February 2006 - Bdi4emc-help - lists.ourproject.org

Question regarding compiling EMC BDI-4.38
by Mali Simon ITPSD2 02 Mar '06

02 Mar '06

I hope that you can help me with my problem regarding compiling EMC on BDI-4.38. When I use ./configure I get output: Can not compile realtime code for 2.6 series kernels. I use 2.6.12.6-rtai kernel. All configuration is originally from BDI-4.38 iso CDROM. What is to do to compile the complete package? Regards Simon Mali

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AXIS 1.2rc1 released
by Jeff Epler 27 Feb '06

27 Feb '06

I am pleased to announce the first Release Candidate version of AXIS (1.2rc1). Compared to the last alpha release, it has several new features and a number of bug fixes. AXIS 1.2rc1 supports emc1, bdi4emc, and emc2, and is available in six different languages. You can download the source code for release from the AXIS website: http://axis.unpy.net/index.cgi/downloads/01141010654 The AXIS developers are eager to receive help with additional translations, as well as updates to existing translations, success stories, or bug reports. Feel free to reply on this list or directly to me, <jepler(a)unpythonic.net> Jeff Epler Changes since 1.2a2 * The backplot colors have been improved. * AXIS builds properly on bdi4 machines using emc1. * The perspective view is correctly centered, even when a line of code is selected. * The jog distance selector (continuous/0.1/etc) is sized appropriately and works correctly for non-english translations. * The layout of several other buttons is improved for non-english translations. * The Brazilian Portuguese translation is now installed in the correct location. * The version of EMC2 will be displayed in the Help > About screen. * AXIS uses RS274NGC_STARTUP_CODE in the same way as emc. Before this, AXIS and emc could give different results for files that depended on the startup code. * Pressing Alt-V only opens the View menu, instead of opening the menu and changing the selected view. * The Hal Configuration GUI can now be launched from the Edit menu Changes since 1.2a1 * A portuguese translation has been contributed by Daniel Scheeren * In emc2, the backplot is now colored according to the ongoing movement type. Rapid moves are green, straight feeds are red (as before), and arcs are magenta. * AXIS can now be built against an installed version of emc2. This can be autodetected, or forced with the environment variable EMC_RUN_INSTALLED. * AXIS can now skip installing its own version of bwidget, and use the system version. If your operating has an appropriate version of bwidget available, install it and set the environment variable USE_SYSTEM_BWIDGET to a non-empty value * There is now a debian/ directory which builds a version of AXIS to go with Chris Radek's experimental emc2 debian packages for ubuntu * An icon is set for AXIS using the "NET_WM_ICON" protocol. * Support for 'simpleinstall' has been withdrawn. This feature was created to support users of bdi 4.xx. Now that instructions to rebuild the version of emc on bdi4 are on the emc wiki, this is no longer necessary. Note: this does not mean we're not supporting bdi4; it means that a kludge to support it is no longer needed. AXIS 1.2 supports bdi4. Changes since 1.1 * Internationalization: AXIS can now be translated into any language supported by Tk. * All bugfixes in AXIS 1.1.1 and 1.1.2. * Progress bar while loading programs is improved. * The 'Pause' and 'Stop' menu items now work correctly, even when the program being run has lots of very short moves. * When installing AXIS, files are always overwritten (similar to setup.py install --force

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CVS HEAD of AXIS is again compatible with bdi4
by jepler＠unpythonic.net 25 Feb '06

25 Feb '06

Paul, Thank you for the report (http://ourproject.org/moin/Package_list) that the CVS version of axis did not build against your version of emc. This is now fixed. I have just checked in a change to the AXIS CVS, and verified that it built against the source obtained by apt-get update; apt-get source emc (apt reports emc version 1.0-39) This patch is in the axis-latest tarball, and will be in the -20060222 tarball when it is created in a few hours. The stable version of axis, 1.1.2, also builds cleanly against emc 1.0-39. No changes to it were necessary. Depending on the needs of your users, you may prefer to package 1.1.x until 1.2 is stable. (for bdi4emc users there are no important differences between 1.1.1 and 1.1.2) In the future, please feel free to contact me directly or on this mailing list if you discover build problems or other bugs in AXIS. Though the development of AXIS mostly takes place on emc2 now, I am committed to keeping support for building on bdi4emc. Jeff Epler jepler(a)unpythonic.net http://axis.unpythonic.net/

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Re: madwifi testing
by Kent A. Reed 25 Feb '06

25 Feb '06

Paul: At first I was excited at the prospect of madwifi being part of bdi and I rally wanted to do my share of testing...Alas, madwifi requires different chip sets than are present on any of the wifi cards available to me. I haven't installed a wireless card on my emc host, but, if and when I do, I'll probably go the chewing gum-and-bailing wire route using a Windows driver under NdisWrapper. It reminds me of the early days of running tcp/ip-over-ethernet on DOS machines, when it took a wizard (by default, me) to cobble together a working stack of software shims so we could communicate with our 10-times more expensive Unix hosts. What fun! I hope someone with the right hardware setup is giving you feedback on bdi with madwifi. Regards, Kent

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Fw: [Emc-users] How to Home?
by Beau Beaufait 20 Feb '06

20 Feb '06

This is a thread I originally sent to the emc users group for help, and tried what they suggested to no avail. I have now tried the mini GUI and the button for zero axis AND the zero all buttons have no effect. I would really like to be able to "HOME" the machine but it doesn't (no numbers turning green) in either TKemc or mini GUI, both tried in manual mode. Machine otherwise to this novice user seems to be working ok. Please help, thanks, Beau ----- > > >> That is very strange indeed. >> There are a few things that need clarification: >> 1. what kind of emc are you running? > BDI 4.3 >> 2. what kind of config are you running? > PPMC by Jon Elson >> 3. did you try another GUI (mini instead of tkemc) and does it behave >> differently there? > Nope, not yet >> >> Regards, >> Alex >> >>> For some reason that didn't work. What Jon suggested for right clicking >>> to zero an axis seems to work ok, but home did nothing, and yes I was in >>> manual mode, tried the other too just for grins. I have on other >>> occations had one or another axis have the numbers turn green when I hit >>> the home button, I assuemed that ment it was homed, but none today. >>> Wonder what I am doing wrong??? >>> >>> Tks, Beau >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Gene Heskett" <gene.heskett(a)verizon.net> >>> To: <emc-users(a)lists.sourceforge.net> >>> Sent: Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:00 PM >>> Subject: Re: [Emc-users] How to Home? >>> >>> >>>> On Saturday 28 January 2006 21:43, Beau Beaufait wrote: >>>>>Ok, I have the spindle setting near the center of the travel x,y,z. >>>>> and I boot up EMC. Now I can jog the table over to what I would call >>>>> the "home" position, but of course the TKEMC screen reads not 0.00 >>>>> but some number. >>>>> >>>>>First question; how do I initialize the screen to read all zeros. >>>>> Second, how do I make EMC think is is home. I see the "home" button >>>>> but it doesn't seem to do much when I click it. >>>> >>>> If you are in the manual mode (function key F3), then clicking on the >>>> home button should zero the axis outlined on the tkemc screen. You can >>>> click on the various axis's displays to select them for homeing. emc >>>> should then calculate and display all motions of that axis from that >>>> point until you re-home them. This does not work in the auto (F4) mode >>>> where it can execute a gcode script, nor in the mdi (F5) mode where you >>>> can enter the desired motions from the keyboard. >>>>> >>>>>Need some learning here. >>>> >>>> Yup, we users all do. >>>> >>>>>Thanks, Beau >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Cheers Beau, Gene >>>> People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word >>>> 'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's >>>> stupid bounce rules. I do use spamassassin too. :-) >>>> Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above >>>> message by Gene Heskett are: >>>> Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved. >>>> >>>> >>>> ------------------------------------------------------- >>>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log >>>> files >>>> for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes >>>> searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! >>>> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Emc-users mailing list >>>> Emc-users(a)lists.sourceforge.net >>>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------- >>> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log >>> files >>> for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes >>> searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! >>> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Emc-users mailing list >>> Emc-users(a)lists.sourceforge.net >>> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------- >> This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log >> files >> for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes >> searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! >> http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 >> _______________________________________________ >> Emc-users mailing list >> Emc-users(a)lists.sourceforge.net >> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >> >

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Re: [Bdi4emc-help] Trajectory planner accel limits
by mt0000＠sympatico.ca 20 Feb '06

20 Feb '06

>From: Gene Heskett <gene.heskett(a)verizon.net> >I don't know if this is a 'datapoint' or not, but I looked at that with >the halscope in emc2 testing, then looked at the code. The code >overshoots the starting positions starting radius of the circle by 1.5 >units, I assume as a chip clearing move possibly. Thanks, Gene. I didn't even notice the intentional overshoot. >Looking at its traces with emc2 testing code, neither the initial move >nor the reverseing at that point seemed to violate the maxvels set, >the angle of the approach to the endpoint, there was a small radius >in the trace as it turned around, then rose at exactly the mirror angle >to the real starting point before the y motion was started. That's definitely not the case for me. Paul seems to have got it -- I'll try his suggestion and write back. >One thing thats not too clear to me is how I should translate the >halscopes traces into something that would correspond to motion in >seconds type of data. The seconds is easy enough, but how does the >displayed voltage trace translate in motion at the cutter? I use tkemc/Settings.../Logging..., which can capture a variety of things in real units and gnuplot them. -- Matt

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step signal
by David Szakovits 19 Feb '06

19 Feb '06

i am not sure this is the proper list for this question... let me know. to command a motor to step one increment, it is my understanding that emc program "step signal" transitions from 5v to 0v. for what time duration does the signal stay at 0v? Is this tunable? Where in the code is this specified? Is this discussed in any of the available documentation? I do not see it in the emc handook. djs

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Trajectory planner accel limits
by mt0000＠sympatico.ca 19 Feb '06

19 Feb '06

In my .ini, I have all of the acceleration parameters set to the same value, but these limits seem to be selectively violated by the trajectory planner. Using the bbxy.ngc file that ships with BDI, I plot the commanded X-axis velocity as the program finishes its initial X-axis move and turns 90 degrees to start the circle. At this corner the X-axis overshoot is first reversed by accelerating at about *twice* my set limits. Then, it decelerates at the set limit to stop on the commanded position. Does anyone know under what conditions the trajectory planner will violate the accel limits in the .ini file, and by exactly how much? If you could point me to the place in the code where this decision is made, that would be helpful. Thanks, Matt

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apt-get question
by Gene Heskett 18 Feb '06

18 Feb '06

Hi all; Everytime I run an update util, either aptitude or an apt-get upgarde, it downloads and reinstalls the same version of synergy-cad: Preparing to replace synergy-cad 16.0-8 (using .../synergy-cad_16.0-8_i386.deb) ... is there a fix for this someplace? -- Cheers, Gene People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word 'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's stupid bounce rules. I do use spamassassin too. :-) Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.

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Re: [Bdi4emc-help] Quickstep driver
by mt0000＠sympatico.ca 18 Feb '06

18 Feb '06

Paul> Using a more realistic period of 7.5uSec. I got a similar report from Jeff. Well, I'm glad y'all can run at a such a ridiculous speed, but you really shouldn't need to. 10us is really fast! I'm thinking about why you might want to do that... it occurs to me that freqmod is limited to generating pulses at even multiples of the PERIOD frequency (call that f), and the pulse frequency is kept constant throughout an entire servo cycle time. This means that when moving quickly the step pulse frequency is alternating between f/2 and /f3 each servo cycle -- a 50% change in velocity that can be really hard for the motors to follow. You may not lose steps, but I bet it makes a lot of 1KHz noise, and it certainly reduces effective torque. Quickstep does things differently. At each period, it either pulses or not, depending on which choice brings winding currents closest to their ideal phase. At 10us PERIOD, if your driver electronics do x10 microstepping, and you're travelling at 4000 full steps/s (fast!) then the full step phase in the windings jitters w.r.t. the shaft position by at most +/-7% or so -- not enough to significantly affect torque to the shaft. If your electronics only do x4 microstepping, this error can get to 15%, which is still just fine, and the 3% error introduced by 10us time quantization is insignificant compared to the 12% introduced by the microstep resolution. Unless you really want to go a lot faster than 4000 full steps/s, or you have really fine microstepping resolution, you'll be happy with a 10us PERIOD. That Celeron could probably use the extra cycles for something more productive. -- Matt

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