[widget_maker]

Tried to fire up my Tormach today only to see the PC frozen at the Pathpilot splash page. Checked the bios to ensure the CMOS battery was not dead - a problem I had once before, but date and time were good. The "computer" red light was not alight, and the machine did a double beep on startup (don't recall if this is normal). After entering BIOS but changing nothing, it now presents me with three options at startup, one - the default - being to use Pathpilot.

Anyone see this before, or know what's going on?

Attachment 454050

Attachment 454052

[Tigster]

I have NO IDEA what I'm talking about but, is it possible a key on your keyboard is stuck? I had a somewhat similar issue, swapped keyboards and fixed it. I'm sure someone more skilled will be with you shortly....

[widget_maker]

IT's curious. tormach told me that it was likely the CMOS battery. But I ahd already checked date and time, and the battery measured in right at 3V. i swapped it out anyway, and the first few reboots, nothing changed. Took the dogs for a walk came back, tried again and it got pathpilot loaded. Flakey! But now it won't come out of E-stop.
My ancient controller has a couple usb cables, one for the usb on the cabinet and the other for the keyboard/pendant I guess. A video cable, and the large white one I assume is to the pathpilot board? Another symptom is that the computer needs to be powered on from its own front panel, it doesn't start up automatically from the Tormach front panel.

[widget_maker]

Updated to v2.7 of pathpilot. Tried deselecting the limit switches since they were mentioned in the error message, but no help.
Controller powers on, gives two beeps, then the splash page appears and either X or Y motor gives a quick "thunk" as if it is incrementing by one step. Still no red light for the "computer" on the pcnc main panel and still I need to power on the controller on its front panel as well as the pcnc computer power switch.
Frustrating.............

[popspipes]

my computer makes no beeps when loading up PP, maybe check all the connections, reseat them and try again.

[mountaindew]

Updated to v2.7 of pathpilot. Tried deselecting the limit switches since they were mentioned in the error message, but no help.
Controller powers on, gives two beeps, then the splash page appears and either X or Y motor gives a quick "thunk" as if it is incrementing by one step. Still no red light for the "computer" on the pcnc main panel and still I need to power on the controller on its front panel as well as the pcnc computer power switch.
Frustrating.............

I keep control power isolated from mill.
In other words I can boot control and machine is still powered off.
Then after complete boot of pp I turn main power to mill "red switch on side" to on. Then press green reset button on panel.
Then reset machine and home axis.

I would first get pp running with mill off. This will narrow it to computer or not
Then connections.
Then mill

[Tbkahuna]

My first thought was the battery, but not that. From what you describe, is it possible that a limit switch is stuck or the table is against a limit switch?

I have a 10+ year old controller as well. I leave the pc box "on", and use the control panel switch to power the controller off and on. IIRC, when replacing the CMOS battery, and disconnecting power to the pc, my controller needed some TLC to get it back to normal. As I recall, the panel red light comes on after PP is loaded and the machine is reset.

On shutdown, I exit PathPilot until it says safe to power off controller (machine already E-stopped). I use the panel rocker switch to shutdown the controller. As long as I don't touch the PC on/off, I use the same panel switch to turn the controller on. If the controller on/off is pushed or the power is removed, then it has to be turned back "on" on the pc box, for the above to work again, like it normally does for my setup.

[widget_maker]

Thnak you all.

Tormach answered my question regarding the powering on from the front panel of the PCNC, as you say Tbkahuna, there's an option in the "power management" portion of the bios which tells the computer to auto power on after a power outage, it's this option which allows the pcnc to bypass the controller's power switch. this apparently gets lost when you remove the "CMOS" battery.
Interesting on the computer LED, I couldn't remember exactly when it turned on, I assumed when the controller powers up, but maybe not?
I thought about the limit switches too, and disabled the limit switches in the pathpilot setup page, but it made no difference.
I usually power on and off the same way as you Tbkahuna.

[mountaindew]

Thnak you all.


I thought about the limit switches too, and disabled the limit switches in the pathpilot setup page, but it made no difference.

Im confused. I cant disable anything in pp without it running. I thought you couldn't even get it to boot!
Are we talking series 2 mill as title suggests?
Is it a tormach computer or an old white box computer?
This was all working with PP some time ago but now wont boot?

[widget_maker]

Im confused. I cant disable anything in pp without it running. I thought you couldn't even get it to boot!
Are we talking series 2 mill as title suggests?
Is it a tormach computer or an old white box computer?
This was all working with PP some time ago but now wont boot?

Look at post #3 above. PP did load after several reboots after installing a new battery. Not sure he battery had anything to do with it, as the old one was still at 3v when checked.
I loaded the latest PP also, now loads all the way but I get the screen shot shown in post #3. Thanks!

[BIRDTOOL]

Check your parallel port cable and/or re seat the mesa card inside the pc.

[widget_maker]

Check your parallel port cable and/or re seat the mesa card inside the pc.

Thanks Birdtool. Your comment made me find the issue. Like a moron when I replaced the battery, I reconnected the MESA plug into the original parallel port on the controller, NOT the MESA card. The sockets are identical. Ugh.......
Thanks again.

[kstrauss]

Great idiots are alike in their failure to think. I did the same stupid thing a few years ago!

[mountaindew]

I would first get pp running with mill off. This will narrow it to computer or not
Then connections.
Then mill

yup said that on first post above!
what order to check and what!

[Oneway2436]

I’m sorry for brining this back but I am having this issue too… when I get to the initramfs page though the system won’t let me type anything or leave the page at all… even when it’s on the startup menu it won’t acknowledge anything to let me get into the bios page. Any suggestions?