Remora - Rpi Software Stepping Using External Microcontroller via SPI

<s> Thank you for your patience in advance.Ok, trying to load , first with the repo from 2 weeks ago , and now today with the hello world version on skr2. Used the online compiler for both. I renamed it "firmware", to make it firmware.bin, and put it on the root of the sd card. When marlin was loaded on from factory, there was action on the uart. Once I loaded hello world via SD card, Im getting nothing. only led's that are on are red 3v3 power, the green SD card led, and the red SWDIO on PA13 eventually turns on after some time, but dimly. Im not sure where I have went wrong. </s>

<quote> On the STM32F4 side, yes there will be a different module for access the SD card. On the SKRv2 the SD card is on the SDIO interface rather than an SPI interface. There is no out of the box Mbed support for the SDIO interface but I've managed to read in the config.txt this week. It just interfered with the the SPI comms for some reason.. working this one out. One step at a time... </quote>
you posted this while i was typing earlier, that would explain it

ok, theres no saving that last post, editing is making it worse.

Ok, so we cannot load firmware via SD, or is that in regards to the config file?

Hi cakeslob,

Sounds like you are powering the board from USB. With DCIN you'll get the motor power led on and the PB4 (HE1) led flashing. These are powered from the DCIN. The serial is on pins PA9 and PA10 on the TFT connector. This is still hugely a work in progress to get the components of Remora working on the STM32.

BR
Scott

Im powered on dc in with 12v, and the serial is in the same place it was before on the tft spot. before I tried to load hello world, marlin was very chatty on the serial , and now nothing so I am wondering what is wrong, like if I put it into the wrong bootmode while loading from the sd card or something . Im only trying to get hello world working on the skr2 as a baseline first so I can modify it for a different target stm32 chip/board to test out. But compiling and loading it to the sd card doesnt seem like enough

I tested the code one week ago on a F407VET, F407VGT, F407ZGT with SDIO SDcard, flashed with the SKR2 bootloader.
It works very good out of the box, and i can't wait for the final release.
After examining the code it would be easy to port it for F1xx, and maybe F7xx and H7xx (400 Mhz)
i'm not familliar with Mbed, I'm using only STM32CubeIDE, so i can't help that much, but i'm working on my own version with an different linuxcnc driver (not the remora.c, i started from rpspi.c) for now without success (the goal is to increase the step generation)
 

cakeslob wrote:

Im powered on dc in with 12v, and the serial is in the same place it was before on the tft spot. before I tried to load hello world, marlin was very chatty on the serial , and now nothing so I am wondering what is wrong, like if I put it into the wrong bootmode while loading from the sd card or something . Im only trying to get hello world working on the skr2 as a baseline first so I can modify it for a different target stm32 chip/board to test out. But compiling and loading it to the sd card doesnt seem like enough

Hi, I note that you used the online compiler. I fear that you may not be able to setup the online compiler to allow for the bootloader and custom vector table. If Marlin does not flash as per normal then the bootloader may be corrupted / written over by a incorrectly configured bin file. If this is the case then you'll need to get an ST-Link to re-flash the stock bootloader.

I'd recommend to only use Mbed Studio or CLi to ensure that the target specific configuration is used.

gtt38 wrote:

I tested the code one week ago on a F407VET, F407VGT, F407ZGT with SDIO SDcard, flashed with the SKR2 bootloader.
It works very good out of the box, and i can't wait for the final release.
After examining the code it would be easy to port it for F1xx, and maybe F7xx and H7xx (400 Mhz)
i'm not familliar with Mbed, I'm using only STM32CubeIDE, so i can't help that much, but i'm working on my own version with an different linuxcnc driver (not the remora.c, i started from rpspi.c) for now without success (the goal is to increase the step generation)

 

Step generation is all on the MCU side, LinuxCNC only needs the Servo thread running.

scotta wrote:

 
 
Step generation is all on the MCU side, LinuxCNC only needs the Servo thread running.

 

I already know that,for me a FPGA is the best solution for that reason but the pins are fragile from my experience. I had to use some additionnal component (bus switches) to protect the FPGA. I had very good result on a XC7A35T with XADC support, but the pb is the cost. The STM32H743VIT @480Mhz could be the perfect solution.

Any FPGA or ARM SOC requires protection from ESD/EMI, noise and spikes on its IO's when used in an industrial environment.

STM32H743VIT data sheet
www.st.com/resource/en/datasheet/stm32h743vi.pdf

Budgetary pricing @10K pcs is ~$7ea USD IF you can actually find them in stock. This price isn't very far off of an older Xilinx FPGA used in the 7i92. A proper IO board will still have the same IO protection and connectors. But maybe you don't want or need all that protection that the 7i92 and similar offers. I'm waiting for the chip prices and availability to settle down before I commit to a board design using the STM32's. They do offer more flexibility and features than the LPC17xx. www.st.com/en/motor-drivers/powerstep01.html is another option using STM.