Is it really this hard?

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Richards
Posts: 692
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:01 pm
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
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Location: South Jordan, UT

Is it really this hard?

Post by Richards »

Normally, I check in at least once a day to see if there are any questions posted that I might be able to answer. After doing this for well over a year, I've noticed that many questions are posted by frustrated users who are really asking, "Is it really this hard"?

The easy answer is "No, it really isn't this hard"; but, then we all know that if we know how to do something, "it" is not hard. The hardness comes from trying to do something that we know too little about.

I've just recently revisited the resources that Centroidcnc has made available. They are excellent. They are not meant to be downloaded and then filed away. They are meant to be studied and pored over until they are fully understood. Many of the questions asked in the forum are answered in those resources. I know, I know, the excitement of getting an Acorn and getting that Acorn to work makes us too lazy to study things out first. That's human nature.

By reading the resources, I think that the nature of the questions would change. Instead of asking how to do something, the new user could tell us that he doesn't understand how to read schematics and needs some help. There was a time when each of us had to learn how to read schematics. We've been there. We know how it feels. We can answer that type of question. Or, if a new user asks us to help him understand how to read a stepper's data sheet or what a specific item on a stepper drive's data sheet means, we can help because we've all had that experience.

Maybe it's because I went to the school of hard knocks before there was an Internet, but somewhere along the way, I realized that if I had a question, I had to learn how to ask a proper question. The first time I called Geckodrive, I asked a question about steps-per-second. Marris Freimanis spent at least 10 minutes helping me. He started out by rephrasing my question to one that could be easily answered by anyone who understood stepper motors and stepper drivers. He taught me to ask the right kind of question. He made it easy to use his products.

I bought a lot of stepper motors from Oriental Motors. On a factory tour, the tour guide rephrased our questions so that we understood how to use their published information to get our answers.

The same thing happened when I visited Ampro, ProLog, Ziatech and many other companies. One time I was working on a large project using Borland's C++ compiler. After several months, I got a strange D-Word limit exceeded error. I called Borland. They said they had never had anyone call with that error. They told me that I had used up all the available D-Word space. I panicked. I had been paid a lot of money to do that project and I was far from finished. They asked me if I lived close by. I told them I was 850 miles away, but that I would be there in two days if they could help. They said they would try. When I got there, I was met by a friendly crowd who wanted to see the guy who broke their compiler. I showed them a printout of my code. One of their developers took the printout and returned thirty-minutes later. He showed me that I had declared thousands of individual variables and that by using individual variables, I had used up all the space needed to declare those variables. He showed me how to group the variables into arrays. Problem solved.

Now, with the Internet, we too often ask questions first and think later. Most of the "fun" of building a controller is learning all that there is to learn about everything about everything in that controller.

The resources are available. Questions will be answered on the forum even if the answer can easily be found by reading the resources; but, learning to do our own homework is part of the process of being a true DIYer.
-Mike Richards
cnckeith
Posts: 7164
Joined: Wed Mar 03, 2010 4:23 pm
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Contact:

Re: Is it really this hard?

Post by cnckeith »

:D
Need support? READ THIS POST first. http://centroidcncforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=1043
All Acorn Documentation is located here: viewtopic.php?f=60&t=3397
Answers to common questions: viewforum.php?f=63
and here viewforum.php?f=61
Gear we use but don't sell. https://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_di ... _gear.html
martyscncgarage
Posts: 9912
Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:01 pm
Acorn CNC Controller: Yes
Allin1DC CNC Controller: Yes
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CNC Control System Serial Number: none
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: Yes
CPU10 or CPU7: Yes
Location: Mesa, AZ

Re: Is it really this hard?

Post by martyscncgarage »

Mike,
Thank you for your presence on the forum. Your background and expertise are most appreciated!
We can only to the best we can with the information provided. Sometimes I go out of my way to help a user, specifically making a video showing how to do something...and that doesn't seem enough some times.

I DO understand however that some folks venture into doing a conversion with no background in electronics or have some basic electrical knowledge. They have a hard time conveying where their troubles lay. But those that keep an open mind and keep trying, I'm wiling to go the extra mile for. Those that won't take the suggestions, or provide more information and insinuate we don't provide enough help...well... :(
Reminder, for support please follow this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=383
We can't "SEE" what you see...
Mesa, AZ
lavrgs
Posts: 485
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2018 11:22 pm
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Hickory CNC Controller: No
Oak CNC controller: No
CNC Control System Serial Number: none
DC3IOB: No
CNC12: Yes
CNC11: No
CPU10 or CPU7: No
Location: Oregon

Reading Reports

Post by lavrgs »

I should probably start a new thread but in the spirit of learning and helping I would like to know what are the main items to view in the REPORTs posted when people have issues. I've gone though them several times and have been able to open most of the files but, to me, there is lots of irrelevant stuff that shouldn't be opened but what should be opened first?
cncsnw
Posts: 3763
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 5:48 pm

Re: Reading Reports

Post by cncsnw »

If you just want to find out about a system (mill or lathe? what software version? how many axes? what are the turns ratios and encoder counts? are limit switches and home switches configured? are travel limits set? etc.) then you just need to look at the report_*.txt file.

That file contains a human-readable dump of all of the configuration menus and the machine parameters table.

If you want to know about the specific actions of a custom M function, then you need to look at the macro file (mfunc*.mac) and the related parts of the PLC program source (*.src).

Looking at the I/O definitions sections (under the headings "INPUT DEFINITIONS" and "OUTPUT DEFINITIONS" in the PLC program source file will show what items are assigned to the physical PLC I/O points.

If you are proficient reading computer code and interpreting binary numbers, the values in Parameters 911 - 940, visible in the report_*.txt file, will tell you what inputs and outputs are inverted or forced on/off. However, that is more the domain of computer programmers than casual users.
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