New Machine
"The SideStep is negative logic. The STEP, DIRECTION, and ENABLE lines should be inverted in your software. Please contact us if you need help configuring your software.
Minimum pulse width for the step pulse is 5 uS. Maximum step frequency is 40 kHz. You may destroy your drivers if you try to exceed 40kHz. Most steppers torque really drop above 1 kHz at full step, or 8 kHz if you're using the eighth-step mode. " Thats all the manufacturer provides for
specifications.
They say to leave the step conf default values alone as it will work fine. I am not sure what happens if the defaults values are changed. The driver
chip is an Allegro A3977.
Sometimes software authors are too close to their project for newbies to understand.
What is table travel in the step conf wizard, what are the limits set to inches, machine units? stepper motor step size? I see in the wizard table travel goes from 0 to 8 and home is 0. Then the instructions go on to say the Home must be set inside the table travel limits so is a table travel limit of 0
and a home location of 0 set inside of the table travel limits? I tend to think not. To me the home should be something other than 0 to be inside of
the table travel limits.
What about the actual X, Y and Z axis physical measurements? Do I need to know my X axis has a travel of 6 inches or not. Neither is mentioned in
the Stepper config docs.
I had my system moving but now get a joint 2 error.
You do a wonderful job of providing documentation more so than other linux software authors provide. Though one needs to be well versed in CNC to grasp what your are saying. I been in two way radio and electronics for over 20 years and I feel like I am way out of my league trying to set up a simple 3 axis cnc router for PCB work.
Gary k8IZ
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They say to leave the step conf default values alone as it will work fine. I am not sure what happens if the defaults values are changed.
If the step and direction timings are set longer than needed the only result is you might limit your speed using software step generation. If they are set too short then you might loose steps and or not run at all.
What is table travel in the step conf wizard, what are the limits set to inches, machine units? stepper motor step size? I see in the wizard table travel goes from 0 to 8 and home is 0. Then the instructions go on to say the Home must be set inside the table travel limits so is a table travel limit of 0
and a home location of 0 set inside of the table travel limits? I tend to think not. To me the home should be something other than 0 to be inside of the table travel limits.
Home location can be 0 if you don't have home switches.
What about the actual X, Y and Z axis physical measurements? Do I need to know my X axis has a travel of 6 inches or not. Neither is mentioned in the Stepper config docs.
I need to try and clear that up some in the manual. The software limits depend on how you do your g code. For example if you say that the center of the X travel is home then you would put -3 to 3 for your travel. Now if you open up a g code file and it exceeds -3 to 3 on X it will not run. If you say the the leftmost X position is home then you would use 0 to 6. Now any g code that you run must be within X0 to X6 to be able to run. If you don't have home switches then you have to jog to the chosen home position and press the home button for that axis.
I had my system moving but now get a joint 2 error.
If it is a following error read this section and see if that helps.
www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html//common_St...gnostics.html#r1_2_1
otherwise tell us what kind of error you have on joint 2...
You do a wonderful job of providing documentation more so than other linux software authors provide. Though one needs to be well versed in CNC to grasp what your are saying. I been in two way radio and electronics for over 20 years and I feel like I am way out of my league trying to set up a simple 3 axis cnc router for PCB work.
Gary k8IZ
Thanks Gary, I do most of the documents now and have worked hard to try and make them understandable for newbees...
This is a good section to read if your new to cnc.
www.linuxcnc.org/docview/html//common_User_Concepts.html
John
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