Easy to build CNC Mill Stepper Motor and Driver circuits

Step 6 Linux Users

I'm not a Linux user yet but I have played with it enough to be dangerous. But for you Linux users Chaddcurtis has contributed some setup files and information to help you use Linux CNC with the parallel port and this circuit board layout. Thanks a lot Chad and more power to you.

Comments

[CMNDR]

Hello guys,

I'm in the process of getting the driver board complete as well as the actual machine. While attempting to set up EMC2 for this board, the pin out can't be matched perfectly to the board, as there is no X-enable, Y-enable, or Z-enable in the software config. Is it perfectly necessary to have an enable for the motors to work and I need to find some other software to use or should the control board still function without the computer sending a signal to the enable pins?

Thanks.

[woodspinner]

I do know, that not all drivers even use an enable, and tom did mention that the enables were optional at some point.

[Moomba champ]

Sorry to do this but i really want a reply
Can i substitute the mosfets for some kind of transistor

[01santaman]

Moomba
If you haven't gotten the mosfets yet you can get then from Digi-key for under $10.00 and they will ship them through usp for around $3.00

[CMNDR]

In all honesty I couldn't tell you exactly. While it might be possible to use a transistor in place of the mosfets, you would have to be cautious of the current and the switching speed of the transistor. Like I said I couldn't tell you with 100% certainty that you can or not but those would be the two main things to consider when switching out that component.

[CMNDR]

Ok, thanks.
So I went to test one of the axis as I'm close to completing all three, and when I hooked up the parallel port, I was unable to get the motor to spin... I have a setup where I moved the drivers receptor parallel port off of the board, and used stranded wire to attach the pins to the correct places... do you know if the fact that stranded wire and data don't play nice would cause the motor not to move, or should I look elsewhere for a different problem?

[hightekrednek2396]

do i need a gcode compiler to use linux cnc or will it do it it self and if not what one would be the simplest and best

[hightekrednek2396]

also what size voltage regulator would work

[sigmaz]

I can't get it to work!
I copied the folder where you wanted me to but all emc2 does is terminate win errors.

I think the newer version needs an updated config set..
Can you help?
Thanks!

[markey1979]

do you get this error message? "insmod: error inserting '/usr/realtime-2.6.32-122-rtai/modules/rtai_hal.ko':
> -1 Operation not permitted"

There is a fix for this at:

http://www.mailinglistarchive.com/html/[e-mail]/2010-09/msg00127.html

If you get a memory error there are links for that too, but this is the error I recievied after installing emc2 w/ ubuntu 10.04 from the live cd, and this article helped me get the software working.

Good luck
Mark

[levonTech18]

Hi? what is the step of your simple cnc driver >is this full step,haft step,Full/Half or  Microstepping.thanks

[moire]

I found out the .stepconfig file is created when the wizard finishes, but still don't know how to load these files...

[chaddcurtis]

Hi Moire, I have not been following this forum for a while, as you can see. If you still need help send me a PM and I can try and give you a hand. Best, Chad

[GusPS]

Hi chadd. I've build the circuit and connected to parallel port. Then I started LinuxCNC from liveCD, copied your files to emc2/config and when EMC2 starts, I select your config and.... next what? What is the best way to test the circuit?
I've seen that the author uses KCam and mention something about yellow arrows. Are there somthing similar in EMC2 to test the circuit?

Thanks!

[GusPS]

I've been able to found the similar to yellow arrows of KCam: After emc2 has started, press the red "power-on" button. And on the tab "Manual Control" are buttons to move the X Y and Z motors.
BUT... I could only make one motor to run. It's the Y axis. The X and Z I wasn't able.
I've notice that the chad files are not for the Tom driver. I tried to reconfigure the PINs, but no luck. Here are my changes:

linksp Xen   => parport.0.pin-10-out
linksp Yen   => parport.0.pin-07-out
linksp Zen   => parport.0.pin-25-out

###
### If you want active low for this pin, invert it like this:
linksp Xstep => parport.0.pin-12-out
linksp Xdir  => parport.0.pin-11-out
linksp Ystep => parport.0.pin-09-out
linksp Ydir  => parport.0.pin-08-out
linksp Zstep => parport.0.pin-06-out
linksp Zdir  => parport.0.pin-05-out

The problem is that emc2 expect as a PIN IN the numbers 10,11,12, and the 25 is not expected at all. So, when it starts, it crash. If I comment out those lines, emc2 starts but only Y axis works.

Any sugestions?

[GusPS]

Well, I've all axis running OK. What I did was to create a pin-map from the emc2 expected connection to the driver connection.
So, for example, PIN 5 from the driver goes to PIN 2 of the parallel port.
Here is my map:
25 -> 1
5 -> 2
6 -> 3
7 -> 4
8 -> 5
9 -> 6
10 -> 7
11 -> 8
12 -> 9
All GNDs to the same PINs.

And the configuration file goes acoordingly to this map.

Now, I'm going to build the frame. :D

[kareden]

For OLD PSs find out to: www.thecooltool.com/downloads.php for more information. There is a iso image coll CoolCNC Linux (~50MB). This distribution is a Puppy Linux with EMC2. :))

[chaddcurtis]

These Linux CNC files are for running the Easy CNC driver board. Here are a few details that might be helpful:

To use the Linux configuration, first download and install the latest release of EMC2. The easiest way to do this is grab the live cd from the site (see installing Linux CNC link below). Once Ubuntu and EMC2 are installed, place the attached folder in ~/emc2/configs/, where ~ is the user name. It has been a while since I set this up, but it should run out of the hole with this configuration. Minor details will need to be adjusted to customize it for the particular setup: home position location, feed rate, table size, and the Z axis. I have the x and y axis setup for a 1/4-20 rod, but I used a 10-24 rod on the Z axis. All of these adjustments are made in the 'stepper_inch.ini' file using a text editor. For more details, take a look at the documentation. See Chapter 5, page 31 of the PDF manual for help. Also, I would not alter any of the file names, including the 'stepper' folder, unless you are willing to edit the file directories so EMC can find the associated files.

Installing Linux CNC
Documentation

I hope this is useful to others for getting EMC2 running.

[carlospina]

Hi Chad, thank you for the emc2 configuration set but it seems to be missing the "stepper_mm.ini - metric setup for a stepper machine" file. Would you kindly re-post it, thank you.

[moire]

Dear Chadd! I have built this board, and tried to make it run my motor under emc2, but I could not set the pins as it is in the documentation, because there is no x-enable, y-enable and z-enable options on the drop down list. Also I don't quite understand hot to use the specified files, as it makes no sense if I copy the folder under "~/emc2/config" as there is no .stepconfig file I could load. Do you have any idea how to step forward? Thanks in advance! Moire

[wimpylabs]

I have started building a small CNC machine and was looking for a good software package that would run under Linux. I also was researching how people were driving the stepper based machines and came across this page. I used the ready built ISO from the EMC2 page and installed it on an old Duron 600 and everything worked great. The setup files that chaddurtis included worked perfectly! Now I just need to throw together the PCB's and I can start testing my machine. Thanks for all the work guys! Outstanding instructable!