Creating a new vfd driver...

Hi Maurits!

This is the overall process for contributing to LinuxCNC: linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/code/contributing-to-linuxcnc.html

That probably looks familiar if you've worked on open-source software before, but if you're new to this world it should give you a starting place.

Before you start adding your driver, the first step is to check out the existing LinuxCNC source code and build it using the instructions here: linuxcnc.org/docs/devel/html/code/building-linuxcnc.html

(That will give you the "master" branch, which is where new development generally takes place. If all you're doing is adding a new driver and you're not changing any existing code, then you should probably do your work on the "2.7" branch instead.)

Once you can build the existing source code the next step is to add your new driver.

I don't know how different the VFD-E is from the VFD-B; if they're very similar you should consider adding support for VFD-E to the existing VFD-B driver, if they're significantly different you should consider adding a new driver specifically for the VFD-E (possibly using the VFD-B driver as a starting point).

I'm assuming you have a programmer's manual for the VFD-E available that documents the modbus registers. Comparing that to the existing VFD-B driver should give you an idea of how different they are.

I hope this helps get you started. Feel free to ask follow-on questions and we'll try to help as best we can.

That information from the wiki is out of date and no longer reliable. The wiki is unfortunately not maintained, official documentation.

If you've read the official documentation that I linked for you above, and you've decided to take the "add a new driver" option rather than the "extend the existing VFD-B driver to handle the VFD-E too", then here's what you should do:

In the directory where you checked out the linuxcnc git repo, look in src/hal/user_comps and you'll find a directory named vfdb_vfd, containing the VFD-B driver and its Submakefile. Make a copy of that directory (perhaps named vfde_vfd). Next look in src/Makefile and find where it enters looks in the vfdb_vfd directory, and add your new vfde_vfd directory next to it. Finally make the updates needed in the new vfde_vfd source code to switch it from talking to the VFD-B to talking to the VFD-E.

From the src directory, run "make ../bin/vfde_vfd".