It's been quite a while since I last posted on this topic. This project was shelved for a while and I just came back to it a few days ago. I very nearly gave up on this SandyBox/Machinekit option, but decided to take another run at it when I looked at the cost of the Windows Mach4 option. I finally broke through today and have all axes moving and responding correctly. The only thing that's not working so far is the Charge Pump output, but I haven't had a chance to dig into that as yet. Fortunately, the G540 will run without it.
The sticking point for me was not understanding that the DB25 cape pins were "fixed" (hard-wired?) to the BBB expansion connector pins and that I had to redirect the functions necessary for the G540 to the right pins on P8 and P9. It seems obvious now, but I didn't make that connection for a while. I have attached the .hal and .bbio files necessary for this configuration. Note that these are Windows files and Linux may not be happy with the line endings. If you copy these into the Linux system, you'll may have to clean them up first (sed -i 's/\r//' file.name). Jeff On Wednesday, December 30, 2015 at 3:53:55 PM UTC-5, Jeff Pollard wrote: > > > Hi, > > I'm not familiar with SandyBox, but I have run MachinkeKit through the > USB port on the BBB that acts as an Ethernet connection, to a Windows > machine. But the SandyBox may have startup software in it that I am not > familiar with. For example, at startup, it may read the eeprom on the > cape, determine what board it is, and load up the pin definitions > automatically. Thus, trying to use a different startup method would result > in trying to write over the pin configuration that has already been > established. > > Since I don't know anything about the specific way in which SandyBox > starts up, I can't give any assistance. The best(worst) suggestion I can > give would be to start with a clean install of the MachineKit software (as > shipped by SandyBox) on the BBB and the PC, and start from square one. The > G540 has a standard STEP/DIR setup with active high signals, so the G540 in > itself should not be a problem. > > Hopefully someone else will have some ideas that can get you further > along. > > Jeff > > > > On Wednesday, December 30, 2015 at 10:54:39 AM UTC-8, Jeff wrote: >> >> Hi Jeff P; >> >> If you are familiar with the SandyBox then you know that different >> configurations are started from a Windows interface (see attached). When I >> put my config files in place, the LinuxCNC command window just shuts down >> after a few seconds. Perhaps if I knew where Machinekit was keeping its log >> files I could track down the reason for this shutdown. >> >> Notice in the second screen grab (SandyBox 2...) that I've put the >> original files back in place and that the interface is working, but must >> have somehow managed to screw something else up because I'm now getting >> that "WARNING: GPIO pin not exported..." message. >> >> As for running the G540 off another PC, I don't have any older PCs around >> that have a parallel port. Part of the reason for going the SandyBox route. >> >> Thanks for your interest. >> Jeff L >> >> >> On Wednesday, December 30, 2015 at 12:24:06 PM UTC-5, Jeff wrote: >>> >>> Hi. First post to this group. >>> >>> I've been building a CNC router, from a kit (OpenBuilds C-Beam >>> <http://openbuildspartstore.com/c-beam-machine-mechanical-bundle/>), >>> and wanted to try combining the CoolTool SandyBox and the Gecko G540. I've >>> never worked with Linux before, but have always wanted to. I thought this >>> would be a good opportunity. >>> >>> After a few false starts, plus a little guidance from Alexander at >>> TheCoolTool, I found my way through to the proper configuration files (see >>> attached) and have made the changes I thought were necessary. >>> Unfortunately, as of this writing, Machinekit won't run this particular >>> setup and I don't know why. I've emailed Alexander on this, but I >>> understand that He's a busy guy and he may not have had the time to respond. >>> >>> If anyone else has made this configuration work, or has attempted to do >>> so, I'd really appreciate your input on this. I think the configuration >>> files are fairly close to working. Due to time constraints, if I am unable >>> to get this to work, then I may be forced to go the "plug and play" Mach4 >>> Windows solution - something I would prefer not to do. >>> >>> With thanks to the good people at TheCoolTool, >>> Jeff >>> >>> >>> Please note: the "(G540)" addition to the file names is only for >>> identification purposes. When attempting to run them on the SandyBox, these >>> extensions are removed. >>> >> -- website: http://www.machinekit.io blog: http://blog.machinekit.io github: https://github.com/machinekit --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Machinekit" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/machinekit. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
base_bbb (G540).hal
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paralell_cape2 (G540).bbio
Description: Binary data
pinconfig_bbb_standard (G540).hal
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