Using PnCConf with 5i25 with no daughter cards

I am trying to get a Mesa 5i25 to talk to a Stepperworld Fet4 controller card using PnCConf to build the required configs. I am hoping that no daughter cards are needed, and that the DB25 connector on the 5i25 can connect directly to the Fet4. But when I look at the pinout offerings in PnCConf, starting from the Prob_rfx2 sample configuration, there seems to be no way to satisfy the Fet4 input requirements. So I must be missing a step (or two)? Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

PS. The Fet 4 uses the UCN5804B controller. The Fet 4 works great with LinuxCNC on the standard parallel port, with these pin assignments.

Fet 4 Parallel Port pins
PIN Function
1 Board Enable
2 X Direction
3 X Step
4 Y Direction
5 Y Step
6 Z Direction
7 Z Step
8 A Direction
9 A Step
10 Z limits
11 A limits
12 Y limits
13 X limits
14 unused
15 unused
16 Coolant flood
17 Coolant mist

That looks like the Rutex r990 pinout (same as Probotix RF2 but step/dir swapped)

freeby.mesanet.com/r990.zip is the bit, pin,and xml files

This will require reflashing the 5i25 with the new firmware

The reflashing of the 5i25 with the r990x2.bit file you provided worked, but PnCConf does not show the new configuration on the PnCConf "Mesa I/O setup" page under "Firmware". I'm guessing it should show here.

The manual
linuxcnc.org/docs/html/config/pncconf.html
is vague on where to put the r990x2.xml file, that corresponds to the configuration, so that PnCConf can find it. Here is what it says:

"PNCconf searches for firmware on the system and then looks for the XML file that it can convert to what it understands. These XML files are only supplied for officially released firmware from the LinuxCNC team. To utilize custom firmware one must convert it to an array that PNCconf understands and add its filepath to PNCconf’s preference file. By default this path searches the desktop for a folder named custom_firmware and a file named firmware.py. "

There is no pncconf preferences file in the users home directory. Any possibility of more hand holding please?

pncconf will look for the xml files in /lib/firmware/hm2/5i25/
(you need root access to write there)

Note that these are Mesa's machine generated xml files and may need tweakiing to work with pncconf

The manual is a little out of date.
While using the method written about is still possible, it's unnecessary.
Just put the XML file as Peter says.

I did some work to on using Mesa's XML file, so hopefully you'll have no problems.
I hope you have the most currennt linuxcnc version 2.5.2

Chris M

Gentlemen, thank you, this is good progress, PnCConf now sees the r990x2 configuration under the Mesa 5i25 tab. The configuration choices for the rear panel DB25 connector (J3) however are mysterious. I will attach a screenshot, but if that fails, here is the situation. I expected to see pinouts for some reasonable fraction of 25 pins, but a number of the pins are missing, and some are greyed out, and not selectable. How do you read the column labelled Num? Why does it go 001:, blank, blank, 0:, 005:, blank, 1:, blank,2:, 011:, 012;, blank, 014:, 015; 016: ?

https://plus.google.com/photos/116226505318212004794/albums/5863180825395703697

With no reply from the wizards in a week, I went back to trial and error.

As my previous post indicated I could not figure out how to get PnCConf to build what was needed starting from the r990x2.pin file, which PCW provided. So I hand edited the 5i25.ini file with wild ass guesses, moved the r990x2.pin file into /usr/share/doc/hostmot2-firmware-5i25 (was this useful?) and recreated the hm2-stepper example, selecting the 5i25 option. Lo and behold, LinuxCNC now sees the 5i25 which now talks to the StepperWorld Fet4 board (via the DB25 connector) and which happily drives the 3 stepper motors on my desk. Really fast!

Next I will move the test bed (a Gigabyte E350N) out to the shop and see if the mill will tolerate these speeds.

I don't see how LinuxCNC knows it is talking to the r990x2 configuration (now loaded into the 5i25). There really is a lot of moving parts here, kind of like a symphony orchestra playing. Gives one hope for the human race.