Sieg KX3 and 5i25. Seeking firmware.

John ,
my apologies i have somehow missed your posts above, do you still need a bit file making ?
any help you need ?

Hi Sarah
No need for any apology. It's been an interesting week...

I downloaded the Xilinx Design Suite and followed TomL's guide here . There followed much frustration and lots of googling, but eventually I made a cleaner version of the vhd file than the previous attempt. The final result is a bitfile, but there were ~150 'warnings' along the way. Never having had anything to do with Xilinx, FPGAs etc I've no idea if the bit file is any good and these warnings are 'normal', or if it will sneakily brick any 5i25 it meets.

I could do wth a bit of guidance, though. Would it be possible to check out this bitfile that I made? I need to know if it's going to work when my 5i25 arrives; I don't want to end up with a bricked board. If you could do a bitfile and check mine against it, then that would be really helpful. Also, for some light relief I made an xml file to go with it. This last needs a slight tweak more accurately to reflect the other 2.

















Regards,

John

Theres a trick for testing a possibly bad bitfile on a 5i25/6i25 with little risk.
What you do is write the bitfile into the fallback area of the Flash EEPROM and then
load the FPGA from that image:

sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --write iffybits.bit --fallback
( write test file to fallback area )

sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --reload --fallback
( load FPGA from fallback area )

then launch linuxcnc or do a:

sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --readhmid
to see if things look right

Do not power cycle your computer or the user config will be loaded


Now if this does something bad like crash your computer, a power cycle will fix things

If this does work you can replace the fallback with the proper fallback config and write your new bitfile to the user area

John ,
i'll take a look at it later today

Hi
I was wondering if this ever got working? I'm looking to connect my PP to a c11g board, but on a lathe but was looking for a starting point at least
Thanks
M

run stepconfig , will give you a starting config the c11g is very simple
shout if you become stuck , or if thers anything specific needed

I thought I needed to flash the MESA 5I25 with a bitfile first before I got into the rest???
M

Hi Mooser
Sad to say I didn't, and I'm still running a parallel port system.
I think at the time Mesa were swamped with commercial orders and busy with Tormach, so unable to help in the way they normally might. The sticking point for me was making a custom bitfile. I seem to recall spending a lot of time getting the Xilinx suite even to install. Despite following the How-To mentioned elsewhere I was never confident that I was following the process correctly; indeed, I was unsure if any bitfile I produced would even be safe to use (ie would it brick the card?). I was very much lost in a foreign land: you may not be

I think if Mesa are back to their usual form (they have a deserved reputation for being very helpful) and can make you custom bitfile, then all should be well. If, OTOH, you're on your own and unfamiliar with the Xilinx stuff, I would honestly say find another way - perhaps use card for which Mesa has a ready-made bitfile.
I would be interested to know how you fare.

Regards,
John

Actually I haven't mentioned either

I've currently got a manual lathe I converted to screws/steppers/vfd/mach3 a few years ago.
It's all wired with the c11g and gecko (203v I think off the top of my head) and a c6 speed control

I've also got a Tormach 1100 here.
I put pathpilot on the Tormach and liked most of the improvements (still wishing for some features I lost but that's a different story.)

I purchased another Mesa 5i25 and new computer (so the old lathe one still functions as I need it here and there for a few little repeating jobs) with the intent of loading linuxcnc (and eventually PathPilot ?) with minimal cash spenditure (didn't want to invest any more at this time (as in buying the Mesa BOB)

That's were I am now and ran into the first (of many by what I'm reading now) roadblock of needing to flash the Mesa with a bitfile.

From what I've been reading, after that I should be able to stumble through the ini file, probably get lost in the HAL and then maybe get movement and I'll be able to stare blankly at the screen and look into how to deal with the 6-speed gear box.

Looked at Xiline for creating a bitfile and realized it's way over my head.

Anyway, stumbled across this thread and a few others looking at Mesa 5I25 and C11G posted over the past couple of years but it doesn't look like a functioning bitfile is available at this time
M