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[email protected] etpm@whidbey.com is offline
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Default Hybrid IC questions

On Sat, 22 Dec 2018 15:26:13 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

wrote:

On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 16:36:06 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:


I appreciate your posts Jon. I have been looking at LinuxCNC as has
my son. In an effort to convince me to upgrade the control.

You said: "I'm pretty sure somebody did this about a year ago in
LinuxCNC. It should be pretty trivial to implement this even in the
G-code, with the entire program in a do while loop, and the counter as
a numbered variable. You could also display the counter value on the
virtual control panel."


I don't know what a do while loop is.

LinuxCNC has added a number of features to the basic G-Code language,
turning it into an actual programming language. So, you can write G-code
that is "parameterized", so you can set a few variables and then the G-code
loops and computes the actual coordinates based on those numbers given at
the start.

In your specific case, you would enclose YOUR entire G-code program within a
couple lines, like this:
#1 = 500 (do 500 parts)
O100 WHILE [#1 GT 0]
your program goes here
#1 = #1 - 1
O100 ENDWHILE
M02

See http://linuxcnc.org/docs/html/gcode/...#ocode:looping for more
info. But, the sceme here is you set user variable 1 to 500, then the WHILE
loop executes your program 500 times, and decrements variable 1 at the end
of each run of the program. When variable 1 decrements all the way to zero,
the machine stops. And, to get tricky, LinuxCNC has a virtual control panel
that can put indicators and buttons on the screen. I use it to show touch
probe status and spindle speed, but you can put nearly anything on there,
such as the value of that variable.



I can already do the above with an M code. The machine counter works
a little differently.

I'm sure
it's easy enough to find out though. As long as the programming
doesn't change I don't really care. I mean, as long as all my old
programs will work the same without needing any changes. Having the
count displayed on the main display is fine but it would be best if
the original counter operated the way it does now.

That may involve adding a couple IO points to the hal configuration, but
could certainly be done.

Jon

Our power went off during a windstorm last week and then holiday
stuff came up but today I finally got back into the shop and had a
look inside the control cabinet to get an idea of what would be
involved, doing a swap.
There are 25 connectors from the main control board going into the
machine side. I want to use these connectors, all of them. So if
Honda connectors are still available then it looks to me like the best
way to go is to build a breakout board to interface the new control to
the machine through the existing Honda connectors.
Some connectors only use a few of the pins in the connector while
others use most or all. So there might be as many as 30 connections
being made in one connector. Many of the connectors are for connecting
a bunch of relays to the control. These relays in turn often connect
to bigger contactors.
A lot of the connectors bring the inputs from switches to the
control. 66 switches in total not counting the various limit and
pressure switches. And many of the switches have multiple positions.
With a new control a new keyboard could be used, and probably needs
to be unless Linux CNC will emulate a Fanuc 3T keyboard.
Anyway, it looks like a big project so I need to start getting
everything together and ready for a plug and play swap. Plug and play
is a big reason I want to use the original connectors. That way the
new control can be plugged in without removing the old one. Testing
can be done and if I hit any major snags then the old control can be
plugged in and the lathe can make parts while I work out the bugs.
Eric