[daniellyall]

same here, they are a in country company for you the more support they get the better stuff you will get from down the road not over the sea hell that sound like that titan joker BOOM

brianbonedoc there nothing wrong with what you are doing they would say if there was

[vmax549]

You guys are forgetting that IF they released the GOOD part of it(GUI) as open source then EVERY machine builder all over the world would grab it for free and use it against them as a sales competitor. IF I were them I would keep it under lock and key for as LONG as I could. The Lcnc part you can get for free BUT that is NOT what makes it the PathPilot (;-).

Just a thought,

(;-) TP

[shred]

You guys are forgetting that IF they released the GOOD part of it(GUI) as open source then EVERY machine builder all over the world would grab it for free and use it against them as a sales competitor. IF I were them I would keep it under lock and key for as LONG as I could. The Lcnc part you can get for free BUT that is NOT what makes it the PathPilot (;-).

Just a thought,

(;-) TP

This is true, every cheap CNC router off eBay comes with a copy of Mach often of questionable legitimacy.

As I understand the main point of Open Source it is supposed to be so you can build on others work, modify and change things as desired, not to get free copies of somebody elses' work ready to run. Building the OS and source trees is part and parcel of Open Source.

[brianbonedoc]

OK, so I received the install disc from Tormach. It seemed to install correctly but then on boot, it gave a uuid error.
So I pulled the drive and put it in an old computer - with my mesa card, and it booted right up. Apparently PP doesn't like certain motherboards or CPUs.
It flashed the mesa card with the tormach flash and went into path pilot.

I also have a screen resolution issue where the top and sides are cut off, it seems that my resolution on my monitor is at 800x600, and not switching to the PP designated 1024x768.

I was able to get to a terminal prompt by hitting ctrl - alt - X.

Now I need sort out the above issues, reflash with my BOB flash, and then tweak the ini and hal files.

[daniellyall]

sounds good please keep use posted I am changing controllers from M3 to don't know yet

[brianbonedoc]

OK so major step forward today. Big thanks to all who have helped - you know who your are.
I still have some tweaking to do - but heres a little video:

Sorry for the lousy quality - more to follow hopefully.

Path pilot running on non tormach mill - YouTube


Here are some running notes I have used to get started - hope it helps others.


Path pilot install

1 - PP doesn’t like sandy bridge
- using older E2200 pentium

2 - may need to install video drivers

3 - hold down left SHIFT and ALT keys during boot up to get to gnome desktop

4 - modify ini file in /tmc/configs/tormach_mill(line 89 in tormach_1100-3.ini for example) to point to new BITFILE that you must copy to /operator/tmc//mesa directory

5 - this will reflash mesa card w/ new bit file

6 - root login and password are operator/operator


-----------------
3 files need to follow and SAVE from updates - they will get overwritten when updating!!

tormach_1100-3.ini
novakon.hal
postgui_tormach_mill.hal


HELPFUL SHORTCUTS -

left Shift + ALT keys during startup gets u to desktop
ctrl+alt+x exits PP to terminal

[daniellyall]

well done just doc for nobs to be able to walk through install now

[brianbonedoc]

So I'm having trouble with a few issues.


1. Homing - my limit switches don't seem to be registering. If the table hits a limit it throws an e-stop
2. Spindle speed - I'm having trouble calibrating the speed (I have a servo spindle)
3. Spindle direction - whether I hit For or Rev - the spindle always turns clockwise

Here are the hal and ini files I'm using in case anyone has any ideas.

Thanks!

[Gerry Sweetland]

"3 - hold down left SHIFT and ALT keys during boot up to get to gnome desktop"
I try this an I just get the GRUB menu with only options to boot into the standard Ubuntu (PathPilot) screen GUI, a Ubuntu recovery option and the two memtest options.
Maybe I am misunderstanding the statement, I think I'm going to get a Gnome desktop GUI rather than the PP GUI?
For example...
Attachment 289196

Gerry

[brianbonedoc]

Try waiting until u see the tormach splash screen until u press shift/alt

[kirk_wallace]

Thinking mostly out loud. I use the terms hard firm and soft for different kinds of limits. Hard limit = metal to metal contact or similar. Firm limit = contact with an axis switch or sensor that breaks the e-stop loop. Soft limit = limits enforced by software by using the machine position and travel limit data. The soft limits are the only limits you should hit in a properly set up and functioning machine. The .ini [axis_?] sections will need to be edited for the particular limits and homing configuration on your machine. For instance, the Tormach mill is configured to home with the limit switches at the top/left/rear corner of the bounding box. The limit switches are used for both limits and homing. See section 3.4 here: Homing Configuration . If the .ini limits are set properly and the machine is homed, you should never hit a firm or hard limit. Your machine will just travel to a soft limit and stop. The plotter screen on the main page should show a 3D bounding box. The distance between the tool and the bounding box in the plotter screen should correspond to the real tool working space.

[kirk_wallace]

The Tormach spindle configuration is pretty complex and tailored to their particular control board. The control board is shown in the manual : http://www.tormach.com/uploads/897/U...A_Web-pdf.html on page 198, Figure 10.14 near the center of the diagram. This is a custom board that uses PIC magic to get the most out of the limited I/O used. There is also a custom HAL component,invoked by "loadrt tormachspindle names=tormachspindle". For your spindle, I would tend to trim the .hal file spindle connections down to the LinuxCNC motion.spindle pins : MOTION and build from there.

[brianbonedoc]

Kirk - thanks for the tips. That is basically what I did was go back and use my linuxcnc spindle code. It seems to work well. It goes for/rev and the speed is accurate.
YouTube

I am still trying to get the homing to work. I can get one axis to home if I remark out the other 2 lines. The red text below - is set to home the Z axis and it works - if I unremark out the other lines I can't get any to home.
The machine will move but it will hit the limit switch and throw an error. But if homing just one it works perfectly - hits the limit and then backs off and zero's the axis.

Any ideas? Here is the snippet of the hal file I am talking about.
I also attached the current version of my ini and hal files

__________________________________________


net all-limit <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.0.in debounce.0.1.in debounce.0.2.in

# Below is original tormach hal - I had to change to above because my BOB uses one input for all limit switches
#net home-limit-x-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.013.in => debounce.0.0.in
#net home-limit-y-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.1.in
#net home-limit-z-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.015.in => debounce.0.2.in

# This was remarked out in Tormach
#setp debounce.0.0.in 1
#setp debounce.0.1.in 1
#setp debounce.0.2.in 1

# route through AND gates to enable switches via UI
net and-home-x debounce.0.0.out enable-limit-x.in1
net and-home-y debounce.0.1.out enable-limit-y.in1
net and-home-z debounce.0.2.out enable-limit-z.in1


# post gui connects this to the UI
net limit-switch-enable enable-limit-x.in0 enable-limit-y.in0 enable-limit-z.in0

# connect to axes -

#net home-limit-x enable-limit-x.out axis.0.home-sw-in axis.0.neg-lim-sw-in axis.0.pos-lim-sw-in
#net home-limit-y enable-limit-y.out axis.1.home-sw-in axis.1.neg-lim-sw-in axis.1.pos-lim-sw-in
net home-limit-z enable-limit-z.out axis.2.home-sw-in axis.2.neg-lim-sw-in axis.2.pos-lim-sw-in

[PCW_MESA]

Homing Configuration

especially HOME_IS_SHARED

[brianbonedoc]

Thanks Peter - I will give that a read.
Thanks again for your help with the firmware/bitfile too!

[Gerry Sweetland]

Try waiting until u see the tormach splash screen until u press shift/alt

Ahh, cool. Makes it much easier to explore the system.
Thanks,
Gerry

[691175002]

What exactly is path pilot? Just a skin and GUI on top of stock LinuxCNC?

[kstrauss]

What exactly is path pilot? Just a skin and GUI on top of stock LinuxCNC?

That is a little harsh since Tormach seems to be fixing stuff in LinuxCNC, has added some wizards, ships a preconfigured product, provides support, etc. However, you are essentially correct.

[mountaindew]

What exactly is path pilot? Just a skin and GUI on top of stock LinuxCNC?

That is a little harsh since Tormach seems to be fixing stuff in LinuxCNC, has added some wizards, ships a preconfigured product, provides support, etc. However, you are essentially correct.

LOL!
If it was easy everyone would do it!

[brianbonedoc]

OK, so like a blind squirrel finding a nut, I managed to get the homing to work.

I changed this:

net home-limit-x-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.0.in
net home-limit-y-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.1.in
net home-limit-z-raw <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.2.in

net home-limit-x enable-limit-x.out axis.0.home-sw-in axis.0.neg-lim-sw-in axis.0.pos-lim-sw-in
net home-limit-y enable-limit-y.out axis.1.home-sw-in axis.1.neg-lim-sw-in axis.1.pos-lim-sw-in
net home-limit-z enable-limit-z.out axis.2.home-sw-in axis.2.neg-lim-sw-in axis.2.pos-lim-sw-in

To this:

net all-limit <= hm2_5i25.0.gpio.014.in => debounce.0.0.in debounce.0.1.in debounce.0.2.in

net home-limit-x enable-limit-x.out axis.0.home-sw-in
net home-limit-y enable-limit-y.out axis.1.home-sw-in
net home-limit-z enable-limit-z.out axis.2.home-sw-in

---------------------------
I am not sure why deleting the pins axis.x.neg-lim-sw and pos worked but it did.

Heres proof: