Re: Stepper.run ??

--- Jon Elson <jmelson@...> wrote:

> From: Jon Elson <jmelson@...>
>
>
>
> Paul Corner wrote:
>
> > From: Paul Corner <Paul.Corner@...>
> >
> > Hi Fred
> > I have at last got a little time to play with EMC
> in conjunction with a three
> > axis stepper drive board - I hope to eventually
> run a DC servo machine..
> >
> > The only way I can get the stepper script to work
> is to set
> > PARPORT_IO_ADDRESS=0x378 in stepper.run and 0x278
> in stepper.ini.
> > With any other combination I cannot get out of
> ESTOP of get the limit switches
> > seen.
> > Any comments ?
>
> When using steppers, you need TWO parallel ports!
> One for the stepper motion
> commands, and one for the auxilliary control bits,
> like spindle for/rev and brake,
> coolants, E-stop controls, stepper power on, etc.
>
> > How much work is involved in setting up three
> servo driven axis and two
> > stepper powered axis ?
>
> The version of EMC I'm running doesn't allow mixed
> motor types, but I think
> Fred has either already removed that restriction, or
> will, soon. 5 axes is not yet
> supported, either. Apparently, there are some
> customized versions that handle
> 4 axes, 3 linear and one rotary. Fred indicated
> that getting 6 axes working is
> high on his priority list, and will be done soon
> (perhaps in a few weeks.)

The latest versionof EMC should support up to 6 axes.
I'm currently using EMC to run a hexapod we built at
at the University of Florida and have had all six
motors working properly. All you have to change is
the [AXES] value in the trajectory section of the ini
file and add the extra [AXIS #]'s. The version I'm
using was released in mid August. Unless Fred has
made any changes I'm unaware of the current EMC
version on the NIST ftp site should also support up to
6 axes.

I don't know much about mixing motor types (stepper vs
servo). I don't really see an easy way to do it since
you have separate modules for each type of motor. I
guess it might be possible to hack the code to work
with mixed motors. If you mean linear vs rotary axes
you should be able to specify that in the ini file.


=====
-----------------------------------------------------------
Brian Register
University of Florida
Graduate Student - Mechanical Engineering
register@...