PathPilot for non-Tormach systems

[jcdammeyer]

Here's what Peter Hohmann (Homann Designs in Australia) the designer of the MODIO for MACH Modbus had to say. Perhaps the links will be handy.
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PathPilot has a lot of similarities with Mach3. John Prentice had quite
a hand in the interface. I'd been using the Mach3 Aqua screenset and I
found the transition seemless.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=11115.0;attach=14352

I really like PathPilot as it has all the functions I want built in and
they are rock solid. All their probing wizards work without issue. And
the tool offset setting from a tool height setter works really well.

One of the other reasons is that the Fusion 360 post processor supports
probing

Here is the thread of my conversion. It may have some helpful
information if you plan to do something similar.

PathPilot, Mesa 7I92H and Geckodrive G540

Hi all, I’m looking into whether it is possible to use PathPilot to control a G540 4 axis stepper controller via the Mesa 7I92H Ethernet card? If it is

www.cnczone.com

There is also this forum

PathPilot - LinuxCNC

Discussion on using the PathPilot™ user interface. PathPilot™ and Tormach® are trademarks of Tormach Inc....

forum.linuxcnc.org

PathPilot, 7i92, G540 HAL file

Hi All, I'm attempting to get PathPilot 2.8.3 to interface to a G540 controller via a Mesa 7i92 Ethernet card.I'm selecting the machine as a 1110-3 and can set...

forum.linuxcnc.org

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[gerritv]

To use this on a router or mill, I edit only the config/tormach_mill/tormach_mill_base.ini file, setting the min/max spindle speed, and the dimensions of the axes.
Keep a copy of this file somewhere as you will need to redo the changes when you do an update. Previous versions stay on the hard drive so nothing is really lost. I used 1100-3 as my starting point, changed spindle to min/max 7000/24000 rpm.
You will need a WiFi dongle, do not be tempted to add a second ethernet card. Tormach recently did an update to support more wifi dongles. As with most Linux installs, there are devices that do not have good support,
Everything layed on top of LinuxCNC is (mostly) in python.
Everyone of their machines is supportable in the one install, even the robot.
Your best bet of success is to use a 7i92 or 5i25, with the ethernet 7i92 winning IMO.

Do take the time to read their manual, it is rather good.
http://xoomspeed.com/CNC/CncProducts.htm provides (free) an excellent post processor for Fusion360/Inventor.
Tim Paterson (https://github.com/timpaterson) has 2 excellent tools on GitHub, one to sync tool libraries between Fusion/Inventor, Tormach and GWizard. His other contribution is a way to overcome Fusion rapid move limiations on the hobby version.

It is not difficult to add the velocity/spindle/feed override pots to an implementation, it uses the same base code as Tormach with a Teensy over USB.
Adding USB driven relays and inputs is also easy. (no idea about modbus though, have not looked at that)

HALSHOW needs a small file added to the install, then it works fine.
4th axis is eaasy to enable, as is probing and tool height setting.

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/tormach-pathpilot-/ is a forum section focused a bit more on using PP, LinuxCNC forum often is more about how to add more linuxcnc stuff back in.
And yes, pre-conversion to PathPilot I tried and tried to get linuxcnc up and running. I have >10 years with Unix and Linux so not exactly a neophyte. But the endless conflicting instructions and incompatible prerequisites wore me out. I went through more of this adding OneDrive to PathPilot install, but persevered because I really really wanted that to work (I refuse to use DropBox, and I have 1TB of OneDrive space) (https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/INSTALL.md )