Newb help with 5i25 and Novakon breakout board

So I am trying to convert over to LCNC from Mach3 with my stepper Novakon 3 axis mill.

I managed to get the axes moving w/ the parallel port directly to the BOB but having hard time converting to Mesa 5i25.

I also managed to flash it (I think) with the g540x2 firmware, but in pncconf it still shows the 5i25-Internal Data as prob_rfx2.

Questions:
1. Do I have to find a firmware that matches the pinout of my breakout board? (Or can the pin out be modified via pncconf or hal edit directly?)
This is confusing because every other situation you match the software pinout to the BOB (like in Mach or even stepperconf)

2. I have looked at pinout from the 5i25 folder and nothing really matches my situation (x/y/z step/gen pins= 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, estop 13, charge pump 17) - aside from changing out the BOB, are there ways of making custom firmware, that I could do?

Thanks in advance!!

hal & ini file for g540
freeby.mesanet.com/g540.zip

i presume your not using any addon cards 7i76 etc
you should not need to use pncconf in that case , take a look at the above file
if something does not fit , post again , and we can modify the file

just make sure the 5i25 is using the g540x2 firmware , it should show up in your /var/log/linuxcnc.log
or use dmesg running in a seperate terminal

place xml file in /lib/firmware/hm2/5i25
(you may need to copy file to that location using sudo )

Do you have any documentation on the Novakon breakout?
That is, a listing of each pins function.
With this I can make a matching firmware configuration

The reason you need firmware that matches your pinout is that unlike the parallel port.
the 5I25 step generators (and encoders and serial ports etc,etc) are done in hardware
and have fixed pin locations.

Note that other than stepgens, encoders and high speed chargepumps (> 500Hz)
I/O is done with GPIO pins so any pin will work for limit swtches, coolant enable
estop in etc

Note, pncconf does not know whats loaded in the 5I25, it just has some standard pinout
data sets built in

PCW -

Thanks that would be great! I think other Novakon users would be very interested in this as well.
Unfortunately the BOB didn't come with any info but from Mach3 I gathered what I could.

Here are the pinouts.

Pin
1 X Step
2 X Dir
3 Y Step
4 Y Dir
5 Z Step
6 Z Dir
7 A Step
8 A Dir
9 Flood Coolant Relay
10 E-Stop Input
11 X/Y/Z Home switch Input
12
13 Timing Input (used for Tool Touch Plate in Mach)
14 Spindle Dir
15 Probe Input
16 Spindle Step
17 Charge Pump
*Note that the Novakon has a Servo Spindle (for rigid tapping) that uses a Step/Dir signal w/ a 5us pulse, as opposed to the PWM of a regular VFD.

Thanks again!!

PCW - just wondering if you've had a chance to work on this?

Sorry to bother u - just trying to get this up and running.

B

Oops, slipped what's left of my mind

Ill try and get to it today sometime

Thanks - you will be my hero!

www.mesanet.com/novakon.zip

Has the bit/pin/xml files plus the new VHDL source file that was used to
create the pinout.


Note: high speed chargepumps are normally made with stepgens so to get a chargepump signal
you need to enable the chargepump stepgen, put it in velocity mode, and set a proper step rate
and pulse width on the chargepump stepgen.

Awesome! I will post back with results

Thanks again!!

btw for anyone reading this the link is actually:

freeby.mesanet.com/novakon.zip