Re: study, study, study smdromod

Weyland wrote:

> Kewl, thanks Ray~!
> I'll look forward to it...just as soon as I get a better feel for the EMC.
> It's getting better, but I think I'm at the point where I need the driver
> finished
> and a few progs ready to run to see "what happens when I push....this!"
>
> Hey, by the way, what's the deal with the estop?
> Do ya turn the machine on first, or reset the estop first?

There are 3 states. I don't know of any other machines that work this
way. There is E-stop (called estop on), out of E-stop (called E-stop
off) and machine on. The way my machine is setup, the servo amps
are always enabled when power is applied to them, and I don't use the
amp enable signals. So, when I go out of estop, the servo amps power
up, and take control of the machine, but have no velocity command
for them, so they drift very slowly (about 1 encoder count/second).
When I then hit F2, the servo loop becomes closed through EMC, and
the machine jiggles just a bit, and holds position from there on.
You have to reset E-stop first (F1) then go to machine on (F2).

> And how do ya know when to use "manual", "auto", or "MDI"?

Manual allows you to move with the jog buttons. you can change
feedrate override, start and stop the spindle and coolant, set coordinate
offsets through the GUI and similar stuff.

Auto allows you to select a program, change feedrate override,
and Run the program.

MDI allows you to enter single blocks of RS-274D commands (G-code)
from the keyboard. (MDI stands for Manual Data Input.) You can
set the axis offsets with commands like G92 X0.1 or move the machine
with commands like G01 F5 X2.5 Y1.25

> If all this is covered in some part of some manual,
> just let me know and I'll try and find it.
> But so far if I hit the "help" button at the top,
> I get a blank window, and I didn't find it in the HTML file.

Hmmm, the standard EMC does have pretty good info from the help
button. The help info is just a text file in your emc/doc directory,
..../emc/doc/help.txt
There is a line in the xxx.ini file that points to the help, as
HELP_FILE = doc/help.txt
If the help info isn't in the right place, you can correct this line
to point there.

Jon