Whats the latest on control software?

[sagreen]

Sagreen -

I am the one who started that Wikia page and yes it's still pretty current I believe.

I use PP on my Pulsar and absolutely love it! It's easier to use by far than my industrial controller on my lathe (siemens 808d)

If you have a PCIe slot u need the mesa 6i25, if you have regular PCI slot order the 5i25.

The ESS card you can just leave in the system.

I would disconnect the old hard drive, and leave it in there, and install PP on a new drive so its easy to go back if u have to.

If you have ?? I and others are here to help.

B

Brian,

I got PathPilot to install on a new SSD. Seems that part went ok.

I am waiting on my Mesa 6i25. Supposed to be at my house next week. In your wiki doc you mentioned you had to get a custom firmware built for your Mesa card to support the novakon BOB. What were the pinout differences from BOBs that you could select, and what was the process to get the firmware built?

Thanks...

[brianbonedoc]

Scott - I dont recall the exact differences but I recall not finding one in the list that was close enough. At first this was a giant experiment, and I didn't want to mess with the stock hardware configuration so I could easily switch back to Mach3 if I failed. So I really wanted the bitfile to match my hardware, and did not want to have to start rewiring stuff.

I think the bitfile is posted in the wiki. If not let me know. But if you need custom stuff, just message PCW_Mesa - he's the "mesa" guy aka Peter Wallace. He can adjust the bitfile however you like. I did try to program it myself w/ xilinx software but was horribly overwhelmed.

[sagreen]

Scott - I dont recall the exact differences but I recall not finding one in the list that was close enough. At first this was a giant experiment, and I didn't want to mess with the stock hardware configuration so I could easily switch back to Mach3 if I failed. So I really wanted the bitfile to match my hardware, and did not want to have to start rewiring stuff.

I think the bitfile is posted in the wiki. If not let me know. But if you need custom stuff, just message PCW_Mesa - he's the "mesa" guy aka Peter Wallace. He can adjust the bitfile however you like. I did try to program it myself w/ xilinx software but was horribly overwhelmed.

Brian,

I got the firmware from PCW_MESA. It loaded fine but gives me errors after reboot. I pinged him on it, he thought you might have some ideas... See below...

Using brianonedocs instructions I :
1) copied the .bit file to /operator/tmc/mesa
2) Edited the config file /operator/tmc/configs/tormach_mill/tormach_1100_3.ini
3) changed the file name in HOSTMOT2 to the name of the bit file you sent me (note: this was for a 5i25 not a 6i25)
4) saved
5) rebooted
6) PathPilot reflashed the Mesa controller. All indications were that the flash was successful.
7) Upon next boot PathPilot says "machine controller software experienced and error. Please install an update."
8) I selected the only PathPilot update that was on the screen at the time. It acted like it updated but it was quick.
9) Rebooted and I continue to get the error above in #7

Couple of things.
1) I mentioned in an earlier PM that I have a 6i25 not a 5i25. The bit file you gave me indicates its for a 5i25.

Yes, 5I25 bitfiles are used for both 5I25s and 6I25s

2) I had to find the .ini file. Brianonedocs wiki did not fully qualify the path. I assume the path in step 2 above is the correct one.

Don't know, I have no direct experience with PathPilot

3) I currently do not have the 6i25 connected to my BOB.

Any ideas why this is happening? do I have the right bit file? Should I have done something else to get this working?

I suspect you need to see the actual hal error to figure this out, not sure how this is done in PathPilot, you may need BrianBoneDocs help here

[brianbonedoc]

Scott - no problem. What you need to do is boot to the desktop (hold left shift + Alt during boot up).

Then run "operator_login" (located in the tmc folder) and run in terminal. This will allow you to see what specific error you get and which .hal line is throwing the error.
Don't worry once you clear this hurdle, it's smoooooth sailing.

Please post the error here, and I will monitor, or PM me and I will give you my cell ph number.

[sagreen]

Scott - no problem. What you need to do is boot to the desktop (hold left shift + Alt during boot up).

Then run "operator_login" (located in the tmc folder) and run in terminal. This will allow you to see what specific error you get and which .hal line is throwing the error.
Don't worry once you clear this hurdle, it's smoooooth sailing.

Please post the error here, and I will monitor, or PM me and I will give you my cell ph number.

Brian,

Thanks, pming now.

Scott...

[LeeWay]

Along similar lines, I am pretty sure that the Mesa card I had in the pulsar went bad last week. I suspected the motherboard onboard the Pulsar though. So, installed everything to a new computer, (Refurbished I had bought as a Plasma cutter backup) It would not boot up either. Not until after I unplugged the Mesa card. Anyway, I bought a couple Mesa cards and they shipped today.
Should get that up and running again next week. I can easily revert to mach 3 again, but it would be too painful to see the difference Path Pilot makes over Mach 3 again.

Oh and the Haas will be cutting it's first parts this weekend finally. Finally got all my ducks lined up.

[Steve303]

...

Oh and the Haas will be cutting it's first parts this weekend finally. Finally got all my ducks lined up.

Good to hear you have your tool change / offset process sorted out.

Steve

[PCW_MESA]

If the card is less than 2 year old, its still under warranty so can be returned for repair/replacement

[Dan2464]

How are folks getting the Path Pilot software? Every link to the DVD says current owners of Tormach machines only.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

How are folks getting the Path Pilot software? Every link to the DVD says current owners of Tormach machines only.

CALL Tormach on the phone, and order P/N36035.

Regards,
Ray L.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Here is a fascinating new option that just popped up on the Benchtop forum:

Centroid Acorn CNC controller, Step and Direction 4 axis CNC Control board with ethernet communication

For those unfamiliar, Centroid has been building commercial CNC controls for decades. The price on this is really tempting...

Regards,
Ray L.

[LeeWay]

I have been following that as well, Ray.
Pretty cool stuff.

[RCaffin]

Interesting ...
But, damnit, only 4 axis. That feels like cutting off too many options.
And their other controllers with more axes are previous generation obsolete technology - very fine I am sure but obsolete. They don't handle Step/Dir, going for custom interfaces instead. Too much lock-in.
Now, an Acorn V2 handling 6 axes - ah well ...

Cheers
Roger

[RCaffin]

I did some research on the Acorn. At the risk of seeming biased (which I always am), herewith a few thoughts.

It is based on the Beagle bone, which is based on a Texas Inst chip and was released in 2008. That makes it a bit old, and the TI chip did not take the world by storm. In fact, it does not seem to have any significant presence in current developments. Today most of the interest is in the ARM architecture.

The max pulse rate is 400 kHz, and for 4 axes. That is a bit underpowered compared to modern systems (say 6 axes at 2 MHz).

It is only 4 axes. I may be running only 4 axes at the moment, but I insist on retaining the option for a 5th axis some day.

It has some nice features such as internal tuning. It also has an analog output for the spindle, but I am not so sure about that one. By and large, I would (strongly) prefer some optical isolation between the controller and the VFD or spindle PS. Some spindle controllers actually have a 'floating' analog input designed more for a pot than a signal. When I say 'floating', the one I am using floats at ~100 VDC.

Some of their stuff is in the old-world price category. Many thousands of dollars. The world has moved on.

So ... good on them, but I think they may be a fair distance behind the State of the Art. Maybe they have an adequate customer base and are happy there.

Cheers
Roger

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Good gravy! What a load of specious nit-picking!

Why cares what processor it uses? What matters is what it can, do, and can it do it reliably. Pooh-poohing it because it uses what you consider an "old" processor is just silly. YOU won't be programming it, and neither will "most of the interest". I couldn't care less if it was running on an 6502, if it gets the job done, and works reliably.

What machine do you imagine you'd be running that would require more than 400kHz step rate? That would be almost 2500 IPM on a Novakon with AC servos. 2MHZ? Seriously??

I've never even felt the need for a 4th axis, so I won't worry about not being able to support a 5th. I'd be willing to bet only about 1% of the customers that product targets would even know what to do with a 5th axis if they had one.

The analog input on most VFDs is optically isolated, so it's not necessary for the device driving it to ALSO be isolated.

Centroid is a provider of CNC controllers for commercial VMCs, so, yeah, most of their products are expensive. The point is, they KNOW what they're doing, so it is likely their low-end controller has benefitted from their decades of experience, and will be more stable than Mach3 which has always been a can of worms on its best days.

I guess if you want "state of the art", you should get Mach4. Maybe 5 years from now you'll have a stable controller.

Regards,
Ray L.

[RCaffin]

Hi Ray

Ah, the 6502. I remember it well. Yes, I did program it at one stage. That was a long time ago ...

Optical isolation on the VFD control input: can't say I saw any sign of that on the 'cheaper' ones which even mentioned the control input. Many of them seemed to assume a pot instead. But I have limited experience there.

It seems to be the flavour of the month to be bashing Mach3 all the time. This ignores the tens of thousands of systems running Mach3 on a daily basis. So far, I have not really found anything which I cannot do with Mach3 but which might be supported by my HW. My spindle can't do rigid tapping, so that is not a loss. Mach4 - eh well, maybe one day.

But it is still limited to 4 axes, while more modern systems (inc Mach3) are 6 axes.

Cheers
Roger

[jfong]

Acorn docs says the CPU is a TI am335x which is a ARM Cortex A8. Certainly no slouch at 1ghz.

[RCaffin]

OK, now I AM confused. Or maybe Centroid is?
Some of the doco says a Beagle Bone, other bits say an am335x.
I dunno - two processors?.

Cheers
Roger

[jfong]

Beaglebone black uses same mcu. Looks like they use one from the pictures I've seen. First Release in 2013

[RCaffin]

Aha - I see.
A sad (or bad) case of "don't tell the techos anything useful".

Thanks
Roger