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Stepconf is only for PC parallel ports.
Byte2Bot Parallel Port Raspberry Pi Hat is not an actual Parallel Port, yes it is confusing and probably somewhat misleading the way the Vendor names it. It does not provide any of the logical functions of a PC Parallel Port only presents the pins in a DB25 format and provides some level shifting.

The below is a thread that is more or less an index for the Main RPi4/5 thread.
forum.linuxcnc.org/38-general-linuxcnc-q...l-images-only#325007
Has a section regarding GPIO and there is a working config if you follow the links.
They are there you just have to look.

Just about everything regarding the Rpi4/5 is in this thread
forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...official-images-only

The reason for these 2 threads was to provide users with a "self service and all in one stop".

Hello. I am a new user. I've been at this for days and no joy. I just came to the realization that StepConf Wizard does not work on my setup. Here is my logic. 
I have a Raspberry Pi 5 with a :
Byte2Bot Parallel Port Raspberry Pi Hat                  byte2bot.com/products/parallel-port-raspberry-pi-hat
5 Axis CNC Interface Adapter Parallel Breakout Board For Stepper Motor Drivers      byte2bot.com/products/5-axis-cnc-interfa...tepper-motor-drivers.

I am running Linux Bookworm with an installation of LinuxCNC. 

When I run StepConf Wizard and get to the X-Axis page I attempt ot see if I can move that axis - no joy. 

My theory is that it doesn't work. I feel that when I complete the process for a machine which I will call Machine, I end up with a Machine.hal program that has lines containing "hal_gpio.PIN21-out" or "hal_gpio.PIN12-out".

Using the Byte2Bot parallel port, you are NOT allowed to refer to the output on the DB25 connector as PIN1, PIN2, PIN3 etc. Using a Byte2Bot hat with a Raspberry Pi 5, you must refer to the GPIO pin that is connected to PIN2 or PIN3 as it's corresponding GPIO pin on the Raspberry Pi. As an example, PIN2 is actually GPIO9, so the line would have to be "hal_gpio.GPIO9-out" to activate PIN2. 

Seeing how StepConf Wizard is asking me what feature I want to assign to PIN2, I assume it is passing on the command ""hal_gpio.PIN2-out" which doesn't work, rather than "hal_gpio.GPIO9-out" which is required. 

I have noticed that you can pick different interfaces prior to getting to the Axis X page, and the assignments change, BUT there is no corresponding change for the Byte2Bot setup.

I might also point out that I have found examples that PIN2 etc. that reportedly works on the Pi 4  

Having made my case I suspect that I will hear "We can't set it up for every possibility" but I think I am missing something. 

EdWorks


 

See above post to links for rc3 downloads.
Stupid things fixed:
Firefox-ESR installed
evince (pdf reader) installed
default kernel is aarch64 6.12.34+rpt-rpi-v8-rt (Raspberry Pi built RT_PREEMPT kernel)

I have a newly minted Linuxcnc 2.9.7 installed on a Raspberry PI 4. 

I have successfully compiled the remora.c component from cakeslob/rrw_lab
trying 'sudo halcompile --install remora-spi.c' from cakeslob/main and scottalford75 will not compile. Lots of errors. 
I have also a working linuxcnc 2.9.3 that compiles remora-spi.c fine

Are there any changes in linuxcnc from version 2.9.3 to 2.9.7 that makes this happen? 
I will make do with the earlier remora component...

I just wanted to inform that there is some issues

tommylight,

Thanks for your info.
I changed the X-axis with an other old (3 fase) steppenmotor and a M3 spindle movement without any problem.
Nothing has been changed to the (4 fase) Y-axis steppenmotor, but there the issue starts.

Mechanically the Y-axis is indeed a mess, it is gear driven with 2 gears before moving a gear-bar (on which the laser is mounted)
Willing to change it into a spindle driven movement too, but the 28BYJ-48 is already x64 slowed down and is too slow for that.

But the old setup did worked for several years without problems, although the backlash of 1.315 (mm) on the Y-axis.
My setup was always with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ controlling 2 L293D and 2 (28BYJ-48) steppenmotors.

Now i only changed X-axis and updated the Raspberry OS which result in weird backlash issues on th Y-movement.
It looks like on picture drawings (2 way y-movement) it does now turn on the laser before doing the backlash.
On one way the laser burns much longer than usual (earlier).
I will add a picture with on top the old burning (g-code) and below the new ones, same g-code.
You will see much lines extra (longer) burned on the new ones (one way) regardless what backlash i give, although backlash does something.
In red the given backlash is written,

Btw: I added the BACKLASH_VELICITY as i found is somewhere on the internet, but it does not speed up the backlash nowadays.


Unknown,

Back to my original whould be building it completely new, as it broke after upgrading Raspberry OS the first time.
Although i can read the old (linuxCNC) data.
But I will try, but it was a big trouble to get the RT-OS version (bullseye?) working the first time, i know.
Ad need the 2.8.2 version of LinuxCNC.

Regards, DG.
 

Hey Guys,some of you know so much about this Topic so I hope I can find someone in the mood to help me.Im trying to make a CNC 3-Axis on Raspberry PI5 and Beckhoff, the problem is that im completly new in this topic and try to learn as much as possible but i got already stuck in the beginning. EtherCAT works fine and i got the "Koppler" and Cards but if im trying to get them into LinuxCNC like some videos teach the Programm wont start anymore

If i start i get the message: Failed to register PDO entry: No such file or directory
LCEC: master 0 PDO enty registration failed

A friend and myself checked the code 10x, and it seems that the problem starts before. I cant get the EK1100 connected to TwinCat or CodeSYS, too. Whats kind of weird to me because as i said if I try it with the "ethercat slaves" command, it knows The Ek1100 and all Cards


Thanks for everybody who can help me with this and invests some of his time for me

I've been working on using a new build system for Raspberry images based on the utilities that are used on the official images. No custom kernel as RPi does provide pre-built RT kernels, but the 6.12.47 version has had reports of crashing. And yes raspi-config is included.
Benefits include being able to use Raspberry Pi Imager to preconfigure user name & password, local, all other things Raspberry Imager enable you to configure. There is now a single image for the 4 & 5 models. These are the only models supported. No there is no wayland, so don't try to changes this via raspi-config. The desktop environment is xfce.

I haven't included vnc as that brings in all the CUPS (printing) software and the associated services.

Only one browser is included, Firefox-esr.
Some simple screensver & power management items have been configured.
There is a network applet near the clock to simplify configuring a wired network. Please take note that the Raspberry's network address should not be that same as your mesa card, ie the last number in the address should differ. (sorry for those that are aware, but it pops up from time to time)
I have also included a fix for the CNC items appearing under multiple categories. This will survive upgrades. Due to the way Debian runs these "hooks" it will run after every time apt, apt-get or dpkg is run. Changes will only be made when it is required. No isolcpus has been added to the commandline, but this can be added by the usual methods.

Updated Downloads are here:
rc3-md5 drive.google.com/file/d/1U0iSymoTn72CSo0.../view?usp=drive_link
rc3-img drive.google.com/file/d/1SbtfeY1LvQiGZ64.../view?usp=drive_link

Please note the image on the Linuxcnc downloads page is missing a browser and a pdf reader, but will still run Linuxcnc itself fine. I apologise but so far I've been "on my own" building and testing.

If anyone is willing to test and point out any glaring errors it would be most welcome.
Rob

Any issues please raise here
github.com/ozzyrob/pi-gen-linuxcnc

Hallo Hermann,

bin knapp bei Wien - Deutsch-Wagram

Ich bin mit der Raspberry + Parallel Port Adapter Lösung sehr zufrieden.
Zwei 3-Stunden Jobs liefen am Wochenende problemlos durch:
 

In der Hobby Werkstatt ist mir das Tempo relativ egal, zumindest solange es im Wasserbad läuft und somit keine Absaugung daneben plärrt.

Because I am using an antique desktop (Dell Optiplex 960) and WiFi, I am stranded at linuxCNC 2.7.15.  I have struggled to get decent network speed.  Only some USB WiFi adapters work native to 2.7.15.  (Trying to install drivers for adapters with other chipsets was more effort than it was worth.)  The SMC EZ Connect works, but it is only 802.11g and because there is a range and refrigerator in line of WiFi to router, I was limited to about 16 Mbps.

I decided to take a walk on the wild side and bought a BrosTrend Linux USB WiFi Adapter AC1200 for Ubuntu Kali Mint Debian Kubuntu Mate Zorin PureOS Raspberry Pi Windows etc. Linux Compatible WiFi Adapter Wireless Dual Band 5GHz 867Mbps + 2.4GHz 300Mbps.  Once I followed the instructions at linux.brostrend.com/ I was able to install the drivers for what is apparently the AC1L family and now I get 240 Mbps. Customer support was necessary to figure out which driver family was required during driver installation.   Curiously, plugging the adapter into the front USB ports gave me many times the rate as rear USB ports.

I think it is something the Rpi does at regular intervals, drops the network interface for some reason.
Inspired by some googling can you search through the syslog to see if you find why eth0 is reset?

Edit. Another idea is to configure NO ip address on the interface.
Maybe it can prevent the os from doing ip-related things to the interface.

I tried this ethtool --set-eee eth0 eee off but it did not help at all. No I have tested two independent setups and inserting ethernet switch between Rpi and ETT60n solved the issue. In rpi5 there is no l --set-eee eth0 eee available but same issue when using without switch.

TL;DR: Can I wire these little TMC2226 (or similar) 3d printer stepper drivers to a 7i96?

Before you laugh I know it seems like a silly matchup. I've been out of the cnc game for a few years now but now I have some projects on mind some I'm trying to plan to reuse some old parts. I'm still fairly out of the loop on the advances made in linuxcnc and hardware since.

I want to build another one of these light weight "3d printed" cncs . By default these machines used arduino/grbl based controllers , but I enjoy linuxcnc so I fully intend on on using linuxcnc instead.

I have a NIB Mesa 7i96 that I never put into production .  I have some raspberry pi 4 Bs laying around from old projects. I would need to find new stepper drivers. These tiny stepper drivers are proven to work fine for these machines. I like the idea of cost and especially space savings with these little chips, and how the original design of the above linked machine integrates their electronics into the gantry. 

So can I just wire these TMC2226s into the 7i96 as a drop in replacement for something  like my old TB6600 s?

I don't quite understand yet if these little chips with all their pins, and uart mode, are a different animal than the old stepper drivers I used before.

PS. I'm excited to find out that there is an official release for the rpi. I've already flashed it and have been poking around in it.

Hi there, 
I implemented an DIY Arduino a few weeks back into my automatic injection molding machine. So cool to see that topic popping up again!
For the background, I have two CNC machines running on LinuxCNC as well and I am familiar with some Arduino-Coding too.

In the beginning I evaluated the exact same question as you here and went with the Arduino based PLC-Route as it is easier to implement hardware and manage timers easily, which there are a lot of in injection molding as many events in a cycle are time-based.

A few lessons learned so far were:

• The evaluation of "Readymade" ESP32/Arduino resulted that there is no real all in one provider like Beckhoff Ethercat modules. That drove me away from it as you still need additional "raw PCB boards" for e.g. temperature input. Then "real" PLCs like Ethercat are freaking expensive if you need anything but standard IOs. Could be an option if you base everything on second hand components!
• These modules are really nice: sequentmicrosystems.com/products/eight-t...bj3cF5BPXDmnSfa68zMp
  They are a bit more expensive then a MAX31855 etc. but a very clean solution, easy to install and you can just stack it on top of a Raspberry PI. And are very well documented too + some Libraries exist. Not affiliated with them, just made a really good impression!
• Having temps all in one controller is nice for process debugging
• Used Breakout boards as Optocouplers, SSR Output boards (240V AC 1-2A), external SSRs (40A) and DC Relay boards (24V) and the Temp input board of Sequent Microsystems.
  To be honest I would next time spend a bit more with Sequent Microsystems - they seem to be fairly well priced and offer a lot more IOs and flexibility then the "All in one" Arduino based PLCs. But if money is a big constraint you can go with the single modules too.
• I prefer SSRs just because they are silent, and basically free today and never had a cheap Asian branded fail
• For the IO side Arduino is pretty nice and fast as it is easy to connect components and debug them. E.g. for installing a linear scale I did not need a Mesa card or other boards just connected it to an interrupt and fed it to an existing Library.
• I used BlockNot to create parallel tasks, such as asking for sensor states at fixed intervals, have interrupts for linear encoders, run all the cycle timers... that is a very cool lib to work with!
• Okay now the butttt...
  As soon as you want to build an GUI for it it becomes annoying. Maybe its my lack of experience for it or I am not aware of better solutions. Let me know if anyone is aware of a similar GUI solution to LinuxCNC (in flexibility) but for simple controllers?!
  I tried to use Nextion Displays - which are displays with their own IC. That is cool as they mostly run smooth without Display lags in comparison to other solutions and have a GUI editor. 
  The pain is that you need to manage the whole communication between the display IC and the IO-IC (e.g. Arduino) manually. Eg. read button pushes from the display and feed data back. That is not impossible but a ton of (unnecessary?) work. Additionally the GUI modules come with good limitations in all directions- e.g. you can only have 4 data inputs into a diagram display which is already limiting on e.g. temp tracking. The graph you get is also not really useful in manner of navigation as zoom/ set scale etc. There are many things that need to be build to get something usable.

So I got stuck and ran it from basically a serial console + manually edition code for changes. That kind of works for home/DIY but is not a "solution" I would say as I run this machine for work. Okay that is a bit funny, but its actually some kind of special setup that does not exist on the market.

So my position is that I have a working machine, but no real interface.
I consider now to mange all the IO's by Arduino as nothing is really time critical and the linear encoders in my app don't need to be updated to the GUI in real time. You can also mix both options and use a motion card like Mesa or a simple Breakout card for motor control and safety IOs and do the rest with an external "PLC". 

Some strong points for LinuxCNC in this application:

• Easy to build GUIs
• Real time IO's for motors+safety
• ShowHAL+HalScope is priceless for real-time debugging of states, that would need to be programmed as special IO's otherwise
• Settings can easily saved in files - I would miss-use a .nc file to save projects, temps and timings?

Weak points for LinuxCNC in this application:

• Calculations and conditions are just painful as you need to do everything with components, which would be a simple calc sign otherwise :/
• Not sure how to implement a nice cycles with timings? Could be several timers connected to each other! Would be cool to be able to activate/deactivate these in real time on GUI input to control auxiliary devices.
• Is there an option to use e.g. the HalScope inside a GUI? Or have another graph implemented?

Let me know your thoughts and considerations, happy to exchange ideas here!

Mesa is pretty much the standard, firmware sources are open source, as you have found. Pete is rather open with his hardware designs, there are 7i92 clones on Ali express.
If you really want to have a look at well evolved ecosystem I suggest you check out this topic
forum.linuxcnc.org/18-computer/49142-lin...d-on-fpga-ice40-ecp5
This has evolved into the riocore project.
It may be an idea to contact Ollie and discuss enclosures and such. Whilst he has designed some boards his energies are mainly taken up by the firmware and software side.
So rather than another project from scratch, I honestly think offering your hardware skills would be awesome to take that project to the next level.
I'd even like to offer my help, I've been working on a custom RPi5\4 image based on the RPi build system, rather than another build system, that is basically exactly the same to setup on Raspberry Pi as a standard image.

Hello, I have a few questions.I am building a complete computer with fpga and all other boards, and I have some questions:
1. What firmware should I choose, mesa, remora or, write my own?
2. I want a universal solution, so what input/output boards should I design?
3. Should I design my own case or choose a ready-made one?
Here is one of the prototypes:
-32 outputs 24v 0.5A, 32 inputs 24V, four boards
-4 analog servo -10V.. 10V outputs, 4 encoders input, one board
-Fpga 96 IO board with buffers, one board ()
-Firmware - ported and modified mesa for SPI interface.
-software driver - modified hm2 driver from source code.
-3d printed case.
-Computer Raspberry pi 5 aluminum case

all works fine and stable