Mesa 7i97T & LinuxCNC setup struggles

As far as mesaflash goes, make sure you do a:

sudo make install

or you will end up running the older preinstalled version of mesaflash.

(current mesaflash version is 3.5.13 )

As far as following errors go, they are expected in initial setup
of analog servo systems. For example, you have a 50% chance of
having the initial feedback direction wrong so you get an instant
runaway when the drives are first enabled.

Follow tommylights link for setup/tuning information.

Thanks everyone, ill dig into the above suggestions. 

And yes, i should have been a little clearer, im not worried about the following error stuff, i was just happy to be seeing signs of life. 

Good evening again all.

Everything above has gone well, i greatly appreciate the advice. I'm now working through Tommys servo tuning guide, aswell as the one i found from PCW, same instructions for the most part. 

I just have one potentially really dumb question, do the servos need to be fitted to the mill for tuning? thats to say, in order to do any tuning at all? Its cold (New Zealand) and im playing with CNC parts in the lounge in front of the fire, but the servos dont really react how i would expect when reading the guides and it occurs to me that they probably need something to load up against in order to work properly? they arnt very happy turning with any P value above 5-10, but this value provides very little torque. the F error is responding to tweaks nicely at a low P value as expected, but i cant then turn up the power without it getting upset. 

While i always intended to fine tune the servos on the machine, i was hoping to continue working through it in the warmth . 

Cheers
Josh

 

You can do most of the tuning without the machine attached, but might need a bit fine tuning after attaching the motors, so keep warm for now. And not helping, but 31 C here today!
What PID values are you at now?

P=5-10 I=0 D=0
FF1 - 0.024 but still tweaking.
Deadband 0.00001

the servo will move but if the P value is much higher it will oscillate more and more untill it trips following error. the F error max limit is set at 50 currently which is ofcourse way to high for normal operations

Are you sure the drives are in velocity mode?

If they are in torque mode, the tuning is completely different.

In velocity mode, the motors should strongly resist any attempt
to rotate the shaft (even with P=0)