Newbie needs help with parport configuration

I've built a simple CNC mill from a kit (MyDIYCNC) and have run it successfully with KCam under Windows, so the hardware appears to be OK.

I want to use LinuxCNC for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that it's Open Source. When I configure it according to the setup that is in the kit's documentation, the stepper motors are always energized, and get quite hot very quickly.

My driver boards have inputs for Step, Direction and Enable for each of the three axes, and in searching the forum I found this thread:
linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum/49-...r-need-help?start=18
which listed the following pin configuration:

also here is another pin combination to try

pin1 x step
pin2 y enable
pin3 y direction
pin4 z direction
pin5 z step
pin6 z enable
pin 7 x direction
pin 8 y step
pin 14 x enable
pin16 relay ( spindle )

But when I run StepConfig I don't see x,y, or z enable as options. I do see a set of 4 general "Digital out" signals but have no clue as to how to control/configure them.

What am I missing here? How can I control the Enable signals for the stepper motors? I do have some "C" programming experience, but it's very rusty, and I've had no luck searching through the source code - I don't even have a clue which modules I should be looking at!

Any help would be most welcome

Walt

Steppers usually are full On all of the time, so get warm or even hot, especially while not moving. While stationary, none of the electrical energy delivered to the motor gets converted to motion, so it turns into heat. Some stepper drivers have a feature to reduce the power to the motor while the motor is stationary. Servo motors don't have this problem because power is only delivered to the motor to correct position errors.

There are options for the enable signals. For CNC you usually want all the drivers enabled whenever the machine is in the On state. With this, you can just configure one enable output pin and wire to all drivers, or you can use HAL to connect the one enable signal to a pin for each driver, then wire individually. You could just wire the enables to be On all of the time, but then you would need to tie the E-Stop feature in somehow. Your driver power should also be tied into E-Stop.

You may need to edit your config file(s) (/home/user_name/linuxcnc/configs/XXX/xxxxxx.hal) manually with gEdit to get the configuration you want.
--
Kirk Wallace
www.wallacecompany.com/machine_shop/

here are some working hal and ini files for the TB6560 ,
dl.dropbox.com/u/48903110/TB6560.tar.gz



the connection worth noting is the amplifier enable needs to be set as a digital pin
any problems let me know