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

itai wrote:

I am switching LinuxCNC from an old PC to RaspberryPI + Tango compatible board.
I see that riocore has support for HY_VFD and I want to use it. After resolving simple issues I can get a serial signal out of the Tang Nano, but no connectio to the VFD yet. I guess I will need a TTL to RS485 brekout board. Will this one do?

Last time that I made changes to the HY_VFD configuration it cost me a burnt spindle, so now I'm trying to learn more and if possible from other's experience. I will appreciare any help and suggestions.
Thanks!
-- Itai
 

Is your vesion of the Tango board a modified PCB? and is there Kicad or PCB repository.  Just so I can compare the difference with Olivers version.
Many thanks 

no idea if it is up to date:
github.com/itain/Tango-PCB-Kicad

I could not use Eagle so I have remodeled Oliver's OCB in KiCad.
I use different connectors. Noved the 5 outputs to the oppesire sides and have 5V/24V selection on all inputs (also wih option to change resisor values). Also added some capacitors.
If I make a new version I would use 6 pin JST to get 5V from the Raspberry PI. Possibly add MAX485+protection circuit to the board.
If there is demand I can put the Kicad files on github.

meister wrote:

no idea if it is up to date:
github.com/itain/Tango-PCB-Kicad

Thanks! I forgot it was already on Github! This is the latest that was sent to create the PCB. As I wrote, If I make a new version I would make some changes.

forum.linuxcnc.org/18-computer/53900-ide...-for-a-new-rio-board

if you update the git,
you need to install the new rio component once:

sudo halcompile --install riocore/files/rio.c

after that, you do not need to run halcompile after config changes anymore.

Thank you Meister for showing me how to set toolchain in my config file, and accepting my PR. 

I've added a docker setup that hopefully will help run this project without having to install anything more than Docker. It allows you to flash your device from the UI inside the docker container as well. It will output to /workspace/Output which will be mounted into the same directory you ran Make from, so the output will go to the same place as normal. See DOCKER.md in the repo root for more details.

Note that I have only setup the oss-cad-suite toolchain, so if your board defaults to gowin or something, you'll need to add 
"toolchain":"icestorm",
to your config.json before compiling. Assuming your board supports icestorm anyway. I was testing this on a TangNano9k, and was able to flash with it plugged into the host.

Hope this helps! Unfortunately I don't know enough python to add a toolchain selector in the time I have available, any volunteers?

itai I'd love to see your board, could you put it on github? I'm about to order boards for myself, I have a feeling I'll like yours better than mine.

Thanks for your docker code !

>> Hope this helps! Unfortunately I don't know enough python to add a toolchain >>selector in the time I have available, any volunteers?
is allready there (dev-banch)
i also add an docker-container with the gowin toolchain.

>> itai I'd love to see your board, could you put it on github? I'm about to order
>> boards for myself, I have a feeling I'll like yours better than mine.
which board exactly do you mean ? and which one do you have ?

I'm drawing one based off of github.com/itain/Tango-PCB-Kicad to use with some components I have on hand but that repo seems out of date from the tangoboard pictured above. I'm also trying to get it under 100x100mm so a 4 layer board is $7 for 5 of them. I saw some pretty nice ones you have that look like they might plug into a pi?