MESA 5i25 + 7i85S

Just saying that you dont really have to start from scratch with hal files. For example if you started with the hm2-stepper example files you would have a running config in a few minutes, and a halcmd show pins would list all available hardware for cutting and pasting into a custom hal file

I updated the 7I78 manual to include the host interface connections

The 7I75 is just a I/O protector so allows all pins to be input/ output or bi-directional

PCW wrote:

Just saying that you dont really have to start from scratch with hal files. For example if you started with the hm2-stepper example files you would have a running config in a few minutes, and a halcmd show pins would list all available hardware for cutting and pasting into a custom hal file

Having a running basic config and knowing what to cut and paste to make it do what you want is two different things.

It's easy to do once you understand everything about HAL, INI options, gladeVCP and Mesa options.....

I do find it miss leading when people say just edit a basic sample file to get the config running.
It ignores the knowledge required to make it do anything beyond simply running.
Obviously for some people that is all they need and they will get there (and probably enjoy the experience getting there).

Chris M

shayloco wrote:

Chris-

After some testing and head scratching it seems that Pncconf, when used with the 5i25 card, should start the IO Connector 2 GPIO pins with 17, not 24 (assuming using GPIO on the 2nd card, not built in modules).

Finding which TB1/TB2 pins on the 7i78 card correspond to the GPIO pins from IO Connector 2 also appears not so intuitive. I seem to have GPIO 17 - 20 located, but 21 - 24 I am not sure of.

However, I could be all wrong, it may be my XML files that are creating issues.

I am using the 5i25 + 7i85S + 7i78.

-Larry

This is a bug in PNCconf. Pncconf was built when the boards only had groups of 24 pins.
Now I have to make adjustments for cards with less then 24 pins.
I guess I missed the GPIO numbering of deselected components.

Chris M

Still having problems with pins ...

I have had this error since the beginning. Any ideas about the Unsupported Device?:

[ 4574.167208] hm2: loading Mesa HostMot2 driver version 0.15
[ 4574.172894] hm2_pci: loading Mesa AnyIO HostMot2 driver version 0.7
[ 4574.172959] hm2_pci 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
[ 4574.172967] hm2_pci: discovered 5i25 at 0000:05:00.0
[ 4574.174005] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Smart Serial Firmware Version 38
[ 4574.228680] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Unsupported Device ( ) found on sserial 0 channel 0
[ 4574.228696] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Unsupported Device ( ) found on sserial 0 channel 1
[ 4574.232344] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: 34 I/O Pins used:

Here are the hal statements for loading hm2:

loadrt trivkins
loadrt [EMCMOT]EMCMOT servo_period_nsec=[EMCMOT]SERVO_PERIOD num_joints=[TRAJ]AXES
loadrt probe_parport
loadrt hostmot2
loadrt hm2_pci config=" num_encoders=3 num_pwmgens=1 num_3pwmgens=0 num_stepgens=3 "
setp hm2_5i25.0.pwmgen.pwm_frequency 100000
setp hm2_5i25.0.pwmgen.pdm_frequency 6000000
setp hm2_5i25.0.watchdog.timeout_ns 10000000

Even if I turn the serial ports on in Pncconf I get the same error.

This is on the 5i25+7i85S+7i78

-Larry

Those warnings are expected and (relatively) harmless.

If you want to disable them you will need to disable the
2 sserial ports in the configuration. I say relatively harmless
because enabled sserial ports will send serial data out the TX pins
during remote device probe (and if no sserial remote is found
the pins will revert to GPIO) This pin toggling might cause trouble
if the pin is used for GPIO, so its better to disable the sserial ports
that are not used if you intend to use the pins for GPIO.

It's arguable that pncconf should disable the sserial channels that
are not used instead of leaving them all enabled.

In any case they can be disabled by adding sserial_port_0=xx to the hm2-pci config string.

PCW wrote:

Those warnings are expected and (relatively) harmless.
In any case they can be disabled by adding sserial_port_0=xx to the hm2-pci config string.

Peter-

Thank you. That took care of the error messages.

I now have GPIO 17-24 working as outputs on my 7i78 card.

Now I can get back to testing.

-Larry

I realize this thread is 4 years old, but I just purchased a plug-n-go 5i25 + 7i85s and I cannot get it configured at all. I have an XYZA mill with steppers and Gecko 201x drives. It was working fine with a parallel port setup, so I know the wiring for the drives is all okay.

The plug-n-go is not living up to its name. The manual is incredibly sparse, but from this site I discovered enough information to learn that I needed to install some xml files in /lib/firmware/hm2/5i25 for pncconf. I did that and chose the 7i85sx2 option in pncconf. I don't know what firmware the 5i25 comes flashed with, but figure it should work with this config.

In hindsight, I probably should not have purchased this option. I have differential encoders on my X and Y axes, but I was not planning on using them to create a closed loop stepper. I merely wanted to feed the encoder signals to the linuxcnc axis gui as DRO display.

The 7i85s manual is not clear on pinouts for step & direction. The board has three connectors: TB1, TB2, and TB3, with each connector broken up into three 8-pin connectors. I'm assuming that I use the differential output connectors for my step/dir outputs, so for one axis I used TX0 for step and TX1 for direction. I tried both connecting the gnd pin to the common in my drive, and the /TX0 pin to common. I tried swapping the step and direction pins. Any and all combinations described failed to get any movement of the motor.

In pncconf, under the configuration tab, I am setting encoders to zero and step/dir outputs to four. Once setup is complete and I open the mill hal file, I see that pncconf has created PID functions, parameters, and pins, even though I set encoders to zero. I am just trying to get a simple open loop step and direction function going.

At the beginning of this thread in 2013, an xml file was posted for the 5i25 + 7i85 combo. Should I be using that file rather than the one I found in the compressed 5i25 firmware file found on the mesa website (7i85sx2.xml)?

Can anyone tell me what firmware comes flashed with the 5i25 + 7i85 plug-n-go? Are my assumptions correct about the assignment of the TX0, TX1, ... etc. pins on the 7i85s board to step and dir inputs on the Gecko drives?

Thanks.

If you bought a 5I25/7I85s kit it will be pre-programmed with a 4 axis step/dir configuration
with a rational pinout (TX0 = STEP0 TX1=DIR0 etc)

As tommylight indicated, you can read the current FPGA pinout with mesaflash
or just look at the 5i25_7i85sx2.pin file in the 5I25 support zip file

You do need to look at both the 7I85S manual and FPGA configuration pinout to
determine the final terminal block pin-out and functions

(for example the 7I85spx2 pinout replaces the Step/DIrection pins with PWM and Direction)