Trouble installing a WHB04B-6 pendant (again)

So I am in the process of upgrading my machine and acquired a XHC-WHB04B-6 pendant to use with it. I am trying to get this to work in simulator mode on a Raspberry Pi running LinuxCNC. Here is what I have done so far:

1. I installed the RPi image as described on  Getting LinuxCNC . LinuxCNC seems to work fine in simulator mode after all set up.
2. Verified that the WHB04B-6 was working using the standalone mode (xhc-whb04b-6 -ue) described on the man page here  XHC-WHB04B-6 (linuxcnc.org)
3. I made a new simulator machine using the stepper configuration wizard and verified this was working before any modifications
4. Added this to the [HAL} section of the ini file for the new machine I created in step 3.
   • HALFILE=xhc-whb04b-6.hal
5. Put this at the bottom of the ini file.
   • [HALUI]
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro0) 
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro1)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro2)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro3)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro4)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro5)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro6)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro7)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro8)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro9)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro10)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro11)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro12)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro13)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro14)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro15)
     MDI_COMMAND=(debug,macro16)
6. Created a file named xhc-whb04b-6.hal in the configuration folder for the machine and its contents are the cut and paste from the link in the man page. raw.githubusercontent.com/LinuxCNC/linux...ple-configuration.md

When I try to run LinuxCNC I get the following:

Debug file information:
./Pendant_Test.hal:50: Pin 'halui.machine.is-on' does not exist
4130
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components
Note: Using POSIX realtime

What did I do wrong?

Thanks in advance, John Brannen

 

./Pendant_Test.hal:50: Pin 'halui.machine.is-on' does not exist

This would suggest that something went wrong with loading the component:

loadusr -W xhc-whb04b-6 -HsfB

If you start your configuration in a terminal, do you get any errors about that?

Thanks for the reply. Here is what it shows in terminal when I try to run linuxcnc from terminal:

• pi@raspberrypi:~ $ linuxcnc
  LINUXCNC - 2.8.1
  Machine configuration directory is '/home/pi/linuxcnc/configs/Pendant_Test'
  Machine configuration file is 'Pendant_Test.ini'
  Starting LinuxCNC...
  Found file(REL): ./Pendant_Test.hal
  Note: Using POSIX realtime
  Found file(REL): ./custom.hal
  Found file(REL): ./xhc-whb04b-6.hal
  ./xhc-whb04b-6.hal:44: Pin 'halui.machine.is-on' does not exist
  Shutting down and cleaning up LinuxCNC...
  Note: Using POSIX realtime
  LinuxCNC terminated with an error. You can find more information in the log:
  /home/pi/linuxcnc_debug.txt
  and
  /home/pi/linuxcnc_print.txt
  as well as in the output of the shell command 'dmesg' and in the terminal
  pi@raspberrypi:~ $

Also, I re-ran the standalone for the pendant in terminal and the first few lines show this if it helps to debug:

• pi@raspberrypi:~ $ xhc-whb04b-6 -ue
  init  starting in simulation mode
  init  usb context ... ok
  init  not waiting for device XHC-WHB04B-6 vendorId=0x10ce productId=0xeb93, will continue in 0s .... ok
  init  XHC-WHB04B-6 device found
  init  detaching active kernel driver ... already detached
  init  claiming interface ... ok
  init  enabling reception ... ok

Thanks.

hi

I think you only need to add :


[HAL]
HALUI = halui


Ps : this is not specified in the documentation but this is needed to have halui available. (maybee we need to add this in doc)

Br

Thank you. I added HALUI=halui to the [HAL} section of the ini file and it got a bit further but still has an error. Now the error I have is different:

• Debug file information:
  Note: Using POSIX realtime
  ./xhc-whb04b-6.hal:70: Pin 'whb.halui.joint.x.is-homed' does not exist
  
  failed to claim interface
  6399
  Stopping realtime threads
  Unloading hal components
  Note: Using POSIX realtime

Seems to me like an error in the documentation since the pins 'whb.halui.joint.x.is-homed', 'whb.halui.joint.y.is-homed' and 'whb.halui.joint.z.is-homed' do not appear in the pin description above the example code.

Maybe uncomment those in your hal and see if you get any more errors.

[edit]
I just loaded the component in a simulation and the pins  'whb.halui.joint.x.is-homed', 'whb.halui.joint.y.is-homed' and 'whb.halui.joint.z.is-homed' are indeed created. So I'm not sure why that causes a problem for you.
 

Thank you. Here is what I did since last time.

• I commented these 3 lines in the hal file
  • #net pdnt.axis.X.is-homed                  halui.joint.0.is-homed                whb.halui.joint.x.is-homed
    #net pdnt.axis.Y.is-homed                  halui.joint.1.is-homed                whb.halui.joint.y.is-homed
    #net pdnt.axis.Z.is-homed                  halui.joint.2.is-homed                whb.halui.joint.z.is-homed
• After that I still got errors relating to other lines in the hal file, so I just started commenting the ones giving errors out. They were
  • #net pdnt.button.m-home                    whb.button.m-home                     halui.home-all                   
  • #net pdnt.spindle.is-on                    whb.halui.spindle.is-on               spindle.0.on
  • #net pdnt.spindle-speed-abs                whb.halui.spindle-speed-cmd           spindle.0.speed-out-abs          

Once I commented out the listed lines, LinuxCNC started without errors. The MPG on the pendant works and the rotary selection switches as well. I also tried the RESET, START, and STOP/Pause switches and they work too. 

Thank you for the help so far.  I am trying to understand what is happening and want to eventually figure out how to program the macro keys.  If someone has any simple example on programming one of the macro keys I would appreciate it.

 

Maybe delete those lines and retype by hand.

So maybe a character encoding issue from cutting and pasting?

It's worth a try. Although it seems unlikely since all the other lines worked fine.