Sieg KX3 and 5i25. Seeking firmware.

Well that went poorly....

OK, so installed linux/linuxcnc from a new download Seems to have installed fine although there is a few thing in the boot-up I'll need to remove later (which config etc) I wonder if I should have let it partition the drive. It's a new 120G SSD

Had a sepearete laptop beside the machine beign worked on so I could step trhough the guides as I went.

Copied the bitfile from the c11.zip and realized I have no idea where it should actually go
Created a SM2000 folder (standard modern series 2000) in the linuxcnc/config dir
Copied the bit file there and used the mesaflash to update, then rebooted

Ran the stepper config program and saw it allowed for an import of the mach xml file so I grabbed than and tried to import it. Looks like it picked up a couple of the step/dir pins but nothing else.

Set the rest of the stuff as best as I could and tried the text-axis functions, nothing. Figured maybe I needed to complete a setup first so I kept going.
Ran the PNCconf app and I got totally lost so stuck to defaults

Reboot and when launching linuxcnc got an several errors about sim pins not existing and one about the paraport not existing. Changed the address of the paraport (this computer doesn't have one) to the default 0x3...) and finally got into linuxcnc
But nothing on the machine moves or even tries to blink on the BOB

I think I'll start from scratch tomorrow and reinstall everything again
M

Umm re-installing is not going to help

I think you are mixing up parallel port configuration with mesa card configuration

Stepconf and the mach xml converter are only for parallel port configurations

In addition there is no pncconf support for that specific bit file nor the step/dir controlled
spindle speed/dir that the C11 uses.

If you want to use the C11 with the 5I25 I suspect the only reasonable way is to either start with a sample
mesa step/dir hal/ini file pair and hand edit in the other features the C11 requires or start with a pncconf
created hal/ini file pair created for similar hardware (say the G540 config) and edit it to add the chargepump
and spindle control stepgens, and IO assignment for limits estop etc

Yup, definitely mixing up those. Crap. No wonder everything seemed to be partially duplicating what I did with the other one....

(Still think I should reinstall linux since I didn't really mean to create a user and password but I did)

Maybe next weekend I can print out a hal/ini file and see if I can wrap my head around whats in there.

What files do I actually need and where should they be located?

The BITfile you uploaded earlier was flashed and I put it in a SM2000 folder I created inside the linuxcnc folder
The HAL file, does this need a special name or is it called in the /ini file?
The INI file, again, what would this be named and where is that reference?
Can these be in the SM2000 folder I made or do they need to be somewhere specific?

Many thanks
M

mooser wrote: Copied the bit file there and used the mesaflash to update, then rebooted

You need to actually power-down the PC to make the new bitfile active. A reboot isn't enough.

Good to know.
I did a reboot (restart) but then afterwards had to physically move the computer to try to connect it to the machine so it got a power-cycle then.
Would that have completed the flash or did the restart screw it up?
M

It should be fine. There is a utility in mesaflash to read the card config, which should also tell you what pin is which. You will need that to get the config right.

Create a config with pncconf pretending that you are using a G540, then you will need to edit the generated HAL file to suit the pinout.
(This will be things like connecting the spindle speed command to the stepgen that uses the spindle pin on the G11G and setting that stepgen to velocity mode)