Mesa 7i92 Installation, considering old ATX psu for I/O voltage source...

Here is the process I used to flash a new firmware file on my mesa hardware, and then
generate a valid hal file with pncconf for my machine. This was my first time doing this,
so please forgive the lack of understanding I had in certain areas. I hope this may still
be helpful for someone in the future.


Mesaflash firmware file (from mesanet):

7i92t_7i85sx2d.bin
    (note the ".bin" file type as opposed to ".bit", the bin file was valid for my card)


Commands used to write this firmware to the 7i92t:
    
mesaflash --device 7i92t --addr 10.10.10.10 --write 7i92t_7i85sx2d.bin
mesaflash --device 7i92t --addr 10.10.10.10 --reload
    (note that the "--addr 10.10.10.10 is valid with jumpers W5-DOWN,W6-UP)
    ("--reload" is used to reload the fpga after the write operation)


Command to generate a pin file with the 7i85s daughtercard on P2:

mesaflash --device 7i92t --addr 10.10.10.10 --dbname1 7i85s --readhmid
    (The output from this can be copied to pncconf's help input tab)


With those commands executed and the readhmid output entered into pncconf's help tab,
it is possible to generate a valid configuration for linuxcnc from pncconf.

Note the following additional items during setup in pncconf using this type of mesa hardware:

-select the "Show Advanced Option Pages" checkbox
-under the "I/O Control Ports/ Boards" section, the selections are "Mesa0 ..." and "None"
-on the "Configuration" page, select "Discovery Option" for the "Board Name" line
-select "Read hostmot2 PIN file From help's input tab" in the popup window
    (the "Board Name" selection should now display the discovered board's name)
-select "Accept components Changes" when ready to continue
    (coming back to this page and selecting this later could erase other entries...)
-in order to configure a 7i84 connected to a 7i85 thru P2 of the 7i92t:
    -go to the "P2" tab that is now available...
    -select "7i84 Mode..." as the function on the "SSERIAL-P0-TX" pin line
        (you can select the "Mode 1" or "Mode 3" software option here)
        (the "SSERIAL-P0-TX" pin line may differ if you have other hardware
        connections in use during your configuration...)
-the card selection choosen in the previous step should now have a new tab available by "P2"

The rest of the setup in pncconf should proceed in a more normal manner.

The generated hal file I got from this sequence of steps only needed a few encoder lines edited to launch
the Axis program successfully.


The encoder lines in the generated hal file for each machine axis looked like this:

net x-pos-fb <= hm2_7i92.0.encoder.00.position

(I just "#" commented them out because I don't have encoders yet. And Axis then loaded without complaint)



Honestly, considering everything pncconf generated just from this linuxcnc release with only an extra mesaflash
bin file imported for my selected hardware, these results were impressive.


Much thanks to all the persons involved with the development and support of all these utillities for linuxcnc.
I am very grateful for how much this community has accomplished over the years to improve the usability of all
this software.

Thread submitted.
forum.linuxcnc.org/39-pncconf/52554-disc...ted-mesa-fpga#299687