ColorCNC Colorlight 5A-75E/5A-75B as FPGA controller board

Read the whole, if you haven't, have a look through the github repository. Be prepared to get your soldering iron out. I guess you didn't come across the DIY 7c81 clones or other FPAG dev boards running Mesa firmware.

Linuxcnc wont work in a VM, you have to install on some actual hardware.

In all honesty think how you want to use your lathe, if you haven't had a lot of exposure of using a lathe I'd spend some time (12 months) learning how to use a lathe.

If you are a machinist, you know what you're doing.

Before that I had already assembled CNC machines and 3D printers. But it was much easier with them. There was a board already prepared for a milling machine or 3D printer. I edited the Marlin firmware file and uploaded it. That is, I had work with CNC. I have never dealt with FPGAs. Installing LinuxCNC on real hardware is not a problem. Buying a ColorLight board is also not a problem. I have been working with a soldering iron all my life))) But I have never worked with Linux))) That's why it's a dark forest for me. I read on GitHub how to flash a board and make inputs/outputs by cutting tracks and a resistor, I don't remember exactly))) First, as I understand it, you need real hardware, the ColorLight board itself - flashed. And then its configuration. But I didn't find any information about setting up the board.

“Working with cnc” is a whole lot different than knowing how to operate a particular machine, say a mill or a lathe.

I think there won't be any problems with this. The main thing is to understand what needs to be done with the control board, in particular with colorlight. As I understand it, the author of the topic dropped the firmware files from this board and not only the author. i.e. all the files for changing and assigning ports are there. In fact, you just need to upload the files changed to your parameters to the board. Is that correct?

Are you going with ColorCNC by romanetz or LiteX-CNC.

Either way the basic thing is, your create a config for the firmware using a json file, follow the instructions to build the firmware, upoad the bit file to the Colorlight board, then create a Linuxcnc config & ini files.

Litex-CNC (it's been awhile since I decided not to use this as I felt it was easier to go another route.)
So, no one does not upload a config to the board, a new bit file has to be built.

The way I tackle a new project.
Read the whole thread, take notes, follow the link on the github page to the docs, read the docs, have a browse around the github page. Take a bit of time to get the feel.
Setup a build environment, and attempt to build a config. Then I'd modify one of the supplied configs to get a hang of it.
Eventually I'll upload a bit file to the board, probably from one of the supplied json files. Reread the read or refer to any note regarding creating a hal file.
May take a couple of nights or weeks depending on a lot of things. You may find you'll have to read & reread & reread some more. I'm sure there's some examples scattered about in the thread.
Research is the key point. All the info is there.
If you don't fully understand how it works, you may have to find someone to do the hard work for you. Or have a look of one of the more active projects, maybe Linuxcnc-RIO, which uses a larger range of FPGA boards (even the mesa clone I designed works with Linuxcnc-RIO) and doesn't rely on the ever changing availability or certain Colorlight boards being available and actually being shipped to you.

Thank you very much for taking my time. I think I should be able to handle this task. Yes, I will start by studying this thread. I will study, try, and study again. Maybe I will share my results based on my successes and failures. Thanks again!!!

Give it a go. Take it slow and don't skip any steps. Good Luck.

I apologize in advance, English is not my native language and I use an online translator.

I want to share my work with Colorlight 5A-75E board and Litex-CNC firmware
Many thanks to the great specialist @Peter-van-Tol !!!

I used the 5A-75E board. It requires a gigabit connection, there will be no connection on a 100MB network card! I bought an additional PCI network card, and disabled the built-in one in the Bios.
The developer is currently expanding the range of supported boards.
Removed the U19, 20, 21, 22, 38, 39 chips that had an output on Pin 8-15 of the J9-16 connectors. Initially, I powered the input chips from the J33 contact. But when the connection was broken during the firmware, apparently the FPGA inputs began to work as an output and shorted out with the buffer chips. The FPGA burned out.
A 3.3V additional power supply board was made. It is connected to any J9-16 connector and supplies power to Pin 13,15 and to the buffer chips. The input optocoupler is connected to Pin 13,15.
The electronic part of the machine is powered by two 5VDC power supplies: a 5A-75E board and 24VDC (reduced to 20V) sensors and encoders.
 
 

Bord 3.3v


Stepper motor output board


Relay and other consumer output board up to 150mA and 30v.


PNP sensor input board 24VDC (I had these)


NPN encoder input board 24VDC

Circuit board diagrams