Data transfer LinuxCNC to / from custom board - Solved

This might be interesting, no src code but hex files to program 32 bit MicroChip MCU.

github.com/talla83/tshw

Well thanks to spumco for providing this link...
spumco post=294853 userid=28776

github.com/AlexmagToast/LinuxCNC_ArduinoConnector

I now have a little nano board communicating with HAL both inputs and outputs. So I just need to port the communication code from the nano test board into my ARM project and rejig the messages a bit and with a touch of luck I should have bidirectional data flow from HAL to my board. Hopefully the .py script is easy on the Linux overhead.

slowpoke wrote:

Andy,
1) I guess that you connect the 7i73 RS-422 interface to a serial port of the Linux PC,

No, it plugs into the smart-serial expansion port on the 7i95 that you mentioned.

and then enable some sort of 7i73 driver in LinuxCNC that magically establishes the communication link between the two?

"SmartSerial" is pretty smart. If you plug boards in, then they communicate their capabilities and pin names to the main Mesa card and it all just works automatically to create HAL pins that you can then use in your config.

I knew there was another HAL component that might be relevant, I don't know how I missed it:

linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/man/man1/sendkeys.1.html

slowpoke wrote:

Well thanks to spumco for providing this link...
spumco post=294853 userid=28776

github.com/AlexmagToast/LinuxCNC_ArduinoConnector

I now have a little nano board communicating with HAL both inputs and outputs. So I just need to port the communication code from the nano test board into my ARM project and rejig the messages a bit and with a touch of luck I should have bidirectional data flow from HAL to my board. Hopefully the .py script is easy on the Linux overhead.
 

ArduinoConnector has major issues that the author does not seem to want to fix as they've been working on a V2 branch. The last commit was my friend fixing a bug I found before I dropped it. I wasted alot of time with ArduinoConnector, I made 2 custom PCBs around it just to realize it had so much lag it was unuseable (see my git issue).

Maybe version 2 will be better, but the main branch can't handle an MPG. You will wait literally 10 seconds for it to count the pulses and relay them back to LinuxCNC. All the lag comes from the Python side, the MCU side is fine. It's a great idea, with some great features. Unfortunately it's currently unusable unless you just want to push a couple of buttons.

andypugh wrote:

I knew there was another HAL component that might be relevant, I don't know how I missed it:

linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/man/man1/sendkeys.1.html
 

 

Andy,

I need some clarity on a few points for sendkeys.

At this point I have an Arduino board that can trigger events in halshow, So when I activate an Arduino connected push button, the jog-x-pos and the halui.axis.x.plus changes from yellow to red. I expect the actual X-axis to jog when I press that button, however other than the yellow to red indication nothing happens. (the system is NOT in Estop, and the machine is enabled on the manual control tab. If I mouse click on the "+" button, the x axis does jog.

Do I need to enable/invoke SENDKEYS, to actually get the yellow to red indication of jog-x-pos to do something?

Assuming that I do need to enable SENDKEYS, I need a little help with a few points in the SENDKEYS documentation.
 Instructions say "Create a new entry in .B/etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules"

I'm not sure where ".B" is?

I did find       /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules
So neglecting the missing ".B"  I assumed this is the file I'm supposed to update?
However when I add "sudo echo KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="uinput", MODE:="0660" | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-cd.rules" to that file I get the attached error message. So lots of possible mistakes here: wrong location, wrong file, adding the uinput group did not work even though it seemed to (see last attachment) the discrepancy between 99-input.rules ,77-persistant-cd.rules , 88-input.rules?

Please advise.