Re: EMC configuration?

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "martindunschen"
<zabaione@u...> wrote:

>
> Hi
>
> Apologies if this has been asked before (I am sure it has), but I

need

> some help to start me off configuring EMC to work with my desktop

CNC

> machine.
>
> Briefly what I have achieved so far:
> I installed BDI-4.29 successfully and I can start EMC without any
> problems, but my machine does not move at all. (It works fine under
> DOS, I use a German programme called "PC-NC", and all worked

straight

> out of the box)
>
> I think the next step now is to edit the generic.ini file in
> /usr/local/emc to reflect my particular machine.
>
> To begin with, the machine does not move at all. My guess is that

the

> pins of my particular stepper controller differ from what EMC uses,

is

> that possible? My controller card is called SMC1500.
>
> I found somebody who claims on his website
> (http://www.no-scene.de/index/cnc_linux/default/index.html) that

pins

> 2/3 4/5 and 6/7 (respective for each axis clock and direction

signal)

> have to be swapped for my controller (a German website, he built a

CNC

> machine using the same controller card, and he drives it with EMC).

On

> this forum somebody had a
> similar problem, that clock and direction for his controller were
> different to what EMC uses. He was told to solder a converter, and

one

> reply announced that there will be a patch that allows setting these
> pins in the configuration for EMC.
>
> I could not find this patch, and I tried to solder a cable that

swaps

> the mentioned pins, but my machine still does not move at all.
>

Hi,

I'm surprised no one has posted an answer yet, so I'll put in my 2
cents worth. I'm certainly no expert, but I have EMC (BDI -2.20b) up
and running well with a couple AC servos and a stepper, operating in
the step/direction mode, so this question caught my attention. I had
to swap the step and direction pins from a previous program to get
the pin configuration for which this version of EMC was hard-wired. I
made my own parallel port interface. From what I could find on the
Net, the SMC1500 card requires input signals to drive the stepper
coil phases, not step and direction signals. It's just an amplifier,
not a step/direction translator. It needs an extra card, I think the
SMC1500Z, to derive the coil phase signals from step and direction
inputs.

EMC can be run in either the step/direction or coil phase control
modes, using EMCMOT set to either "steppermod.o" or "freqmod.o" in
EMC.INI, along with STEPPING_TYPE set to either 0 for step/direction
or 1 for phase step. I am using EMCMOT = steppermod.o motion control
in my configuration of EMC, running minimilltask. I noticed the EMC
configuration in the link you gave was running EMCMOT = freqmod.o,
but with STEPPING_TYPE = 0, which outputs step/direction signals on
the parallel port pins. He also shows what appears to be the SMC1500Z
card that changes step/direction to coil phasing in his pictures.

I was wondering if my chance you were connecting the SMC1500 card
directly to the parallel port, and using EMC in the step/direction
mode, without using that SMC1500Z card between the port and the
SMC1500. If I could read German, I'd probably know a lot more about
the SMC1500 and the SMC1500Z card.

Hope this helps a little...

Irby