Adding 7i85 to 5i25/7i76?

I have downloaded the 5i25_7i76_7i85.* files from the Mesa website for reflashing the 5i25, so I can add a 7i85 card to my existing 5i25/7i76 setup.

Do I need to reflash the 7i76 as well as the 5i25? In other words, do I actually need the 7i76 to be connected when using mesaflash or can I work with just the 5i25 itself?

The 7i85 has no FPGA so there is nothing to set up. So in the same vein, does the 7i85 need to be connected when using mesaflash?

Muzzer wrote:

I have downloaded the 5i25_7i76_7i85.* files from the Mesa website for reflashing the 5i25, so I can add a 7i85 card to my existing 5i25/7i76 setup.

Do I need to reflash the 7i76 as well as the 5i25? In other words, do I actually need the 7i76 to be connected when using mesaflash or can I work with just the 5i25 itself?

The 7i85 has no FPGA so there is nothing to set up. So in the same vein, does the 7i85 need to be connected when using mesaflash?

You only flash the 5i25

I thought I'd managed to flash the 5i25 / 7i76 / 7i85 bitfile. This is what I got when I ran mesaflash:

muzzer@LinuxCNC:/lib/firmware/hm2/5i25/configs/hostmot2$ sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --write 5i25_7i76_7i85.bit
Checking file... OK
File type: BIT file
Boot sector OK
EEPROM sectors to write: 6, max sectors in area: 16
Erasing EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|EEEEEE
Programming EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Board configuration updated successfully.
Checking file... OK
File type: BIT file
Boot sector OK
Verifying EEPROM sectors starting from 0x100000...
|VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Board configuration verified successfully.

You must power cycle the hardware or use the --reload command to load a new firmware.

But I don't seem to have the right setup. I seem to have 2 ports but nothing on them:

Configuration pin-out:

IO Connections for P3
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir

1 0 IOPort StepGen 0 Dir/Table2 (Out)
14 1 IOPort StepGen 0 Step/Table1 (Out)
2 2 IOPort StepGen 1 Dir/Table2 (Out)
15 3 IOPort StepGen 1 Step/Table1 (Out)
3 4 IOPort StepGen 2 Dir/Table2 (Out)
16 5 IOPort StepGen 2 Step/Table1 (Out)
4 6 IOPort StepGen 3 Dir/Table2 (Out)
17 7 IOPort StepGen 3 Step/Table1 (Out)
5 8 IOPort StepGen 4 Dir/Table2 (Out)
6 9 IOPort StepGen 4 Step/Table1 (Out)
7 10 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData0 (Out)
8 11 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData0 (In)
9 12 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData1 (Out)
10 13 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData1 (In)
11 14 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-IDX (In)
12 15 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-B (In)
13 16 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-A (In)

IO Connections for P2
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir

1 17 IOPort StepGen 5 Dir/Table2 (Out)
14 18 IOPort StepGen 5 Step/Table1 (Out)
2 19 IOPort StepGen 6 Dir/Table2 (Out)
15 20 IOPort StepGen 6 Step/Table1 (Out)
3 21 IOPort StepGen 7 Dir/Table2 (Out)
16 22 IOPort StepGen 7 Step/Table1 (Out)
4 23 IOPort StepGen 8 Dir/Table2 (Out)
17 24 IOPort StepGen 8 Step/Table1 (Out)
5 25 IOPort StepGen 9 Dir/Table2 (Out)
6 26 IOPort StepGen 9 Step/Table1 (Out)
7 27 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData2 (Out)
8 28 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData2 (In)
9 29 IOPort SSerial 0 TXData3 (Out)
10 30 IOPort SSerial 0 RXData3 (In)
11 31 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-IDX (In)
12 32 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-B (In)
13 33 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-A (In)

The 7i76 is plugged in and powered up (I recycled the power twice) although I have no 7i85 at this stage.

When I go in to PNCConf, I can see the 5i25_7i76_7i85 option under "5i25/configs/hostmot2" but despite selecting that, I seem to be seeing just the base 5i25 options.



Can somebody tell me what the issue is please?


#### EDIT ####
From PNCConf, there seems to be a 7i76 detected to some degree::

PCI device 5I25 at 0000:02:00.0
SSLBP port 0:
SSLBP Version: 1.43
SSLBP Channels: 4
SSLBP Baud Rate: 2500000
sserial device at channel 0: 7I76 GPIO+SPINDLE (unit 0x10000177)
SwRevision = 14
HwRevision = 1
NVBaudRate = 2.5Mb
NVUnitNumber = 0x10000177
NVWatchDogTimeout = 50ms
SOFTWARE MODE IO_Spin [index 00]
SOFTWARE MODE IO_Ana_Spin [index 01]
SOFTWARE MODE IO_Enc_Ana_Spin_FV [index 02]
Configuration Name: HOSTMOT2

Did you power cycle the PC or run the --reload command?
If not, you will still have the default 7I76Xx2 firmware loaded


Pncconf does not have any 7i85 support but depending on what you are doing
it should be pretty easy to add to the hal/ini files pncconf creates for a plain 7I76 configuration

Ah, you see I pulled the cable from the 5i25 to the 7i76. That doesn't normally cause a power cycle on the 5i25 last time we looked. Doh - it's been a long day here in the UK!

I tried the "reload" but got "ERROR: Active firmware too old to support --reload". I guess this won't work until I've cycled the power...

Sure enough, that worked. I can now see the 7i76 in PNCConf - but only by using discovery mode. Is this expected? I was expecting to see it in the pull downs within PNCConf.

Equally can I expect the 7i85 to appear when that is plugged in and I use discover mode?

Yes I should have known better. On this occasion I seem to have got away with it as far as I can tell.

The 7I85 will not show up as it is a passive device
what will show up are additional encoder pins/parameters
if you enable more encoders
(plus more sserial devices if you have them installed on the 7I85)