FAQ

Motion control

How do I see the status of the the axes?

Run hBT.getStageStatus to get a report on how each axis is set up and other important information.

My PI direct-drive stages are cutting out and/or giving over-current errors

If necessary, set the D terms of the PID loops to zero then at the MikroMove command line run the phase finding command: FPH 1. The axis has to be enabled (i.e. EAX? 1 returns 1) and the servo mode has to be off (SVO? 1 returns 0). You can query the result of the phase-finding operation with FPH?. This should return a positive value. -1 indicates that the phase finding operation failed. If it worked, the new value can be saved to non-volatile memory via the command WPA 100

Once this is done, enable the servo and see if performance improves. If not you could try setting a small positive D term to the position PID loop (e.g. 0.005) but be cautious of going too far as this may increase position noise.

If you have simply knocked the stages and caused the servo to cut out, you can test for this by running the BakingTray command hBT.getStageStatus. If, say, the X axis is listed as disabled you can try enabling it with hBT.xAxis.resetAxis.

Laser control

The laser seems to connect but can't be turned on via the GUI.

As a workaround, try issuing hBT.laser.turnOn at the command line. This may turn on the laser then allow it to be controlled via the GUI. You could also try closing and re-opening the GUI. File an issue if you see behavior such as this.