New User Lichuan CL3 57E and Stepper Online A6 - Problems

Hi New guy here...

I am trying to get a 3 axis mill up and running. I am using three CL3 57E drivers for the axis(es) and have a A6 750w Servo motor for the spindle. 

Debian is up and working and Ethercat is installed. The cia402 is also integrated. Everything boots and looks good. I am running Linuxcnc 2.9.10.

UI is qt_dragon. Slaves are all there and go over to OP when linuxcnc starts... There are no errors other than a 5000 ns time out for the CL3 57Es no time out error for the A6 though? The Stepper motors do not energize... No buzzing, nothing and can be moved by hand. 

Button for the coolant work in the UI but the motors will not (just the CL3 57Es) activate and move. I don't know if I have missed something... I have spent the last 3 days searching the forum looking for answers and trying different things. It would be great if you guys could take a look at my config  files and let me know what I missed.

Thanks 
   

Have a look at my ethercat xml for those drives, as I have nothing in the SyncManager 0 and 1 idx.
I did have an xml reading the drive digital inputs, which I'm sure was in the 2 and 3 idx, but I'm not sure where I saved it, and I've still not got as far as adding them to my current test setup.

You probably want to start simpler with just the enabling/motion

Hi mwc,

Thank you for your help... The motors are energizing now, not moving but I am now where I wanted to be at 3 days ago. Thank you!

My ethercat_conf.xml was generated using the lece_configgen command. It looked correct... but nothing in the motor controller area was correct. I would have been better off using the instructions from the ethercat github page and just searching the forum here. 

Funny how both the Lichuan driver and the Stepperonline A6 drivers use the same code. They probably use the same (or from the same source) firmware. 

I had a similar problem (no errors displayed, only the motors did not want to turn).
I solved it by writing xml for one drive and when it started working, I connected the second one and added it to xml, and that way to the end.
I noticed that Ethercat in Linuxcnc is also sensitive to the order of entries, i.e. it may not work even if everything is fine, but incorrectly arranged...

Hi,

Looking at your .xml file,
you have X, Z, Y, and SPDL, whereas in the .hal file you have X, Y, and Z, and the pins for SPDL are missing.

I believe that in the .hal file,
`loadrt cia402 count=3`

should be
`loadrt cia402 count=4`

Consequently, you need to add
`addf cia402.3.read-all servo-thread`
and
`addf cia402.3.write-all servo-thread`

Then, once LCNC opens, check that the pins in the .hal file match what you see under Machine > HAL Configuration
in the lcec and cia402 sections;
they must match it is easy to misspell pin names.

Hi jjdege,

Thanks for the info, SPDL was intentionally left out as I only wanted one problem at a time to work on.

I am using stepper-online steppers with Lichuan controllers and I expected a few problems.

The axis are now moving so I am looking at how to set up the Stepper-Online A6 servo set up in csv mode.