#linuxcnc Logs
May 27 2021
#linuxcnc Calendar
04:07 AM Tom_L: morning
04:22 AM rs[m]: veegee: better get some hornets and/or bats
04:23 AM rs[m]: hornets eat large amounts of insects
04:24 AM rs[m]: and if you keep away from their nest they are pretty harmless to humans
05:10 AM veegee: rs[m] yeah but if it gets indoors, it can still sting you
05:10 AM veegee: I got stung while falling asleep
05:10 AM veegee: Indoors, far away from any nest. It was just on my bed and I unknowingly hit it with my hand
05:26 AM JT-Cave: morning
06:05 AM Deejay: Ouch!
07:48 AM Tom_L: T-storms & rain Hi 77F
09:02 AM skunkworks: pcw_home: hooked the stepper drive into the 7i92 for the 4th axis - worked great!
09:02 AM skunkworks: Thanks again
10:16 AM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
10:45 AM jymmmm: Good morning
12:59 PM Tom_L: quiet morning
01:00 PM roycroft: it's cloudy
01:00 PM roycroft: low energy day
01:01 PM Tom_L: same here
01:03 PM roycroft: it's supposed to be sunny and very warm today
01:04 PM Tom_L: remember that mike's tools?
01:05 PM Tom_L: https://www.mikestools.com/
01:05 PM roycroft: i've no idea what you're talking about
01:05 PM Tom_L: you mentioned you'd heard of em
01:06 PM * roycroft clicks
01:06 PM roycroft: the website looks familiar
01:06 PM Tom_L: i got a couple sherline tool holders from him, his reply was he'd have sherline drop ship them
01:07 PM roycroft: oh, one of those places
01:07 PM Tom_L: fwiw
01:09 PM Tom_L: couple bucks cheaper but he makes money and does basically nothing
01:09 PM Tom_L: we'll see
01:10 PM roycroft: yup
01:10 PM roycroft: i'm looking for a good deal on a dividing head
01:10 PM Tom_L: those chinese ones aren't too bad
01:10 PM roycroft: i was going to try to tilt my rotary table but that would be rather difficult to do and keep it rigid with what i have
01:11 PM roycroft: they're about $220
01:11 PM Tom_L: for what little i will use it, i didn't wanna spend too much on it
01:11 PM roycroft: i'm hoping to find something used or at an auction for about 1/2 of that
01:11 PM roycroft: same here
01:11 PM roycroft: it will be for very occasional use
01:11 PM Tom_L: but handy if i need one
01:11 PM roycroft: but when you need it it can be hard to substitute something else for it
01:12 PM roycroft: my tooling budget is tight right now
01:12 PM Tom_L: all of the 'good' used ones will go for at least that much
01:12 PM roycroft: i recently spent $175 on a saw blade that i needed reground
01:13 PM roycroft: i took it to the saw shop i've been using for years and gave them instructions
01:13 PM roycroft: flat grind the tips and do not side grind at all
01:13 PM roycroft: i made it very clear that i needed the full and exact kerf width
01:13 PM roycroft: so they side ground it
01:13 PM Tom_L: :)
01:13 PM roycroft: took about 0.008" off
01:13 PM roycroft: i can use the blade for something else
01:14 PM roycroft: because they not only would not pay for the blade, they still charged me for the grinding
01:14 PM roycroft: so i had to spend another $175 on another blade
01:14 PM roycroft: and find a new saw shop
01:14 PM roycroft: hopefully they'll do a better job
01:14 PM roycroft: the new place does cnc grinding, and use flood coolant
01:14 PM roycroft: the old place did it all by hand
01:14 PM unterhaus: I thought solidworks was going to offer a $99 license, but they are still giving out maker licenses
01:14 PM Tom_L: so far, the 3 grind shops i've gone to here have gone out of their way to do what i asked
01:15 PM roycroft: anyway, there's that
01:15 PM Tom_L: 2 in particular
01:15 PM roycroft: and then the $400 for the belt grinder motor and vfd replacement that i was not planning on
01:15 PM roycroft: the new shop seem to really want to do a good job
01:15 PM roycroft: and i told them if they do they'll get all my sharpening business
01:15 PM roycroft: the thing is
01:16 PM Tom_L: i generally peek in the back door first
01:16 PM roycroft: this particular blade has the longest carbide tips i've ever seen on a saw blade
01:16 PM roycroft: it comes from the factory ground atb
01:16 PM roycroft: but i'm going to be cutting some slots with it
01:16 PM roycroft: hence the need for the exact kerf width
01:16 PM roycroft: and i don't want bat ears in the slots
01:16 PM roycroft: so i'm having it flat ground
01:17 PM roycroft: even after they flat grind it there will still be more carbide than comes on most brand new blades
01:17 PM roycroft: i've no idea why the other shop decided to side grind, unless they scewed up and chipped some of the tips
01:17 PM roycroft: maybe they dropped it or banged it on a bench or machine
01:18 PM roycroft: anyway, they are dead to me now
01:18 PM roycroft: not only did they scew up and still charge me, they were rude about it
01:18 PM roycroft: and told me i should buy one of their red blades for $25, because "they work just as well as those fancy ones"
01:22 PM roycroft: oh, and when i got the second blade, i mic'ed the carbide teeth at the tip and at the base
01:22 PM roycroft: they are not tapered
01:22 PM roycroft: so it's not a case of the top grinding narrowing the kerf
01:23 PM Tom_L: i generally try to talk to the guy that's actually gonna be doing the gringing if possible
01:23 PM Tom_L: grinding
01:33 PM roycroft: at the new place i did
01:33 PM roycroft: when i brought it in the receptionist started taking notes, and immediately determined that i should talk to the grinding machine operator
01:34 PM roycroft: https://www.cascadecarbide.com
01:34 PM roycroft: the new place
01:35 PM roycroft: and it's really close to my house as well
01:35 PM roycroft: vs. driving across town to the old place
02:00 PM drdoc: unterhaus: solidworks still has a maker program?
02:00 PM drdoc: I thought the discontinued, like 2 years ago
02:03 PM drdoc: roycroft: that's kind of odd - I've never had a regrind shop/operator behave like that
02:05 PM veegee: Does LinuxCNC have an EtherCAT HAL?
02:05 PM veegee: Or any means to control via EtherCAT
02:06 PM veegee: If not, I have some code I wrote a while ago for motion control over EtherCAT and I don't mind adding a patch for EtherCAT support
02:10 PM veegee: Also, apparently you don't need preempt_rt for the PCIE MESA cards?
02:11 PM veegee: But you do for the Ethernet ones; I'm guessing because it's loading its own UDP/Ethernet stack into userspace?
02:17 PM pcw_home: LinuxCNC has Ethercat support
02:18 PM pcw_home: Mesa Ethernet cards use the kernel's network stack (so Preempt-RT is needed)
02:21 PM veegee: pcw_home awesome, thanks. I read some of your posts on the forums. You say there's little to gain from running the servo thread at > 1kHz. I'm just about to buy the 6i24-25 + 7i47s
02:21 PM veegee: I can use a second 7i47s to read MPGs right? Or even the first one if I'm not reading encoders
02:22 PM pcw_home: to use RTAI you would need a RTAI driver/network stack (like RT-Net) but unfortunately RT-Net died
02:23 PM pcw_home: Yes, though some other card with built in MPG support might be better
02:24 PM pcw_home: And MPGs are not always differential so a 7I47s differential inputs might be a nuisance
02:33 PM veegee: pcw_home ok so one 7i47s can drive my servos and has enough RS422 channels to connect to a 7i84
02:33 PM veegee: although description states 2 MPG inputs. I need at least 3
02:35 PM veegee: I plan to get the 7i47s + one other daughter card anyway. Just cant decide on the other one which will be primarily responsible for things like GPIO and MPG and limit switches, control panel inputs, stuff like that
02:42 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
02:46 PM Tom_L: veegee, do you need more than one 'spindle' channel?
02:46 PM veegee: Tom_L no, just one and it doesn't have to be analog either
02:46 PM Tom_L: you could get a regular 7i47 which has no spindle support
02:47 PM veegee: The VFD has multiple control options including PWM and such
02:47 PM Tom_L: i've got the "S" on my mill right now
02:47 PM veegee: I just wanted to get the S just in case one of my VFDs has only an analog control
02:47 PM Tom_L: to get by the differential inputs, i used a r divider on one side on some of them
02:47 PM Tom_L: good idea
02:48 PM Tom_L: or pwm?
02:48 PM veegee: Yeah I could also just use some single ended to differential transceiver chips
02:48 PM veegee: yeah the VFD can be controlled even with RS 485
02:48 PM Tom_L: had i chosen my boards today i may have done it different now that there are alot more boards out
02:48 PM veegee: it's one of them huanyang VFDs
02:48 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
02:49 PM veegee: what would you have chosen today?
02:49 PM Tom_L: there's a comp for those if it works on your particular one
02:49 PM Tom_L: i dunno
02:49 PM veegee: the naming convention is the worst part of the mesa cards lol
02:49 PM Tom_L: i'd have to sit down and figure it out and i did that once already
02:49 PM veegee: so damn confusing and meaningless
02:49 PM Tom_L: you get used to it
02:49 PM Tom_L: and if you don't, ask pcw or jt
02:52 PM pcw_home: A 7I73 supports 4 MPG inputs
02:55 PM veegee: pcw_home thanks!
02:58 PM roycroft: i just told jt what i needed to do and he told me what to order
02:59 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
02:59 PM veegee: I intend to get pretty deep into the cards since I know Verilog and VHDL
03:00 PM veegee: so I want to buy a flexible system to start with
03:00 PM Tom_L: veegee, see :)
03:00 PM veegee: also intend to contribute to LinuxCNC code
03:00 PM Tom_L: veegee, did you see my tutorial on making bitfiles?
03:00 PM veegee: Tom_L I did not
03:01 PM Tom_L: http://tom-itx.no-ip.biz:81/~webpage/emc/xilinx/xilinx14_install_index.php
03:01 PM Tom_L: it's on the wiki too
03:01 PM veegee: Ah nice
03:01 PM veegee: I already know how to do that though, I have plenty of FPGA development kits for other purposes
03:02 PM Tom_L: i have a couple but don't do much with them
03:06 PM veegee: pcw_home is there anything like the 7i74 quad RJ45 port card for the 50 pin boards?
03:06 PM pcw_home: 7I44
03:07 PM veegee: Oh LOL thanks
03:07 PM Tom_L: see there is a method to the numbers
03:08 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
03:26 PM veegee: pcw_home "sourcing type outputs (PNP)", actual PNP BJT or PMOS?
03:27 PM pcw_home: usually NMOS
03:29 PM veegee: pcw_home you have high side NMOS drivers on those?
03:30 PM pcw_home: for cards like the 7I84 ,yes
03:30 PM JT-Shop: the refrigerator is on the deck my job is done
03:33 PM Tom_L: party on the deck!
03:44 PM JT-Shop: damn ge refrigerator is only 23 years old and it's been a pia for the last 5-6 years
03:44 PM JT-Shop: it'll be a party when the lg gets here tomorrow
03:44 PM veegee: UGH
03:44 PM veegee: Shipping costs
03:45 PM JT-Shop: the old refrigerator is 34 years old and still works perfectly
03:45 PM Tom_L: JT-Shop, iirc i had 2 of those that went out within a month of eacy other
03:46 PM Tom_L: veegee, just drop by and pick it up
03:47 PM veegee: Tom_L I'm in Canada
03:47 PM veegee: these guys are in California
03:47 PM Tom_L: so shipping isn't so bad afterall?
03:47 PM veegee: I used to go every month before Covid
03:47 PM Tom_L: you know jt has the same boards ehh?
03:47 PM veegee: Is he in Canada?
03:48 PM Tom_L: no he's in swampeast Mo
03:48 PM veegee: Well I just saw fedex ground for $30 which is reasonable
03:48 PM Tom_L: https://mesaus.com/
03:48 PM veegee: it says "not for residential", but I should be fine since it's an industrial unit
03:49 PM veegee: Oh wow that site is much nicer
03:49 PM veegee: No idea why the PCI cards are still being sold. PCI has been obsolete for like a decade
03:49 PM Tom_L: i still use parport so meh
03:50 PM Tom_L: lots of guys use old motherboards
03:50 PM rs[m]: i have machines running DOS
03:51 PM Tom_L: so do i
03:51 PM Tom_L: dual boot NT4 :)
03:52 PM veegee: Ok I probably just have way too many computers then
03:52 PM Tom_L: i've only got 10 or so
03:52 PM veegee: I have 10 from within the past 2 years
03:52 PM Tom_L: more if you count all the laptops
03:53 PM veegee: JT's store seems to have more cards than the store.mesanet.com
03:53 PM Tom_L: nope
03:53 PM veegee: I didn't even see the 7i64 listed on mesanet
03:53 PM Tom_L: pcw makes them
03:53 PM rs[m]: veegee: mesanet.com is the source
03:54 PM veegee: Yeah I know, but the site needs a lot of work
03:54 PM veegee: I don't see so many things listed
03:54 PM Tom_L: you want good cards or pretty website?
03:54 PM Tom_L: you kinda gotta dig for some
03:55 PM veegee: I searched 7i64 and got no results
03:55 PM JT-Shop: tomorrow I have to program a plc to act as two push buttons lol
03:56 PM Tom_L: you think you can handle that?
03:56 PM Tom_L: btw how's the spoke machine going?
03:56 PM JT-Shop: it's gonna be tough for sure maybe 2 lines of code lol
03:57 PM JT-Shop: I've not been over there since I got home, going to let them run in manual till next week
03:57 PM veegee: JT-Shop 7i64, is that an old card no longer made?
03:57 PM drdoc: Is there a good See Spot run-level resource for learning PLC?
03:58 PM JT-Shop: the most important rule is "last one WINS"
03:59 PM JT-Shop: https://www.plctalk.net/qanda/forumdisplay.php?f=2
03:59 PM JT-Shop: that's my goto resource when I'm stuck
04:00 PM Tom_L: so you're stuck on this one???
04:00 PM Tom_L: :D
04:01 PM drdoc: thank you sir!
04:01 PM veegee: JT-Shop also, do you have the 6i24-25? Search doesn't show anything
04:01 PM Tom_L: plugs are different on the 24
04:02 PM drdoc: not sure I care about being fluent with it, but I'd like to at least understand what & how it does
04:02 PM veegee: Completely ignored for some reason... alrighty then
04:02 PM JT-Shop: practice with the built in plc in lcnc
04:02 PM Tom_L: https://mesaus.com/product/5i24-16/
04:02 PM Tom_L: https://mesaus.com/product/6i25/
04:02 PM Tom_L: veegee,
04:03 PM veegee: I saw that
04:03 PM veegee: I'm looking for the 6i24-25 specifically
04:03 PM drdoc: JT-Shop: I'll look into it, thanks
04:03 PM veegee: Also a response from JT-Shop would be nice, but no big deal. pcw_home's store has it in stock, I'll just order it there
04:04 PM JT-Shop: https://gnipsel.com/linuxcnc/ladder/index.html
04:04 PM JT-Shop: drdoc, that's my little intro to classicladder
04:05 PM Tom_L: JT-Shop, you click on 6i24 on your site and up pops the 5i24
04:06 PM JT-Shop: weird
04:06 PM veegee: OH I just remembered, I think he blocked me for some reason
04:06 PM veegee: Odd because I never interacted with him before
04:06 PM Tom_L: i don't blame him :)
04:06 PM Tom_L: you are kindof a pita
04:06 PM Tom_L: jk
04:07 PM JT-Shop: what do you click on, it works for me
04:07 PM veegee: It's alright, that's why pcw_home is getting my $500
04:07 PM JT-Shop: https://mesaus.com/product/6i24-16/
04:07 PM veegee: pcw_home just curious, if I pick the overnight option, would you actually ship it today haha
04:07 PM JT-Shop: oh I see where you clicked
04:07 PM Tom_L: under the tree
04:08 PM Tom_L: pci pcie solutions
04:08 PM pcw_home: too late to ship today
04:08 PM veegee: ain't no thang
04:08 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
04:10 PM veegee: pcw_home did you do the board design for all these yourself?
04:11 PM Tom_L: of course he did
04:11 PM veegee: I'm just wondering if it's just him or if it's multiple engineers
04:12 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
04:12 PM Tom_L: just him and the goats
04:12 PM Tom_L: afik
04:12 PM pcw_home: Yes
04:13 PM pcw_home: I have no goats
04:13 PM Tom_L: and a good woman prodding him on
04:13 PM Tom_L: mmm i thought you did
04:13 PM veegee: much respect
04:13 PM pcw_home: sheep we have
04:13 PM Tom_L: ahh ok
04:13 PM veegee: I'll definitely support that
04:13 PM rs[m]: goats are troublemakers
04:14 PM * JT-Shop should trade chickens for sheep but they don't lay eggs...
04:15 PM Tom_L: my neighbor brings turkey eggs by once in a while
04:17 PM pcw_home: Goats climb fences and trees, too much trouble
04:19 PM pcw_home: we had some escapee goats in our yard last weekend, possible running from a mountain lion sighted nearby
04:19 PM veegee: pcw_home I guess fedex will charge me import fees when they show up at my door yeah?
04:19 PM pcw_home: Probably
04:20 PM veegee: Cool, I just placed the order
04:22 PM JT-Shop: I'd be hiding too, need to get Jake and his dogs to run the kitty back up in the hills
04:29 PM * JT-Shop wonders how a pump seal failure relay works? https://www.automationdirect.com/adc/shopping/catalog/relays_-z-_timers/pump_seal_failure_relays/psfr-1c-120a-tl
04:36 PM roycroft: jt-shop: there's a resistance probe installed in the pump. if the seal starts leaking, water enters the pump chamber and contaminates the oil, which changes the resistance of the fluid
04:36 PM rs[m]: JT-Shop: https://cdn.automationdirect.com/static/specs/psfrrelays.pdf
04:37 PM rs[m]: it explains in the description
04:40 PM JT-Shop: ah, that makes sense
05:04 PM JT-Shop: fixing to storm here
05:04 PM Tom_L: we had a few T-storms off n on today
05:07 PM JT-Shop: we'er right on the edge of a front with tornado warning behind it
05:07 PM Tom_L: ooo that's a nice red streak
05:09 PM Tom_L: looks like OKC was getting hammered too
05:09 PM roycroft: it's still cloudy here, but the forecast has finally been updated to reflect that it's cloudy
05:10 PM roycroft: we have a heat wave coming in a few days though
05:20 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
05:23 PM JT-Shop: anyone have any idea why usps international packages are not moving in the last 6 weeks?
05:26 PM Tom_L: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Mail-Service-Alerts-and-Updates
05:26 PM roycroft: are they really not moving, or is the tracking information not being updated?
05:26 PM roycroft: most of the parcels i've received lately have had no tracking updates until delivery, and about 1/3 of them were never updated as having been delivered
05:27 PM JT-Shop: not moving at all, usps says they are waiting on space on a plane
05:27 PM Tom_L: effective May 21st, 2021
05:27 PM Tom_L: read that list
05:27 PM roycroft: i think what is happening at usps is that when ups totally broke their tracking system, usps decided they didn't care any more
05:28 PM Tom_L: probably a backlog
05:28 PM W1N9Zr0: canada post straight up stopped accepting packages from most countries a few months back
05:28 PM JT-Shop: Tom_L, none of the packages have left the us
05:29 PM Tom_L: i have never ever seen a postal worker be in a rush
05:30 PM JT-Shop: I shipped a package to Au via ups and expected delivery is Thursday 6/3
05:30 PM roycroft: i have, but only two postal workers, ever
05:30 PM roycroft: both of whom were managers
05:30 PM JT-Shop: the local usps workers are pretty good an work hard
05:32 PM roycroft: i have a new letter carrier, and i do not understand him at all
05:32 PM roycroft: all our mailboxes are on one side of the street, at the curb
05:32 PM * JT-Shop notices that the weather has arrived time to go inside
05:32 PM roycroft: so no door to door deliveries
05:32 PM roycroft: and what he does is drive down the street, which is a dead-end street
05:32 PM roycroft: he'll deliver all the mail to the mailboxes
05:33 PM roycroft: then he drives back to the beginning of the street, turns around, and drives back down to deliver parcels
05:33 PM roycroft: instead of doing mailbox stuff and parcels at the same stop
05:33 PM Tom_L: we had one doing U turns in the middle
05:33 PM roycroft: since the pandemic started, most of my neighbors get parcels several times/week
05:34 PM roycroft: so it's not like he'd going back to drop off one or two parcels
05:34 PM roycroft: he's basically doing his route twice
05:34 PM roycroft: i've never had a letter carrier deliver the mail that way before
05:35 PM roycroft: but the good news is that he usually arrives before 5, and if he's late he doesn't just go home and come back the next day, like was happening right before the election
05:45 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
05:47 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
06:23 PM _unreal_: liking my 3d printer so far
06:23 PM _unreal_: first print seems to be doing well
08:58 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
09:59 PM Tom_L: at least something is working
10:16 PM -!- #linuxcnc mode set to +v by ChanServ
11:33 PM veegee: LOL Ok I'm so glad I didn't pick the USPS shipping option
11:34 PM veegee: I was tempted because the prices were lower but they lost my $1,000 tracked and insured lens in the past and told me to fuck off
11:34 PM veegee: Still better than Canada post and Purolator
11:56 PM flyback: CANUCK