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Settings for the MKII in EMC2

Discussion in 'EMC' started by iflyos, Aug 9, 2009.

  1. iflyos

    iflyos Member

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    I am not going to attempt to cover everything for EMC2, TVCasualty did a great job already in his How-To thread. What I am going to do is give the configuration settings I am using for my MKII, since they are different from the MKI.

    First, if you have an MKII and want to try EMC2, follow TV's setup advice first. This will let you test the machine out by jogging it, and once you know you can move the axis's, then you can go and edit the *.ini file for your MKII

    In EMC my machine is named the PhlatPrinter, so if yours is as well, what you need to do to set it up is as follows:

    Click on the "Applications" menu
    point the cursor at "CNC", and when the menu pops out, select EMC2 Stepconf Wizard
    Click forward
    Choose "Modify a configuration already created with this program"
    Click forward
    On the next screen, you need to choose your machine. In my case, the file I am looking for is "PhlatPrinter.stepconf" Your machine name might be different, but the file extension will be " .stepconf" Hilight this selection, and click "open"
    On the first page, I didn't change anything from what TV recommended. I am using the stock steppers from EasyCNC so there was no need to. Make changes here as needed based on your hardware and click "next"
    On the "Parallel Port Setup" Page, the only thing i had to change was to invert my "X" axis direction. This will vary based on how your motors are wired up, just like in Mach. Make changes, and click next.
    On my X axis, I have:
    Steps per revolution: 1600
    Driver Microstepping: 1.0
    Pulley Teeth (Motor:Leadscrew) 1.55999:1.0
    Leadscrew Pitch: 1.0
    Maximum velocity: 4.0 inches per second
    Maximum Acceleration: 80 Inches per second squared
    Home: 0.0
    Table Travel: -.025 to 44.75

    On the "Y" axis:
    Motor Steps per: 1600
    Driver Microstepping: 1.0
    Pulley teeth (motor: leadscrew) 3.7891705:1
    Leadscrew pitch: 1.0
    Max Velocity: 4.0
    Max acceleration: 80
    Home: 0.0
    Table travel: -.25 to 26.5

    on my Z axis:
    Steps per: 1600
    Microstepping: 1
    Pulley teeth: 3.7891705:1
    Leadscrew pitch: 1
    Max velocity: 4.0
    Max acceleration: 80
    Home:0
    table travel: -2.0to .03

    This setup gives me a cut and rapid maximum speed of 240 inches per minute, and seems to work well for me.

    If you want to know your maximum cut speed per minute, so you can compare to Mach, just multiply inches per second by 60 to get the inches per minute.

    I hope this helps someone!!

    If you try EMC on your MKII and come up with some different pulley numbers, post them up!! This is how you calibrate how many steps/inch you need, and more/better numbers will help us get even greater accuracy!!

    Tim
    AG4RZ
     
  2. tvcasualty

    tvcasualty New Member

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    I *so* wish I could double check your numbers right now... :mrgreen:
    Makes good sense to me as far as the sanity check goes, thanks for posting Tim!
     
  3. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    Good write up iflyos. I noticed that you have 1600 as your steps per rev. I'm guessing you have your driver board set to 1/8th stepping.

    I finished setting up my MKII and thought I would post my stepper settings too. I left the steps per rev at 200 since that is the spec for them. I have my board set to 1/2 stepping so the Driver Microstepping is set to 2.0. It took a long time to figure out that I needed 2.0 instead of 0.5 for half steppping.

    My steppers are 200 steps per revolution (1.8 degrees per step) so change Motor steps per revolution if yours are different. I haven't really finished with Z calibration so beware.

    X
    Motor steps per revolution: 200.0
    Driver Microstepping: 2.0
    Pulley ratio (Motor:Leadscrew): 1.55999 : 1.0
    Leadscrew Pitch: 1.0
    Maximum Velocity: 30.0
    Maximum Acceleration: 85.0

    Y
    Motor steps per revolution: 200.0
    Driver Microstepping: 2.0
    Pulley ratio (Motor:Leadscrew): 1.0 : 1.0
    Leadscrew Pitch: 0.269
    Maximum Velocity: 30.0
    Maximum Acceleration: 70.0

    Z
    Motor steps per revolution: 200.0
    Driver Microstepping: 2.0
    Pulley ratio (Motor:Leadscrew): 1.0 : 1.0
    Leadscrew Pitch: 0.278
    Maximum Velocity: 10.0
    Maximum Acceleration: 80.0
     
  4. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    Thanks for posting this GM and Tim. I've got MK2/EMC up and running in Ubuntu after hitting the 500 line code ceiling in Mach. My first time in Linux, and so far so good. Glad that the Ubuntu builds are so friendly and simplified, otherwise I would have never made this far. I just need to get the wrapper working so I can use my wireless card, but that is a different story....

    Have you guys refined your settings further than this or are you both pretty happy with your settings? GM, I've got Vextas on my MK2 and they seem to like the full resolution setting at 200 steps like yours. I havent tried switching them to 1/4 or 1/8 steps to see if they like that config better.

    I was just wondering if either of you have found the best sweet spot in EMC, or if what you have posted is the best you've gotten with it? I'm just trying to cheat the configuration curve instead of spending too much time experimenting with it on my end! (Color me lazy!)

    Chris.
     
  5. iflyos

    iflyos Member

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    Chris,

    I am happy with my posted settings for EMC and my MKII. The calibration is still good, and if I need to adjust speeds, I just do it from the main EMC screen.

    Wrapper can be fun, LOL...Luckily on the machine I am using for the MKII, I didn't have to worry with it, but I have in the past. Just keep plugging away, and you will get there!!

    Tim
    AG4RZ
     
  6. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    Hey, thanks for the info, Tim! Got all my wireless running and network sharing working solidly, thanks to doing a few modifications to the samba.conf file. I've now set up a drop box ("PhlatDrop") folder and mapped it to a drive letter on my windows machine.

    Now the last piece of the puzzle in getting set up for me is to modify the EMC2 to default to the dropbox for opening files as well as making sure it sees ".cnc" files by default. Haven't had a chance to check to see if this is possible, but would be the icing on the cake setup if I can get it going. Have you tried this yourself?

    Props to Mark and Trish (Crash too) for pointing me in this direction when I mentioned I was already hitting the 500 line code max in Mach. just wasn't prepared to drop nearly 2 bills on a license.

    Thanks again!
     
  7. iflyos

    iflyos Member

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    I haven't tried to modify EMC for a different default folder, yet.

    As far as seeing *.cnc files, well, I cheated...I just save all my cut files with a *.ncg extension, so EMC sees them without me having to look at all file types.

    If I get a chance I will play around and see what I can come up with..

    Tim
    AG4RZ
     
  8. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    For the benefit of others who might need this:

    How to change the default directory that EMC2 will look for files when you click the file open.

    gedit /home/your_user_name/Desktop/Phlatprinter/Phlatprinter.ini

    Now find the line
    PROGRAM_PREFIX = /home/your_user_name/emc2/nc_files

    Change it to:
    [pre]PROGRAM_PREFIX = /home/your_user_name/your_folder_name[/pre]
    Mine is PROGRAM_PREFIX = /home/chris/Phlatdrop
    which is a folder shared with SMB: and mapped to a drive letter on the Windows 7 PC.

    Save and restart EMC2.
     
  9. ToxicToast

    ToxicToast Down in the weeds. Staff Member

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    How to change the default file types that EMC2 will look for files when you click the file open. This will allow you to not have to filter for "All File Types" or save your gcode in a different file suffix.

    gedit /home/your_user_name/Desktop/Phlatprinter/Phlatprinter.ini

    Now find the line
    PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .png,.gif,.jpg Greyscale Depth Image


    ADD this line after the line above:
    [pre]PROGRAM_EXTENSION = .cnc Gcode Files[/pre]

    Save and restart EMC2.
     
  10. gasmasher

    gasmasher New Member

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    I've been kind of MIA lately. I did modify the values I posted quite a bit. I'll load up the machine this weekend and get the new config.

    It doesn't help now but the next version of PS has an easy setting so you can change the default extension. Adding .cnc to the extension list like you did is probably the best way to use PS output files with less work. Every little bit helps!
     

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