Mesa 7i76 time out error

Good day.

Please help.

I have a 4axis machine, and encoded stepper motors (semi closed loop), and we use a 5i25 7i76 combination, computer latency at 25k.

The config loads, and the machine runs beautifully...for a few hours, then stops with a communication error message.

Any advice?
I have tried increasing servo period and the watchdog timeout, but by how much can I realistically increase these?

Thanks.

i'd guess your problem is more interference on the low volts gpio side , and more likely the stability of the 5v supply , make sure you have 5v at the 7i76 if your feeding it from the 5i25
as it's not dropping to say 4.6 v , also check your pci edge connector for dust & dirt .

do you know what version of the smart serial firmware thats loaded , make sure it's up to date

Hi.
Thanks for the quick response.

We have measured 5v on the 7i76. but will now test it while the machine is running to see if it is stable.

Do you know if this can be done with the built-in halmeter, or is it best measured physically?

Would supplying external 5v (with the appropriate selector tab changes) be good enough to either confirm or cancel this out as the root of our evil?

The computer is brand new, but it has a suspect 'riser' connector that allows the pci to be installed parallel to the mother board. Will do the next test with the card plugged directly into it slot, and dumping the 'riser' connector.
I will try find out from the supplier what version of the ss firm ware is installed.

Anton.

Computer Mitac PD10BI
6i25 PCI (Not 5i25 like I stated earlier) Supplied by Mesa pre-loaded with firmware configured for 7i76, and 7i76 card.

Thats a sserial timeout and is probably not servo thread or watchdog related

I would check

5V at 7I76

24V at 7I76

Cable between 6I25 and 7I76

Is it a IEEE-1284 cable from Mesa or something else?

How long is it?

Is it on P3?

Is the 6I25 jumpered properly for 7I76 cable power mode

Hi Peter,

As per E-mails, and explained, this is the client that I am supporting, --Just to reply on your suggestions:

I would check

5V at 7I76- This is very stable. running constantly at 4.99V-

24V at 7I76- Very stable Switch-mode power-supply

Cable between 6I25 and 7I76

Is it a IEEE-1284 cable from Mesa or something else?- We first used the 10Ft cable supplied by Mesa, and now we also tried the 6Ft also supplied by mesa

How long is it?- 6Ft

Is it on P3?- Yes

Is the 6I25 jumpered properly for 7I76 cable power mode - Yes- On 7i76, W2=left(to be supplied with 5v from computer, and on 6i25, W2, and W1=up.


Now, on my Pc, I am busy setting up to simulate Anton's configuration, and dmesg output is as follows:

[109010.741073] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Watchdog has bit! (set the .has-bit pin to False to resume)
[109010.742174] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Smart Serial Error: port 0 channel 0. You may see this error if the FPGA card read thread is not running. This error message will not repeat.
[109010.742181] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Smart serial card hm2_5i25.0.7i76.0.0 error = (13) Communication error
[109010.742185] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Smart serial card hm2_5i25.0.7i76.0.0 error = (3) Timeout
[109010.766387] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: Smart Serial Comms Error: There have been more than 1 errors in 10 thread executions at least 200 times. See other error messages for details.
[109010.766395] hm2/hm2_5i25.0: ***Smart Serial Port 0 will be stopped***

Thanks

This means your PC has multi-ms latency some times and causes the watchdog to bite

(if the watchdog bites, all I/O pins revert to input mode so the sserial communications are lost)

I would run a servo thread only latency test to check and go through the standard BIOS setup
and disable all power management and fan speed controls etc

Oh, Just to add to that, it is a brand new system. we are busy building 20 Systems, and we also tried the following:

To get the Latency down, we disabled the Dual processor, and sis alot of settings in bios, and have the latency down to 12000.

We put extra fans on the Computers, and Mesa cards, incase the problem is heat related,

We used different computers, and ended up setting up 5 machines next to each other,

We eliminated the riser card,
We also disconnected the stepper drives, incase there is grounding problems coming from the drives, running the machine with nothing but the 24V is connected to the 7i76,

and spent alot of time trying different scenarios, but ends up at the same point everytime.

Well if the watchdog bites, you are done communicating...

I would try a completely different CPU

okay. going to try that .

I have it currently running on a different PC, and been running for about a hour, errors only start coming out after 2 hours sometimes