LinuxCNC-RIO - RealtimeIO for LinuxCNC based on FPGA (ICE40 / ECP5)

now for you (MecanixDev board is addet to the dev branch):

generating from terminal:
PYTHONPATH=. bin/rio-generator riocore/configs/MecanixDev/config-test.json

gui-setup:
PYTHONPATH=. bin/rio-setup riocore/configs/MecanixDev/config-test.json

I'm not quite sure that everything works in the IDE, I haven't tested that for a long time.
but you can set the path there in the console like this:

then you can build the bitfile with:

EDIT: the config i build is only for testing, serial port will not work for LinuxCNC,
if you want to run LinuxCNC you need SPI (raspberry) or UDP (W5500 / UDP2SPI-Bridge)

meister wrote:

[code][code]EDIT: the config i build is only for testing, serial port will not work for LinuxCNC,
if you want to run LinuxCNC you need SPI (raspberry) or UDP (W5500 / UDP2SPI-Bridge)

[/code][/code]

Everything set-up & synthetizing-wise is working flawlessly. Said it before and I'll say it again; pretty EPIC work you've done for us   

I took onto your advice and stopped by my local gizmo shop to pick a W5500 Lite. Inserting a visual of my benchtop hardware set-up for inspiration and good luck! 

Note: Prolly not going to work, or be super-reliable with those inductive antena jumper leads lol. Good enough for testing anyway. If this all works out I'll amend the dev board and swing on a wiznet w5500 part with the magnetics, route cross-talk outta of it, add the highspeed opto and level shifters for ins & outs. Guessing the SPI is plenty sufficient for comm and so no need for the realteck gigabit, methink.

I'll keep you updated. Thanks again, meister.

thank you, you make me embarrassed

i am not yet satisfied with the W5500, better not to plan for it, there are packet losses and i have no idea why, it can't be because of the cables as i have test setups without them.

At the moment a UDP2SPI bridge (esp32) is still the best solution.

In principle, you could also programme the FPGA via an esp32 (JTAG or SPI flash), but you would have to adapt the firmware first.

I also have a working RMII interface, but so far I have only been able to get it to run on a TangPrimer20K (with gowin toolchain) and even there I still have a few problems.

meister wrote:

i am not yet satisfied with the W5500, better not to plan for it, there are packet losses and i have no idea why, it can't be because of the cables as i have test setups without them.

I also have a working RMII interface, but so far I have only been able to get it to run on a TangPrimer20K (with gowin toolchain) and even there I still have a few problems.

Are you sure about that w5500 pkts losses issue? Perhaps my silly jumper leads are less inductive/destructive than anticipated, I don't know. To me the losses are within 'functional specs' when a brutal ping beat-up is applied (see visual). Not 0% perfect ofc, but then no interfaces are perfect under that stress, to my limited knowledge mind you. 

The RMII reference design is an excellent one indeed. Not easy to implement though, you have my respect. 


 

Comparison added for the sake of having something to compare too. Nothing scientific ofc, however goes to show. Here's me brutalizing the gateway the same way, yet here we are talking, lket alone streaming 4k vids, dwloading gigabytes of data from int'l servers. 

I'm not an network expert but, this W5500-over-RIO seems to be bullet proof!! Fairly impressed already. 

the rmii code is not mine, unfortunately my knowledge of verilog is not sufficient for that, i have only adapted it to rio

github.com/sipeed/TangPrimer-20K-example...Ethernet/verilog_UDP

you can run the rio-test tool to see the timeouts:
all in all, it works quite well with the w5500, but with the esp32 I get no timeouts at all

EDIT: the ping is completely handled inside the W5500, so it's not a good test

hmm, ok fair enough. I'm no expert and so glad you are. I'm quite grateful I can actually get step pulses out to the oscope and comm with Lcnc already. Pretty cool. Guess fine-tuning this comm reliably will require some significant effort (knowledge?). I'll have a look at the RMII and Esp32 solutions when time allows, and see what comes out. Expect stupid/clueless questions coming your way soon enough though!!

@meister

Late on and I got it to work. However and as you've pointed out, the comm needs fine tuning! Can I bother you once more and ask for a detailed hardware desc for the ESP32 you've mentioned? Is there a UDP module in particular you'd like us to use and dev around? I'm also happy to get a RMII breakerboard as a second option. Both would be ideal though. All-in-all it's working well. Congrats!!

Visual of the w5500 output: