Basic Pendant with 7i73

My chance at last to contribute something back. These are my HAL files for a 7i73 with a 4x20 display and 4x8 keypad.
Connections as per 7i73 manual, except I connected the -ve pin of the backlight to OD0 so I can turn it on and off.
These files are just a beginning, I'm sure they can be improved and extended, but I couldn't find any useful information about configuring and using a 7i73, so here they are, make of them what you will.

First the custom.hal file


next the custom_postgui.hal


and finally the shutdown.hal file


The logic is as follows
when linuxcnc starts the lcd shows a banner display with the backlight off
once the gui has established, switch to a basic DRO screen, with backlight on
at normal shutdown, switch back to banner screen and turn backlight off

If you can improve it, and you probably can, do it and post back here.
Roger

Could you post a pic of your display and mention the display and keyboard you used (and maybe where you got it?)
Thanks.

Chris M

The display is a bog-standard 20x4 LCD, Ebay special from China (I bought a bunch of them a while ago while I could still get black-on-yellow/green, since I hate white-on-blue) and the keyboard out of the scrap box is a 4x4 matrix made by Digitran of Pasadena.
Neither of them is anything special, they just happened to be to hand.
The only identifier on the display is "QC2004A", no makers name or any other brand. Its quite large, the PCB is 4" by 2 1/4" and the actual display area is 3" by 1".

The contrast is fine just left as 7i73 default.
Really, all the smarts are in the 7i73.
I'd be ashamed to show the inside of the box, its just a rat-nest of dupont female-female jumper cables wired straight out of the 7i73 manual.
Cut one end off a straight-thru cat5 cable, connect the ends to TB3 on the 7i76 as per the 7i76 manual, set the 7i73 jumpers for display and keypad and you're up and running slick as goose grease on a china doorknob.
I'd hazard a guess that ANY 20x4 display would work and the worst you'd have to do is fit a contrast adjustment pot instead of using the VEE pin on the 7i73. Likewise the keypad, practically and type, membrane or click-dome switch should work, even discrete pushbuttons.
I did look once at using an arduino, but having now got the 7i73 I'd never look at using one again. To anything like match the 7i73 I'd need to use an arduino-mega (to get enough gpio pins) and even then I'd need to throw out the standard arduino libraries for display and keypad because they are so SLOOOOOOW, and write my own routines. I've done this once for a PIC18F and I never want to see that code again.

Usual disclaimer - My only connection to Mesa is as a customer, having said that, if you're looking to fit a pendant and you're using Mesa cards then definitely look at the 7i73.
Also - big shoutout to BigJohnT of MesaUs (you might of heard of him on these boards once in a while) who sells mesa boards at sensible prices and is happy to ship to the UK where I am based.
Hope this helps a little, I've posted some hal files in the hal setups which show the hal connections.
Roger

Have you played with adding an encoder wheel for jogging? Thats one thing holding me back..

I'll try that tonight, shouldn't be any problems beyond finding the right options.
Roger

Turns out using encoders is easy.
First in pncconf make sure 7i73 shows up and is set to mode1, then goto analog/encoders tab of 7i73 setup and make sure encoders and analog show.
Then connect encoder phase A and B to pins IN8 and IN9 on 7i73/J2 (that's pin numbers 14 and 15), I'm using an encoder with mechanical switches, so I need to connect the centre leg to ground as IN8 and IN9 seem to have pull-ups. If you were using a powered encoder you'd pick up +5v and GND on J2 and connect the A/B phase outputs as above.
Now when you fire up linuxcnc and call up the hal configuration you should find (deep breath)
under pins - hm2_5i25.0.7i73.0.1.enc0.count and friends, and putting a watch on count should show the encoder count varying as you twiddle the knob.
Connecting the hal pins to get jogging motion is left as an exercise for the reader, as they say.
In connection with jogging, axisui doesn't appear to export the value of jogspeed, although it exports feed- rapid- and spindle-override. Or am I just looking in the wrong place?
Roger

Thanks, can the 7i73 accept an MPG wheel that only has single sided inputs (+5v, -5v, A+, A-)?

This is how I got a MPG going on a 7i763 using its MPG input. It should get you going with using it.

forum.linuxcnc.org/show-your-stuff/32029...build?start=20#85279

I'm going to assume you meant (+5v,GND,A+,B+) so yes that's the only sort of encoder that the 7i73 accepts. I guess the logic is that any encoder would be physically close to the 7i73 (in the same enclosure even), and therefore doesn't need differential signaling. Also as it's probably going to be used to adjust values up/down it doesn't need index either.
Roger

Hi all.

I'm about to stumble down this path myself and have a couple questions off the top.

I have a Newhaven NHD-0420E2Z-NSW-BBW display which is listed as a 5v display, though it seems the logic on the 7i73 is 3.3v? is that just the GPIO or does that include the display pins as well?

I am currently trying to get through the Hal manual ( having a hard time...) is there a way to directly control an output pin on say a 7i76 from a button press at a 7i73?

Thanks!

more questions to come

I use 7i73 with 5V LCD without problem.
But be aware that quite a lot of such displays make trouble with brightness. Have quite a bunch that expext slightly negative voltage at that pin. So I often have a " helper" circuit with lmc7660.
Mike