HELP!!! Sherline/Ubuntu 6.06/EMC2 - Configuration

[Telle]

I can't figure out anything with the settings of my stepper motors. Have googeled every where, but can't find the correct settings for my sherline stepper motors. Does anyone know the correct settings for them in EMC2?

What I need to know is the following:

Motor steps per rev, driver microstepping, pulley teeth (motor leadscrew), leadscrew pitch, maximum velocity, maximum acceleration. This I need to know for my X, Y, Z - axis.

For my A - axis I also need to know the same information but in deegres.

Please help me!!! I'm a very new newbie on this stuff!

[cadmonkey]

Steps per rev should be 200 - most of the steppers we use are 1.8° variety.
Driver microstepping - I don't know what driver you're using and I'm not familiar with the Sherline mills. Either 1, 2, or 10 most likely.
If the steppers are directly connected to the leadscrew then 1:1 is the ratio to enter. If not then count the teeth on the pulleys and enter those #'s in the appropriate locations.
Leadscrew pitch - try turning the screw and see how far it moves the table in 1 turn. That is your pitch.
Velocity and acceleration are variables you need to decide and test - on what I know about the Sherline's size, start with a 50ipm max velocity and use the "TEST THIS AXIS" button to check and see if it moves without losing steps. Acceleration - start low and ramp up to see what your setup can do.

A axis - similar setup but you need to check using the same methods.

If you're using metric units, adjust commentary above to suit.

Maybe a Sherline user will wander across and give you some better #'s to start with. In the end, each machine gets tuned to work at it's own peak potential for what the user wants/needs it to do.

[Telle]

Thanx for your answer, but I belive that all settings are correct, but still a problem with the A - axis.

My settings are:

Motor steps per rev: 200
Driver Microstepping: 4
Pulley teeth: 1
Leadscrew Pitch: 5 degree/rev
Max Velocity: 36
Max Acceleration: 60

The thing is that if I run "g0 A180" in EMC2 tha table will rotate only like 20 deegres or something.

EMC2's speed to reach 180 deegres is very fast, much faster then my table would handle. It seems that there is some syncronization issue?

Logicaly EMC2 should run much slower because my stepper motor is configured on a very low setting, but that seems to be ignored...

[cadmonkey]

I must admit that I don't know much about setting up axis A - I don't have a rotary table/axis (yet). But My guess is it's in the leadscrew pitch of 5. I think it should be 72 - as it takes 72 turns to yield 1 full rotation of the table. I could be wrong, but lower your speeds, for safety, and try it.

[Telle]

Well, I'm so sick of this now... have tried to setup my sherline stepper motors for 3 days now, with no luck! Today I have tried to set them up with Mach3 but they won't run smoothly. The version I downloaded was already configured for a Sherline mill, everything worked except I couldn't get the motors running smooth.

If I run the CD from Sherline with BDI/EMC everything works great! But the thing is that I want to run Mach3 or EMC2.

Crap!

Anyone got an idea?

[cadmonkey]

Don't give up hope - there are Sherline users here (they must all be making chips right now...) and you might also try the EMC section of the site, and subscribing to the EMC mailing list and asking your question on that once you've subscribed.

Can you copy the .ini file from the BDI disc and then see how your settings in the .ini file vary?

You have updated to 2.2.4 right? (Version # will show in the Axis titlebar) There were a lot of bigfixes in the 2.2.4 release, if you're still on 2.2.2 (no ver# in the Axis titlebar) then you may need to change the repositories where it's checking for updates as the .iso I originally downloaded was looking for updates to 2.1 not 2.2, so as far as it was concerned I was up to date. (A minor undersight for the developers).

What was your latency test result?

[Telle]

First of all, thanx for your care! But anyway, i'm feeling pretty much down right now...

My latency test results are around 11k... they never get over 15k... so i guess that's good.

But I have the SMI - bug, every 64 second my latency jumps up to 32k, but i have fixed that, so it should not be an issue anymore.

But it's so strange... i'm pretty sure my A - axis configuration is correct.

I know that it's 200 steps per rev, and that my motor are using 1/4 stepping and that the leadscrew pitch is 5 deegres, this i'm 100 % sure of. The pulley ratio i'm 99 % sure of.

The velocity and acceleration should not matter. Also i have tried all kinds of combinations of theses two varibles.

I'm begining to belive that the step time varibles is incorrect. But those where already implemented in EMC2 for Sherline, so they should be correct, don't you think?

Or maybe my computer has to variating latency so the stepper motors won't run smooth?

[cadmonkey]

Well your latency is better than mine even. I'm Around 15-18k (I'm changing some devices right now to lower it but my monitor resolution is sucking on the PCI cards compared to the on-board and I'm not really seeing an improvement in latency result!) The 32 isn't bad for the SMI glitch - the other mobo I tried had would hit 300k every 66 seconds or so.

With those values you shouldn't have a problem running smoothly, provided the machine isn't binding up. What do you mean by steppers not running smooth? Are you loosing steps, or are they just noisy as hell and jittery?

Sorry. My Gecko drive setup for my X3 (partially tested on the mill) was so simple and straightforward. I really don't know what is going on unless one of the developers hosed up the timing requirements for the Sherline driver on the first page of the Stepconf program. I guess you could try and change the driver type from Sherline to "Other", but note the values already in the boxes and double them (you might need to lower your max velocity with that change). If that shows improvement then keep toying with those.

I really don't know anything else to suggest. Maybe this is why Sherline hasn't started supplying EMC2 with their machines yet.

[Telle]

Jippie!!! It's working!!! And the motor is spinning like a cat! It's veeeery smooth!!!

The problem is so ****ing stupied also. Do you know what the problem was? It indeed was the step times. I hade choosen Sherline because I own a Sherline that I bought from them! This time I instead tried with a Gecko and that driver made the motor spinning like a dream!

Am I crazy?!?? Have Sherline put a Gecko motor in my rotary table? It very much looks like a Sherline stepper motor to me. It's a NEMA #23 I think.

Or is this some bug in EMC2?? Seems very strange.

Also I tested the rotary table by doing a full turn, 360 deegres. I loose 2.5 deegres each turn, but that's no big deal, some fine tunning and it will be okey!

So happy it works!!! Thanx for your support and tips "cadmonkey", i'm very glad you took your time!

All in all this is crazy! I have spent 3 - 4 days trying to solve this problem, and the solution was well a bug that was around the corner, hehe...

[Telle]

Muhaha. I have now discovered a BUG in EMC2. The reason for all my problems with my stepper motors not running smooth is because the EMC2 - team screwed up!

When you setup your "Driver type" in the "Machine Configurations Page" and choose Sherline you get wrong settings for the stepper motors.

Some very tired EMC2 developer (working late into the night maybe!?) has mixed two variables up.

The "Step Time" and "Step Space" should be inverted.

They want "Step Time" to be 1000, but it should be 6000. "Step Space" is 6000 but it should be 1000. There you have it!

It took me 3 - 4 days to figure this sucker out! Now i don't even have that 2.5 deegre failure for one turn of the rotary table, it's bullseye now! Also my motors are even more spinning like a cat, since I don't use the Gecko drivers (but they also worked pretty nice).

I'm gone report this to the EMC2 team so they can fix it until the next release. It should save every sherline owner a lot of trouble, suffering and pain! hehe...

[Telle]

It was very hard to setup my Sherline rotary table to run in EMC2. Searched everywhere on the internet and found small clues here end there, but no place with all the settings. I will post all my settings below to make it easier for all Sherline buddies and others with Sherline stepper motors!

Here are my settings for Sherline rotary table (P/N 8760) in EMC2:

Machine Configuration Page:

Axis Configuration: XYZA
Machine Units: mm
Driver Type: Other
Step Time: 6000
Step Space: 1000
Direction Hold: 24000
Direction Setup: 20000

Parallell Port Setup Page:

I use the Sherline option, and then I have disabled all inputs (pins 10 to 15).

Include custom HAL configuration should be the only checkbox that is checked.

A - Axis Configuration Page:

Motor Stepps Per Revolution: 200
Driver Microstepping: 4
Pulley Teeth (Motor Leadscrew): 1 to 1
Leadscrew Pitch: 5 deg/rev
Maximum Velocity: 30
Maximum Acceleration: 60

Home Location: 0
Table Travel: -9999 to 9999

Spindle Configuration:

PWM Rate: 0

To setup the other axes you would only need to know the leadscrew pitch witch on a metric mill is 1 mm/rev, and also the maximum velocity and acceleration witch you can try youself. I belive 8 mm/s and 15 mm/s² is pretty good.

With this configuration my rotary table spins like a furtune wheel!

[cadmonkey]

Very glad you got it going! clap clap clap

I knew it had to be something simple as it effected everything. Congrats!