[snowyskiesau]

Details on getting PathPilot to run with a parallel port can be found on the Linuxcnc forum. Very knowledgeable and helpful bunch.

[KCJ]

Michael, as you discovered the manuals are dated and the SuTai drives thankfully take a standard mini USB cable. The old ones used RS-232 serial com and you needed a special DB9 to RJ11 cable to connect the a serial port, if you were lucky enough to have serial port. The Leadshine software works with SuTai drives so I guess there is a USB to serial conversion chip built into each and every drive? With the cost of FTDI chips I assume it is a counterfeit. I wonder if it is that chip that has the markings abraded off of it . . .



I am looking forward to hearing how it goes with PathPilot. I would like to give it a try at some point. I have the source code but it is for an old version so don't know if it is worth compiling.

Thanks for the link Geoff, there is a lot more info there than when I last checked a while back.

Kurt

[KCJ]

OK, quick update on the past weeks CNC activities.

We got the Mazak VTC-41 moved to its new home. It was quite an adventure and took two full days of heavy work.

The machine is a moving column type, which makes it very tricky to move because the 4000lb+ column likes to move around and shift the center of gravity. The previous owners moved the mill in an enclosed semi trailer and when the truck took a turn the column slid and the machine rolled over. Hence a damaged transformer enclosure and electrical boxes. Other than this cosmetic damage the machine it in decent shape and is built like a tank, but boy is it heavy. I have a much greater appreciation for what little mills like my ENCO are capable of now, considering that they weigh less then a 10th as much and have travels in the same general range.

For your amusement here is a picture of the mill being loaded onto the trailer with two puny forklifts. The forks are as horizontal as they would get. The guy had to stay in the right side forklift to keep it from tipping.




I did not have to go to school on Wednesday so I spent some time writing a HAL component to make setting up the MPG and axis and increment select switch easier.
I put up some info on the MPG here: https://sites.google.com/site/rf45cn...c/example-page

Let me know if it is worth putting more wiki type things like this up and I'll see what I can do. Its easier than posting the info here.

Today I got most of the electrical cabinet done. I used a nibbler to cut opening for some 24V 4 11/16 fans to keep everything cool and drilled the holes for the disconnect switch.
The enclosure is 15 gauge steel and it was a bear cutting it neatly, but it came out OK.



Electrical box in place.



Thanks for looking!

Kurt

[timbo43]

Hi Kurt
Im still watching

Can you pls expand on the procedure to get Liniuxcnc onto Ubuntu Precise 12.04

Cheers
Tim

[KCJ]

Just to reassure everyone, I have not fallen of the face of the earth, I have just been busy.

Tim, I added some info on putting LinuxCNC on Ubuntu. I will try to add the rest of the info later today. I also got PathPilot running my machine and I might be putting up a tutorial on that when I get a chance. I do not plan on using PathPilot since it lacks many of the benefits of using LinuxCNC, but I know many people like the interface.

I think I mentioned a while back that I had started working on a new user interface for LinuxCNC. I have started working on that seriously now and hope to have something usable in the next few weeks. I am calling it Hazzy and it combines what I think are the best features of a Haas control and something like PathPilot. I would like input on screen layout and such but I guess I should start a new thread for that.

I have not done much more on the conversion, but I have been using the mill a good bit.

Here is the very messy inside of the electrical box. I just needed to get everything off the floor and enclosed so nothing would get shorted by chips.



Here is the acrylic base for a radiation detector that I made on the mill. I used to have to crank these out by hand which was not much fun.



Finished detector base strung with 1.75 thou tungsten wires. I got carried away with the engraving! CNC opens so many possibilities.



This detector is taking up much of my time at the moment. I finally got the pulse counting circuit and computer interface perfected yesterday so I hope to be able to run tests with it this coming Friday or Monday. Then I can get back to the mill . . .

Thanks for looking!
Kurt

[timbo43]

Hi Kurt
Looking good
Thanks for the linux info
Cheers
Tim

[bill south]

Kkurt;
Where did you upload the additional linux invo?
Sorry, can't find it.
Bill

[KCJ]

Sorry Bill, I forgot to include the link:
https://sites.google.com/site/rf45cn...lling-linuxcnc

Kurt

[Zeroviz]

Really enjoying your write up. Great photo's and you make it seem easy!

I'm in the process of converting mine too, although I will be using servos.
Overbuilt stand is done, and ridiculously overpriced alumimium stock arrived this week for bearing blocks etc. (How does 6061 at $50.00 a pound sound!)

The linux info is really useful and look foward to what you come up with for an interface.

What touch screen are you using?

Neil

[KCJ]

Thanks Neil!

Are you documenting your build anywhere? I'm sure we would all like to see what you are up to.
$50 / lb for aluminum is very steep. Were are you located? If its not free or very nearly so I start melting down aluminum cans!

I'm glad the Linux stuff is helpful, I will try to add some more info in the next few days. I had never been exposed to Linux until recently but have really enjoyed working with it and LinuxCNC, I hope other will to.

The LinuxCNC interface is coming along well. I am able to home, set the work coordinates and issue MDI commands. Now I need to work on loading g-code files and keyboard jogging. I will post a screenshot when I get things neatened up a bit. Right now there are a bunch of extra labels and buttons I was using for debugging. And there were a log of bugs. Still are in fact!

I am using a 15" elo IntelliTouch screen (Modle E001124). I got it from Ebay and it was listed as a five wire resistive screen, but they shipped the higher end IntelliTouch which is a surface acoustic wave screen so it is almost like a tablet. I decided not to complain about the error

Kurt

[panozeng]

I think I recognize some of these pics. I'm particularly impressed by the welding on the panel support arm! Great project!

[KCJ]

I think I recognize some of these pics. I'm particularly impressed by the welding on the panel support arm! Great project!

Jason, if I had welded that arm up I would have been too embarrassed to post pictures of it, but your welds were so perfect I just had to show them off!
I guess you think it is about time I stopped piddling on this toy mill and started on your Mazak . . .


I mentioned that I'm working on a new interface for LinuxCNC. It is more work than I expected, but it is coming along quite well considering I have next to no programming experience. So far it is usable on a simple machine such as mine, and I have been using it exclusively for the past 2 weeks or so. It still needs a lot of work before it will be usable on a machine with an ATC or something other than 4 axes of trivial kinematics, though. Currently I am developing it for LinuxCNC 2.7, but will be switching to 2.8 shortly as it has some significant improvements in the way joints/axes are handled. If there is interest I could see about releasing very much of a preview version for 2.7 users before switching to developing for 2.8.

Here are some screen screen shots of what I have so far. I intend for it to be used with only a touchscreen, and so far that seems to be realistic. None of this is set in stone yet, so shout out if you think I should move some controls etc. Also, let me know if you think you might be able to use it, I need some encouragement form time to time when the bugs bite bad!


PathPilot inspired layout with touchscreen friendly backplot controls.
Note the real time chip load and surface speed displays in the spindle section. I paused to machine for the screen shot so there were no values to display. Also note how comments with MSG are picked form the gcode and displayed at the bottom of the screen. (Now that I look at it I guess it should say "MSG: " instead of "INFO: " to be consistent.) Error messages and other info show up there as well.




File selector with support for shortcut folders and gcode preview/editor
Ignore the misspellings for now, but I might need a proofreader later! My sister pointed out that I misspelled "label" as "lable" in all the source code and glade files, don't know if it is worth the significant amount of work to fix.




Popup keypads and numpads for all entries, save as dialogs etc.
MDI has its own special keypad with support for macros, but it's not done yet. I should mention that you can type into the DROs to set work offsets in a similar to in Mach3 or PathPilot. I don't think any of the current LCNC interfaces have this feature, but I think it is a must.




I guess I am hijacking my own thread, I should start a new one for LCNC interface stuff . . .

Hopefully I'll get back to finishing up the mill soon. I have been using it a good bit and loving it, but I still need to install limit switches, neaten up the electrical box, add a spindle relay, finish the control panel, and a lot of other stuff that I can't remember at the moment.

As always, thanks for looking!
Kurt

[timbo43]

looks good Kurt

Cheers
Tim

[KCJ]

Thanks Tim.

I guess the pictures were not showing up. I tried to fix them but Google seems to have removed all my photos except one from Picasa so now I have to use google photos which is hit or miss. Seems to be mostly miss lately. Let me know it they still don't show.

Kurt

[timbo43]

Hi Kurt

All the pictures are now visible

Tim

[KCJ]

I just finished putting the source code for my LinuxCNC UI on github if anybody wants to take a look at it:

https://github.com/KurtJacobson/hazzy

Kurt

[timbo43]

Hi Kurt
Like I said looking very good to me

Im still trying to get Linux onto my computer

having problems with both types LOL

Cheers
Tim

[KCJ]

Thanks Tim!
I am sorry to hear you are having trouble installing Linux.
What specifically are you trying to install (LinuxCNC ISO, Ubuntu . . ) and what types of problems are you having?
I might be able to help, I hope.

Kurt

P.S. I did not intend to post this, but while I am on here, here is a very poor quality video of my LinuxCNC UI running a 5-axis sim machine. Sorry for the laggy interface and cursor, my old computer really struggles running the screen recording software.

https://youtu.be/JbPgHUxsEBA

At this point Hazzy supports up to any 5-axes and will work with multiple joints per axis, as would be found in a gantry type router or plasma table. As yet I have not made much more progress with the visual parts of the UI other than adding a tool table, but I am working on making it customizeable so I can easily tailor it to the needs of specific machines and add things like conversational programming in a modular fashion.

[timbo43]

Hi Kurt
Tried Ubuntu as per your Procedure
That all seemed to work fine
Loaded the CNC files and get a error off ??386 kernal missing
( sorry at work OS for the next 3 weeks so cannot access actual comp)

Then tried the Linux cnc Iso method all seemed to work ok, Run the setup files
But again when opening CNC get a 386 ?? error ( again need comp to see the full error )

Still fun trying to get it to work
Cheers
Tim

[KCJ]

Tim,
I think you are missing the real time kernel. I forgot I had not finished the procedure I wrote. Sorry about that, it was missing the most important bits! I just finished it though so hopefully it might give you some hints as to what you need to do to get LCNC running.

Here is the link:
https://sites.google.com/site/rf45cn...lling-linuxcnc

Good luck and let me know how it goes when you get to it!
Kurt