If what you get is not what you expect many times you just got some experience. Learning from the experience increases your understanding of the whole. Diagnosing problems is best done by divide and conquer. By this I mean if you can remove 1/2 of the variables from the equation each time you will find the problem the fastest. In the real world this is not always the case but a good place to start usually.
The most common reason in a new installation for the stepper not to move is the step and direction signals are backwards. If you press the jog foward and backward key and the stepper moves one step each time in the same direction there is your sign.
Many drives have an enable pin or need a charge pump to enable the output.
If you command the axis to move a specific distance and it does not move that distance then your scale is wrong.
The concept of a following error is funny when talking about stepper motors. Since they are an open loop system, there is no position feedback to let you know if you actually are out of range. EMC calculates if it can keep up with the motion called for and if not then it gives a following error. Following errors usually are the result of one of the following on stepper systems.
Any of the above can cause the RT pulsing to not be able to keep up the requested step rate. This can happen if you didn't run the latency test long enough to get a good number to plug into the Stepconf Wizard or if you set the Maximum Velocity or Maximum Acceleration too high.
If you added backlash you need to increase the STEPGEN_MAXACCEL up to double the MAX_ACCELERATION in the AXIS section of the INI file for each axis you added backlash to. EMC uses "extra acceleration" at a reversal to take up the backlash. Without backlash correction step generator acceleration can be just a few percent above the motion planner acceleration.
When you get this error:
RTAPI: ERROR: Unexpected realtime delay on task n
This error is generated by rtapi based on an indication from rtai that a deadline was missed. It is usually an indication that the BASE_PERIOD in the [EMCMOT] section of the ini file is set too low. You should run the Latency Test for an extended period of time to see if you have any delays that would cause this problem. If you used the Stepconf Wizard run it again and test the Base Period Jitter again and adjust the Base Period Maximum Jitter on the Basic Machine Information page. You might have to leave the test running for an extended period of time to find out if some hardware causes intermittent problems.
EMC2 tracks the number of CPU cycles between invocations of the real-time thread. If some element of your hardware is causing delays or your realtime threads are set too fast you will get this error.
NOTE: This error is only displayed once per session. If you had your BASE_PERIOD too low you could get hundreds of thousands of error messages per second if more than one was displayed.
If you are seeing an axis ending up in the wrong location over multiple moves, it is likely that you do not have the correct direction hold times or step timing for your stepper drivers. Each direction change may be losing a step or more. If the motors are stalling, it is also possible you have either the MAX_ACCELERATION or MAX_VELOCITY set too high for that axis.
The following program will test the Z axis configuration for proper setup. Copy the program to your emc2/nc_files directory and name it TestZ.ngc or similar. Zero your machine with Z = 0.000 at the table top. Load and run the program. It will make 200 moves back and forth from 0.5 to 1". If you have a configuration issue, you will find that the final position will not end up 0.500" that the axis window is showing. To test another axis just replace the Z with your axis in the G0 lines.
( test program to see if Z axis loses position )
( msg, test 1 of Z axis configuration )
G20 #1000=100 ( loop 100 times )
( this loop has delays after moves )
( tests acc and velocity settings )
o100 while [#1000]
G0 Z1.000
G4 P0.250
G0 Z0.500
G4 P0.250
#1000 = [#1000 - 1]
o100 endwhile
( msg, test 2 of Z axis configuration S to continue)
M1 (stop here)
#1000=100 ( loop 100 times )
( the next loop has no delays after moves )
( tests direction hold times on driver config and also max accel setting )
o101 while [#1000]
G0 Z1.000
G0 Z0.500
#1000 = [#1000 - 1]
o101 endwhile
( msg, Done...Z should be exactly .5" above table )
M2