FPGA (field programmable gate array) programmed for linuxcnc motion

Hi there,

I was wondering someone ever used a FPGA chip and programmed this chip for ultra fast motion and i/O for Linuxcnc?
I have seen some youtube video's about FPGA's, but it looks like an FPGA can be implemented in a Mesa product or
stand alone motion controller with much i/o etc. It looks like you can do anything with a FPGA.... even make your own CPU.



I am amazed of the FPGA possibilities. It looks like one FPGA chip beats a GPU in bitcoin hashes multiple times. So i am
thinking to order a FPGA test board and do some research about this.

Mesa boards and Pico systems board used in linuxcnc, use FPGAs.

Mesa offers a hardware based open-source motion controller.

It's not linuxcnc's mandate to offer the most efficient controller within current technology. Linuxcnc's building-block system, a relatively low bar for modification, use of consumer grade processors, and not hard-locking capabilities to hardware are more important.

At one time someone in Machinekit was talking about a HAL-style system for programming FPGA boards - which after some thought does seem like a great idea to lower the bar for custom FPGA use. I'm not sure if they ever did it.

Chris M

Grotius wrote: I am amazed of the FPGA possibilities. It looks like one FPGA chip beats a GPU in bitcoin hashes multiple times. So i am
thinking to order a FPGA test board and do some research about this.

Why not buy a Mesa card and hack with that? Then when you have finished experimenting you still have a Mesa card.

The old DE0-soc-nano board can and is being used with MK(I'm helping some get one going) one incarnation has it working as a 5i25.....I believe the DE0 has been replaced by the DE10

If you look at the pricing of a test board, it is 50 dollar. Then you have 80 pin's for a free programmable fpga.

At one time someone in Machinekit was talking about a HAL-style system for programming FPGA boards

Hi Chris, I think if someone makes a good tutorial and example code / program for linuxcnc for a cheap test board it will be easy
for users to change the code to their needs. Brenda is talking about poorly linux documatation, but that succes depends on the person who is writing the document.
I did here a tutorial for a modbus example device in python : modbus analog and digital i-o device

Hi Andy,

Why not buy a Mesa card and hack with that? Then when you have finished experimenting you still have a Mesa card.

I would like to start from nothing. If i start with Mesa i push myself in a certain direction i maybe not want to. Mesa flashing on youtube i have seen by the german man.

If i search for the fpga chips and choose a very good one, also very good for crypto mining, then i start with this fpga chip.
In a bakery oven i can make the chip to the break out board, if the marked has this product not available.

Hi Ozzy,

I'm helping some get one going

That sounds good. The problem for Mesa is that if cheaper fpga board's are available with examples, Mesa can be improve their
product's with free programmable kits with more hal i/o command's etc.. Just like Chris talked about.
But if you think about possibilities, mesa can make a kit, that could be free programmable for anything.

Intel always looks nice on your board :woohoo: :



Same chip in other environment :

At some point you should ask yourself am I an electronics engineer or am I a CNC machine manufacturer?
I can see a hardware might be useful for dedicated control of an oven. But if you are using LinuxCNC for motion control, why not use proven systems that already exist? I'm sure there is scope to negotiate volume pricing. The Mesa 7i76e is perfect for controlling a plasma cutter and it should be possible to use its existing UART to communicate via MODBUS with a plasma machine. It even has some A/D inputs that could be used for temperature monitoring. This approach would substantially reduce your time to market.

If you review the Mesa lineup, I'm pretty sure they have dedicated motion control systems outside of LinuxCNC. But I doubt they are suited to realtime CNC control in a gcode environment.