i25 feeding a Gecko 540 (same usage style as smoothstepper)
6i25 - PCIE version of 5i25
7i80DB - Ethernet input, DB25 output
7i80HD - Ethernet input, 50 pin output

Daughter cards
50 pin Daughtercards (for all FPGA cards except 5i25/6i25)
7i33 4 channel analog servo interface with encoder inputs
7i37 Isolated I/O card
7i42 Breakout/FPGA protection card
7i30 Quad 100 Watt H-bridges for 4I27,4I34,4I65,5I20,7I60
7i40 Dual 400W driver
7i29 Dual 2KW H-bridge for 4I27 and FPGA cards
7i39 brushless motor drive.
7i44 8 channel RS-422 interface
7i47 12 channel motion oriented RS-422 interface
7i48 6 channel analog servo interface with encoder inputs
7i49 6 channel analog servo interface with resolver inputs
7I52 6 channel encoder + 6 channel RS-422 interface
7I52S 6 Channel encoder + 6 channel Step/Dir or PWM/DIR interface
7I53 12 channel encoder + 2 channel RS-422 interface

25 pin daughtercards (for 5i25/6i25)
7i74 8 channel RS-422 interface
7i75 I/O protector
7i76 5 channel step/dir + 48 isolated I/O + spindle control + 1 RS-422 port
7i77 6 channel analog servo interface + 48 isolated I/O + 1 RS-422 port
7i78 4 channel step/dir + spindle control and 1 RS-422 interface

[mhackney]

I'm finally taking the initiative to complete the front panel for my G0704. I've been running with the speed control in a plastic shoe box for several years! (how crazy is that!)

I built a prototype box in wood and aluminum and once I am happy with the size and design I'll make an aluminum version of it. Basically I want to mount it in the lower right corner of my enclosure front (in front of the sliding shower curtain) so the controls will be right next to the computer monitor/keyboard that's mounted on an arm.

The box will have a slant top with the controls on top. Inside is the KBMM-125 speed control, a C6 for Mach spindle control and a couple of wall warts (9 and 12V) for the C6 and the RPM display).

I'll have a DPTT switch to select Mach/Manual spindle control and the pot when manual is selected.
I'll have a switch to control turning on/off my mist coolant, which is also under Mach control and will have a DPTT switch to select it.
I'll have a small jack to plug in my probe.
I modified the original tach that came with the mill and will have the RPM display on the panel.
I'l have an encoder and buttons for jogging the mill built in.
Finally, I'll have an eStop and the power switch - this is where I have a question.

The switch that came with the G0704 is a Kedu KJD17B. It has a feature called "Remote Trip" that is the A1 terminal on the back. I have searched to try to understand what that is and how to use it. The G0704 schematics show it connected to the spindle direction selection switch. I suspect that what it did was shut off the spindle motor if you try to reverse direction with the switch but it has been years since I had this on my mill I don't recall. Does anyone know what the Remote Trip feature is and how it is used? If it is what I think - some signal on A1 forces the KJD17B to trip - I'd like to cause the switch to trip when the eStop button is pressed.

cheers,
Michael

[mhackney]

Making good progress on my control panel upgrade. Here is what the naked panel looks like:

Attachment 253214

Attachment 253216

I am just waiting for my switch order to come in tomorrow and then I can finish it off. In the meantime, my Pokeys 56U and MPG came in. I've got it working in Mach and have configured the MPG and most of the inputs from the switches - so I'll be good to go. I just need to figure out how to interface the manual/PC selectors for coolant and spindle speed control.

Cheers,
Michael

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Michael,

I hope you have better luck with the PoKeys than I have - the one I have fires off random keystrokes all by itself. I built a control panel for my mill several years ago, but can't use it, because it will randomly send FeedHold, and occasionally other key combinations, to the PC. I'm going to remove the PoKeys and replace it with an Arduino Leonardo running my own firmware to implement a HID keyboard.

Regards,
Ray L.

[mhackney]

It seems that the 56U is much improved. So far I have been very impressed with how easy it is to setup and configure The proof is in the using though.

Regards,
Michael

[mhackney]

Well, I'm getting back to polishing off my control box and other mill upgrades. I have the Pokey 56U working - pretty straight forward to set up and configure. I have a question about the MPG though. I bought the encoder from Polabs and have it connected. It works perfectly in MPG mode. However, I'd like to be able to single step using the encoder to be able to make fine resolution moves. When I switch to single step mode, the keyboard jog controls work but the encoder does not. I have an RUShuttle on my minimill and it has two concentric encoders. The outer one jogs like the one on my pokey, the inner one single steps in whatever increment I have set (.001" typically). I'd like to be able to switch from one mode to the other with my single encoder on the pokey. Anyone know how to configure this?

thanks!
Michael

[mhackney]

Well, it looks like my issue with single step in the last post may be a bigger problem. Here's the situation...

I have hooked up the pokeys and configured it do do a few things:

1) an MPG
2) a 3 position rotary switch for step increment
3) a 4 position rotary switch for axis select (x, y, z, a)
4) two buttons: feed override up and down
5) three buttons: Start, Stop and Hold

I'll add more later but I wanted to start with these. I've verified that all of the functions 2-5 in the list work properly in Mach with the plugin. As noted in the previous post, the MPG works to jog but does not do step mode jogs. I discovered some oddness that when I jog in MPG mode, then go to CONT mode and use the keyboard and then back to MPG< the encoder wheel does not work. I have to hit the eStop Mach button and then clear it and then the MPG mode works again. I also noticed, and this is the very odd thing, that the speed override spontaneously decreases. I haven't been able to correlate this to anything I do with the functions above. But, if I disable the Pokey plugin, this does not happen. I then re-enable the plug in and disabled all of the Pokey functions. In this configuration, the speed override also spontaneously decreases. Even if I'm not doing anything but watching the screen, it will decrement the speed override! I've tried plugging the Pokeys into a different USB port but the problem still exists.

Not sure what to do about this. My pokey is mounted in the aluminum box panel shown in a previous post. There are some other electronics in there - most noticeably the spindle speed controller (KBM-125) and 2 wall warts for 12 and 24V. Everything is grounded to the aluminum box which is then grounded.

Any suggestions on what to do or what might be going on?

Thanks,
Michael

[mhackney]

Looks like it might be noise. I posted on the mach forum and the PoKeys' developer answered: odd Pokey issue...

1) the MPG step mode appears to be a setting to use internal or external PoKeys jogging.
2) the spontaneous triggering of speed override appears to be a noise issue. The proposed fix is to add 1K ohm pull up resistors to all of the used pins. Simple enough, I hope that works!

[mhackney]

Ok, after a bit of a hiatus I'm back at it. I added the pull up resistors as per the previous post this weekend. I can "see" the button presses and MPG movement in the PoKeys configuration check tab and I am not seeing the spontaneous triggering like I saw last year. However, the MPG is not actually jogging my machine and the axis select buttons I configured (and see do get presses in the check tab) don't seem to be selecting the axis or if it is, I don't know how to check that it is. I'm looking at the Debug/Test tab in Mach 3. I had a file with the layout, configuration and notes when I implemented this last year and things seem to be configured the same. I vaguely recall not being able to get the MPG to work until I changed some config option - but I can't recall what that was!

[mhackney]

Yup, it was a simple thing. I had to enable MPG1 in Mach's Pins configuration panel. And now I've been able to test everything and the pull-up resistors did the trick. No false triggers and everything on my new panel works perfectly.