GearHeads Corner

Hello everybody. Here is Alfred - another restless retired SW engineer who has started playing with Hobby CNC and has discovered Auggie. I just assemblied my motor controller with PoKeys57CNC controller and have successfully configured my XCarve (from inventables.com) in Mach4 Demo.
Now I have my first question:
Is it possible to map and configure the X/Y/Z axis to a different motors then 0/1/2, which seems to be the default in Auggie. Silly enough, i wired my Z-axis to motor 0 on PoKey, and the X-axis to motor 1.
Regards, Alfred.

Hi Alfred:

  At present ..no. Though its not something that would be hard to add , I havent gotten there yet.. :)

Art

Another question, perhaps same topic.
Where, how and whether is it possible configure a master slave axis, becaus on my cnc i provided 2 motors for the x axis. Is it in pokeys config or can Auggie do this for me. As newbie not quite sure, even not as I looked just at the setup video.

Hi :

  Kin of part of the same thing, now that someone has asked for slaving and mapping, I will aim
toward it. Cant promise when but Ill see how it fits in..

Thx
Art

Hi Art,

perhaps you need not to program everything, if it is possible to make a work around by scripting.
I am too unaware to know just now, but if I would make a new panel with the special Jog Buttons, which pulse two axes e.g. axis 1 and axis 8 simultaneously? Do you think, that is possible, then you have not to deal with such item in Auggie programming directly.
That would be a more flexible way, because I could assign what I want for my machine. I wonder only, whether this is a way to go. Dont put to much effort in this topic, if we can solve this.
Other more ugly walk around would be to map 2 axis by hardware, eg. fast contact doubler.

NOT ugly to do it in the hardware ....
I have to correct myself  ;)

Its more easy than I thought with posteps: I checked the driver chip, its a Texas DRV8825 like today used in many stepper drivers. The advantage is, that it has an open collector output for pulling down in case of error and 100k input resistance for step and direction, so to make a clean 2 Motor axis you simply can put 2 connectors parallel on one ribbon cable coming from pokeys. The error output willworke, even also the inputs. Cabling should look like this:

Pokeys:          Postep X1        Postep X2
1-------------------1----------------1
2-------------------2----------------2
.                        ...                     ...
.
.
10----------------10----------------10

I will use crimp connectors and crimp them onto the ribbon cable.

WARNING: Please wait for electrical checking, I will answer in the next 6 hours, because I have to do some mechanical work first. I then will post some Photos.

To Alfreds problem: Why dont you swap the 2 connectors??

My problem is solved - as you suggested - by swapping the motor connectors on the Pokey.
I had also to swap the motor configuration because X and Z have different u/unit on my CNC.
I was just spoiled by Mach4's option to map axis to motors, but i agree that this is not the most wanted feature in Auggie  ;)
Thx, Alfred.

Hi Art. Just stumbled across this post.

I re-configured my machine. Previously I jumped the second Y axis motor to the same driver. Under this setup Auggie worked.

Now I have a slave motor for the second Y axis and moved the mapping "out of numerical order" due to cable length from the stepper drivers to the board.

x=0
y=1, slave 2
z=7
a=3

I don't think it's possible yet to set the Slave Axis in Auggie or? Or change the default motor mapping from I assume X-0, Y=1, Z=2?

At the moment I cannot get Auggie to work with my current setup.

Any chance you have done any work on this? (Based on comments you made previously in this thread)

Thanks,

Scott

Hi Scott:

Hmm, I will have to more deeply dive into Auggies code to refresh my memory to
answer this. I have a recollection of code I added that allows any axis to
be any other axis, but I cant recall the specifics or if I turned it on in the
release. I use Auggie for photos and such and run it on two different machines
but I haven't had to remap on either one so I cant really recall the
specifics.
I will be away from the code as I have to enter the hospital for surgery
today and will not be back for a week or so. Remind of this question when
I return and I will post the details of what's possible. As I roughly recall
there is a script command or something to allow you to remap..
Is there any reason Augie wont run on your current machine? If its
a problem related to crashing or something let me know and Ill
see if I can help you there as well.

Thanks
Art

Thanks Art. Good luck with your surgery! Hope all goes well.

Currently Auggie won't run on my machine at all. The Z axis won't move, X axis moves when it shouldn't and only 1 y motor will fire. The setup runs fine in Mach4.

Due to some pokeys changes over time, the ability to swap from m4 to auggie got touchy, you have to fully
reconfigure the pokeys and Auggie to make it work, and then totally reconfigure for mach4, the saved profiles only get
you close that last time I tried.

I just got home and will be recovering for a while, all went well, thx. As I cant move much I decided to dance visually
through Auggies code to refresh my memory. There is no axis mapping. The complexity of two running 6th order planners
each connected through the interpreter makes that a difficult thing to do. Auggie is incredibly complex even by comparison
to Mach3, which was a spaghetti nightmare of epic proportions.
But it was made for lasers, and does them justice. I dont in truth ever use Auggie for cnc generally, though I hear from
many that have adapted it to their cnc general machines for wood or metal. I dont recommend that path except the very
brave who like to experiment.
Its funny, but when asked about what Auggie can or cant do I often have to say I dont know. I wrote it in a manic year
of coding to prove to myself I could make my laser work better and to more fully test that planner. A sixth order planner
is still incredibly rare. (I find it highly desirable myself.)The C Script in code and all ​the various other things were just
added as future things to debug. I had to revisit most of that code as the result of general cnc based brave souls trying to
see Auggies motion helped them. As a result, those users are often more knowledgeable than I, except perhaps on the
esoterica of things like 3d laser sculpting. Because of the power of its scripted backend, it can be made to do things
that surprise me all the time. I haven't used it this year at all as I'm busy with 3d code, so only had time to burn a
couple decorations I needed on my galvometer laser.
​As I have another Pokeys 57 on my shelf I may yet build another machine to play with next winter, so Auggie
may get a Auggie2.0 at some point. My math skills have gotten so improved over the past 5 years that I see glaring spots
in there where I could do wonders for efficiency. Of course for Gearotic, the same could be said in spades.

Art

Thanks for the reply Art.

As I remember using Mach4 with my laser the issue lies with the continual M3 commands changing the Laser Power. Mach4 dec/accelerates at each M3S value change and the movement is quite jerky. In my naïve view, I will have to do some homework to see if I can map the Laser power output to the Zaxis height. If this is even possible, this should help the goal of trying to achieve constantly velocity.

Of course I could break down and build a bonified laser machine however what is attractive with my current setup is that I can swap between cutting and lasing without moving the work piece. I also have a 4th axis so I can rotary engrave also.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

>>Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Thx. I feel younger each day and no longer have to talk to my doctors. This year has
mostly been a wash for me timewise, I've been able to do little other than research and
education.
---

My problems with Mach under lasers were similar to yours. Laser cnc is quite different than most.
Firstly, lasers are unforgiving on power vs speed, and to do photos properly requires photo
grey scale data to change power fast enough, not to mention matching that power to
the ratio of speed.

Auggie is so much easier than that for me, Its knows that g1 cuts, and g0 doesnt. It knows
that travel is decelerating and thus must lower power as it does so you dont burn on corners
or radius. An S word, must be power because lasers dont have spindles. Mind you, these assumptions
make it hard on those that want to do normal cnc. There is no perfect cnc software in the world.
I use Mach3 on my tables, and Auggie on my lasers. If I had a metal working machine or professional
device Id likely use Mach4, but in truth I always found it too good for my kind. :) , Mach4 has
grown to a pretty professional bit of kit when I look.

Art