Smart serial with Mesa 6i24 + 7i47 + 7i73

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31 Oct 2016 20:58 #82284 by Raimundus
Hello Linuxcnc forum,

I am trying to set up a smart serial connection between a Mesa 6i24 board (which runs in 5i24 compatibility mode) and a 7i73. In between these, I use a 7i47 interface board. My problem is that the smart serial device is not detected by linuxcnc.

When loading the hm2_pci module, the red CR1 LED on the 7i73 is always red (indicating a watchdog error) and the green CR2 led flash on for a short moment but then stays off.

I load the system with:
halcmd loadrt hostmot2  debug_idrom=1 debug_module_descriptors=1 debug_pin_descriptors=1 debug_modules=1
halcmd loadrt hm2_pci config="firmware=hm2/5i24/5i24_16_svss8_8.bit"

Attached is the output log. The important lines are
hm2/hm2_5i24.0: SSerial: 0
hm2/hm2_5i24.0:   version 43
indicating that no smart serial device was found.

Do you have any ideas what the problem could be?


Below is a detailed guide of our setup:

This is how I installed the system:
Step 1: Hardware



Step 2: Firmware flashing
It seems that the 6i24 requires a mesaflash. We flashed it with
sudo mesaflash --device 5I24 --write 5i24_16_svss8_44.bit
sudo mesaflash --device 5I24 --reload

Step 3: Load the software:
halcmd loadrt hostmot2 
halcmd loadrt hm2_pci config="firmware=hm2/5i24/5i24_16_svss8_8.bit"

Attached is the log
Attachments:

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31 Oct 2016 23:14 #82294 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic Smart serial with Mesa 6i24 + 7i47 + 7i73
You don't need the "firmware=" part of the loadrt hm2_pci line for cards like the 6i24 where the firmware is flashed in. However that isn't the problem as the firmware= will just be ignored.

I think that the problem is that your bitfile is intended for the 7i44. It has a full 50-pin connector of smart-serial.

I think you need a firmware such as 5i24_25_sv4_7i47s.bit which mixes encoders, pwm and smart-serial on the same connector to suit the 7i47.

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01 Nov 2016 16:03 #82311 by Raimundus
Replied by Raimundus on topic Smart serial with Mesa 6i24 + 7i47 + 7i73
Hi Andy . Thank you so much for your insight. This is very helpful indeed.

Before I try the new bit file I have 2 further questions: how do you know that the bit file that I'm using is intended for the 7i44? Is this documented somewhere?

Furthermore isn't the 5i24_25_sv4_7i47s.bit file for 25bit version of the 5i24, and since I have the 16bit I should probably use the 5i24_16_sv4_7i47s.bit right?

Sorry if these are very basic questions, this is all new to me.

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01 Nov 2016 16:21 #82312 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic Smart serial with Mesa 6i24 + 7i47 + 7i73

how do you know that the bit file that I'm using is intended for the 7i44? Is this documented somewhere?

Only indirectly. I was comparing the pin layout in the bitfile source vhdl files to the pin layouts of the various daughter-boards.
I know that the 7i44 is one complete 50-pin header for 8 channels of smart-serial.

Furthermore isn't the 5i24_25_sv4_7i47s.bit file for 25bit version of the 5i24, and since I have the 16bit I should probably use the 5i24_16_sv4_7i47s.bit right?


Yes, that is correct, Use that one.

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