My mill is a NM-200 with steppers, although I'm running the older (1.9?) version of PP.
Has anyone got pathpilot running on a plain jane stepper run torus All I can find in my searches are for servo machines . I've tried the couple shared files from the forum but no luck . So far the only thing that is working is the estop switch which comes up with x axis limit trip in the status page . At least I know I have some kind of communication . I've got tormachs that are running pathpilot and it would be nice to match this mill up with the same setup but I might just go straight to linuxcnc
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My mill is a NM-200 with steppers, although I'm running the older (1.9?) version of PP.
I pulled an all night last night and got it up and running . It took some tweaking and comparisons to the tormach ini but all in all it seems to have worked out . The z sounded really clunky in the 30-40 ipm range . I tried a different driver with the same result , a change in micro steps smoothed it out for the most part . I'll have to run some parts to see if it'll be trust worthy . The x and y are smooth though .
Something not software related that is pissing me off with this mill is the spindle . When I drop the speed down anywhere between 6000 and 4500 rpm then the spindle shuts down and I have to power down the mill to reset the spindle . I can drop from 6000 to 3500 no problem and speed up to whatever speed and i can do this over and over again , but a drop within the 6000-4500 range is shutting down the spindle . Not sure why this is happening but it sucks . I can work around the issue but I hoped running a different software would resolve this
One thing I'm curious about is why there is no base_period in any of the ini's . Is this something that no longer exists in linuxcnc , or is this a thing that is not needed with the the use of mesa cards
ok thanks , that makes sense
The mill seems to be running well and holding position , the only exception other than my spindle issue is that the mill is picking up noise and tripping the reset mid run . The status doesn't show anything as tripped or any info as to what happens , so I'm assuming it's picking up noise from somewhere . The mesa card was a bit of a tight fit , and after swapping into another slot I hoped that it was an issue of the card not being seated fully . Even in the other slot it is doing the same thing at random times . I'll do a bit of tweaking and I should be able to eliminate the problem .
It would be nice if novakon was to take the time on the few machines they have and offer up configs for linuxcnc . I've always been a big fan of mach 3 but newer and better software's are going to be the death of it . The conversion to uccnc was nearly flawless aside from a few tweaks , and I had it running parts within 1/2 hour . Uccnc ran the mill well but there were a number of things I didn't like , it's not to knock it , it's just not for me . I'd have kept running it except for the fact i have other machines running pathpilot and i love that setup for the most part . The only complaint I have about pathpilot is the inability to change offsets in between cycles , unless I hit the stop button
I don't use the Tormach holders and have to stop at every tool change. Then after setting Z0, set the next line to run. Used to it now.
I had it machining for 14 hrs yesterday without a trip . I believe the change I did to the debounce has resolved the issue . There is still something up with the vfd on the mill but that isn't a software related issue
More offsets isn't the problem . Pathpilot does not allow access to the offsets once a machine has started a program , nor will it when the machine is stopped for a tool change . Sometimes I want to or need to change a height offset for example and I have to stop/reset the program in order to do so . Then once I make a change , I need to search the spot where I left off in the program , set a start point , then resume . It' stupid to be locked out of these things . I've talked to tormach about it and they said it was something that they plan to address , but who knows when thats going to happen .
What was it that you did not like about UCCNC compared to PathPilot ??
Just Curious, (;-) TP
It's the simple things for the most part with ucnc , plus I just didn't like the feel of it . I could have continued using it but chose not to .
pathpilot is running smoother and it's pushing beyond what uccnc could without causing issues , so it was a better move