[mud99]

Hey everyone, I wanted to introduce myself, i'm a new Torus owner in California.

I received my mill a month ago or so, and am finally getting around to setting everything up.

I unpacked it myself and rolled it off the crate using a few pieces of pipe and a couple pieces of 2x4, Egyptian style. It was easy, no engine hoist needed.

Right now it is sitting next to my electrical panel in the garage, where I have added an extra subpanel connected to the 50 amp welding outlet I already had and occasionally

I am driving the machine off of a LinuxCNC installation on a Foxconn Atom Mini ITX PC. I'm somewhat of a linux fanatic, so Mach just wasn't in the cards for me.

I have had a few issues so far, but everything looks workable.

For those who might be setting up the same machine, here is the configuration I used:

Output Pinout
1 X Step
2 X Dir
3 Y Step
4 Y Dir
5 Z Step
6 Z Dir
7 Spindle Step
8 Spindle Direction
9 Coolant Flood

Input Pinout
10 E-Stop IN (inverted)
11 Machine Power On (unused)

X/Y/Z Axis
200 Step/rev
4 Microstep (Weird because the drivers are set to 100?)
5mm Leadscrew Pitch
50mm/sec Velocity
50mm/s2 Acceleration

I'm still trying to figure out the best way to drive the spindle. LinuxCNC doesn't seem to have built in support for stepper spindles. I can rotate the spindle with the A axis, but I haven't figured out how to keep it running, unless I add a distance to my G1 commands, which isn't ideal.

The VFD appears to be controlled via a serial port on the breakout board, so I might just drive it from the serial port on the PC just to get chips flying, or wire in a switch so I can swap between VFD/servo control.

Anyway, here's a pic of the machine all set up, looking forward to being another Novakon owner on here.

[alan_3301]

LinuxCNC Support Forum :: Topic: Configuring a stepper as spindle motor (1/1)

read that page it will help you figure it out.
I believe you would have a servo spindle, but I think it takes step and direction input instead of analog, so you can pretend it was a stepper.

[mud99]

Ok, I got it working (kind of), but if I go over 3500 RPM the VFD cuts out and says ERR 4, and the machine goes into E-stop.

Looking at the maxsine manual, ERR 4 indicates that the spindle speed was not synchronized correctly according to the sensors, or the timing signals were screwed up.

Not sure what to do, maybe remove the motor and see if it can spin that speed unloaded?

Actually, it just occurred to me, is the spindle speed the same as the VFD speed? I didn't think about that, it looks like it has a gearbox, does anyone know the ratio?

[allinmach]

Ok, I got it working (kind of), but if I go over 3500 RPM the VFD cuts out and says ERR 4, and the machine goes into E-stop.

Looking at the maxsine manual, ERR 4 indicates that the spindle speed was not synchronized correctly according to the sensors, or the timing signals were screwed up.

Not sure what to do, maybe remove the motor and see if it can spin that speed unloaded?

Actually, it just occurred to me, is the spindle speed the same as the VFD speed? I didn't think about that, it looks like it has a gearbox, does anyone know the ratio?

I think the max. speed of the servo driver was set 3500RPM as defaulted , you can find it under P075.
Also , the speed of the VFd and servo should be the same .
The ratio of the spindle pulley and servo pulley is 1:1.5 , it can gets the spindle achieve at 4500RPM when the motor runs at its max.3000RPM.

Give a try of cutting off the power and restart the driver .

Enjoy your chip making .

[mud99]

Ok that makes a lot more sense. I thought something was wrong with my machine until I realized I had forgotten about the gearbox.

Does anyone have a mach or linuxcnc config file for the machine? I emailed John last night about getting a config file, waiting to hear back.

[Novakon]

Hello,

We have not seen any emails regarding your inquiry. If you contact [email protected], we would be more than happy to assist you. We are not too sure about the operation of Linux in your controller system, but we sure can assist in the hardware setup as it relates to MACH3 and windows.

We will be watching for your mail!

Regards,
Novakon Team

[mud99]

I had emailed John directly, but I actually have everything working now so no worries

Once I have my configuration finished i'll post a copy for you or anyone else who is interested

[mud99]

Also, some of my initial data was wrong, here are the settings I am using.


Output Pinout
1 X Step
2 X Dir
3 Y Step
4 Y Dir
5 Z Step
6 Z Dir
7 Spindle Step
8 Spindle Direction
9 Coolant Flood
17 Charge Pump

Input Pinout
10 E-Stop IN (inverted)
11 XYZ Home

X/Y/Z Axis
160 Steps/mm
50mm/sec Velocity
600mm/s2 Acceleration
1500 ns steplen
1500 ns stepspace
10000 ns dirhold
5000 ns dirsetup

Spindle
-4.5 steps/rev
4500 rev/min Velocity
4500 rev/min/s Acceleration
2500 ns steplen
2500 ns stepspace
5000 ns dirhold
5000 ns dirsetup

[brianbonedoc]

Mud99 - thanks for the post.

I have a newish Pulsar machine that I'm trying to setup linuxcnc on.

I tried w/ the parallel port to the novakon BOB, but I cant seem to get the motors to move at all. The e-stop works, when I push it - linuxcnc responds but that is the only thing.

Any tips? I am using the same pin out as you are. My thoughts are something w/ the charge pump or xyz axis enable?

Thanks!
B

[brianbonedoc]

For anyone reading this thread - here's the solution to getting the Parallel port moving with the novakon:

In your Hal config file, Delete the line;
net estop-out charge-pump.enable iocontrol.0.user-enable-out

and replace it with the following;
net motion-enabled charge-pump.enable motion.motion-enabled