RT-8p8c - An ethernet based interface for LinuxCNC

Hi gents.

Is the Mesa 7i80 fully supported by LinuxCNC configuration ?


bigalex

Working on it... Probably a couple of weeks still.
Like all Mesa LinuxCNC hardware, it will be a HostMot2 device.
7I80 Ethernet firmware is working. Needed are HostMot2 driver
changes to support remote register access protocol
and Ethernet driver integration.

Thank you PCW.

So if I'm not wrong 7i80 can be an alternative solution at the 5i25 card isn't it ?

bigalex

Yes its like 2x 5I25s

Amazing !!!

I was waiting for this kind of solution .
Also because it is a market trend to use ethernet connection to "remote" the hardware components of a CNC outside the PC mother board.
Do you know if it is possible to have on the same ethernet port the protocol/driver for an 7i80 and Modbus TCP/IP at the same time ?

bigalex

Well maybe....

The real time packets would have to wait occasionally for a time determined by the longest Modbus TCP/IP packets.

This might be acceptable if the Motherboard has a GigE port and the Modbus TCP/IP and
RT links do not share a 100BT " bottleneck"

But in general its probably best to dedicate a NIC to the RT link

Thank you so much PCW.
I hope the firmware for the HostMot2 inside LinuxCNC will be available soon.

bigalex

In fact RTnet implements measures to prevent "interferences" like realtime packets unpredictably waiting for non-realtime TCP traffic packets to go through.
Sure it would make no magic but RTnet should ensure that realtime packets get predictable access to the network when using it's media-access discipline.

I'm not sure of the benefits of this feature on a CNC machine, but it is there...

Regards,
Fernando

Yes, but that requires RTnet devices at all endpoints so it can tunnel TCPIP or other traffic through a TDM slice, if you have any regular random TCPIP traffic (like the Modbus TCPIP mentioned above) you will have to wait as it does not follow the TDM line access discipline

Hello Guys,

Just an update, I have now connected it to my MF70 mill and the control of X, Y and Z axes seems to be working.

Full tests will take some time since my mill conversion is not yet finished.

There is still one issue that I'm still trying to solve, the code/module misses at least one reply packet within a 24 hr period.

Also, module_helper needs to be modified to handle loading of rtnet modules so that a normal user can run the linuxcnc command. Currently I'm using sudo to bypass this issue.

Regards,

GPO