[Emc-users] Adding a rotary axis...a little help, please!

[Patrick F. <pfe...@to...>]

Hi everyone,

Well I've finally gotten around to adding a rudimentary 4th axis to my 
minimill.  I've just started trying to figure out how to make AXIS and 
EMC2 spin it, so far without success.  (For some reason, after I've 
banged my head against a config issue long enough to get something 
going, I immediately start using the darn machine and after a year or 
so, I'm practically starting over in trying to understand it the next time!)

Anyway, I _thought_ all I would have to do was add a fourth axis 
description to my .ini file, and a few new signals and pins to my HAL 
file.  A quick look at stepper_xyza.hal ought to make things clear.  
Ha!   Not so much, as it turns out.  There are a whole lot of things in 
stepper_xyza.hal that aren't in standard_pinout.hal (like 
differentiators and enable signals) and I  can't for the life of me 
figure out why. 

A couple of clumsy attempts to reference both hal files in my .ini file 
failed, as did attempts to add stuff like Avel and Apos signals/pins to 
standard_pinout.

So I guess my question is:  what basic steps should I shoot for in 
adding an A axis to an XYZ minimill?   Somehow adding stuff to 
standard_pinout appeals more to me, since I (thought) I understood how 
that all went together!  I  added a limit switch signal/pin etc. and 
messed around with HALscope, and all of that ended up working, so I 
_was_ feeling pretty good about my ability to extend EMC2.  I'd really 
like to pull that off again!

thanks,
Pat

===================
Patrick Ferrick
Town of Webb School
Main Street
Old Forge, NY  13420

(315) 369-3222  
(315) 369-6216 (fax)