Building a chain driven Plasma table.

The hm2_eth manual page has this information

man hm2_eth

Notes:

1. ethtool must be present (looks like it may be missing in the latest
LinuxCNC distribution so needs to be added)

2. This only applies to computers with Intel Ethernet hardware

 

I just installed ethtool.
Now there is no error message on startup.

Next I want to add ohmic sensing. With a Thad. 

I have downloaded the Firmware files from mesa. There are many files in the hostmot2 folder but have no idea which file I need to flash unto the 7i76E mesa board. What is the file name?

other question is about the serial resistor between positive and Thcad recommended is 390k but in one of the threads 25k is recommended can I freely experiment with resistors? Or does it need a high value to protect the Thcad?

7i76e_7i76x1_Dpl.bit is the firmware needed for a 7I76E and multiple THCADs

The load resistor for Ohmic sensing determines the sense current
I would not use higher than 25K

Note the if you use a lower value you need to make sure that you do not exceed
the resistors power rating with the open circuit plasma voltage.

PCW wrote:

The hm2_eth manual page has this information

man hm2_eth

Notes:

1. ethtool must be present (looks like it may be missing in the latest
LinuxCNC distribution so needs to be added)

2. This only applies to computers with Intel Ethernet hardware


  

The latest distribution starts with a base image from Debian via Debian build.
I do remember installing Linuxcnc on Bookworm before the installer was created having to install ethtool. Is it included in a plain vanilla Debian 12 Install?


If ethtool is required by a Linuxcnc component and not installed by Debian, shouldn't ethtool be a prerequisite in our .deb file? This sounds like an issue that should be raised in Git.

tommylight wrote:

rodw wrote:

Is it included in a plain vanilla Debian 12 Install?
No, also not in Mint.

rodw wrote:

If ethtool is required by a Linuxcnc component and not installed by Debian, shouldn't ethtool be a prerequisite in our .deb file?
It is not required by LinuxCNC nor any of it's components, it is required only by some Intel NIC's to set the coalescence to 0.

Then I think the hm2_eth docs could be improved to show how to install it. I think its a Mesa specific setting. I don't think it is required on other Ethernet connected systems such as Ethercat. (this may be because Ethercat uses its own NIC drivers)

I So I flashed the new firmware on the mesa card. 
When I started Linuxcnc  the previous error came back. Jogging etc was still fine. 

After this I  pasted the code from the Plasma primer into the custom Hal file. 
Now I get the following error message.

 

Its hard to keep up with QTplasmac;s implementation.
The ohmic3.comp component is a later version I wrote.
You can find it in the components folder in my git
github.com/rodw-au/showstopper
Also, ohmic.hal in this config is a standalone hal file you can load from  your ini file to set it up
Note you may need to increase ohmicsense.ohmic-threshold  depending on your environment (even up to 23.9 volts)

So basically I should restore custom Hal to original. Download ohmic3.comp.
And ohmic.hal.

Into which folder should I paste those files.?
What do I need to do to point to ohmic3.hal I’m my ini file?