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Hello everyone,

I am trying to setup and configure a 2-axis CNC dicing saw mill using a Raspberry Pi 4B 8GB board to run LinuxCNC. My goal is to use the GPIO pins to send step and directions signals to my stepper drivers. My issue is that I have little-to-no experience using LinuxCNC in general, and I have no idea how to use HAL to output signals to the board's GPIO pins. If anyone could help me through the process, or point me in the direction of where I could learn more of how to setup my machine, I would appreciate the help.

you don't need a cross over cable.

Hi ProcksMFG,

Regarding power supplies, I think you are correct about the amperage specs.

By observing the analog meter on my benchtop PSU, it would appear that the RPi 5 draws about 1-2 A depending upon what it is doing. I suspect the five amp spec is designed to allow for high current loads on the USB ports. Since I am not using those ports for anything other than keyboard/mouse wireless dongle, I chose to run from a compact Meanwell 5V/3A PSU that I bought from Mouser.com.

For my final design, I will add a 4,700 or 10,000 uF/ 6.3 V (or 10V or 16V) electrolytic across the 5 V rail (close to the Pi power input) because I have noticed that plugging in the Mesa card causes the Pi to reboot. The Pi evidently has very little on board power supply capacitance.

Hi ProcksMFG,

I finally had success with my RPi 5 + 7i96s, thanks to excellent support on this forum. I have documented it on this new thread.

forum.linuxcnc.org/9-installing-linuxcnc...th-mesa-7i96s#293645

Regarding your own potential plasma set up, here are a few of my thoughts (even if you didn’t ask for them, LOL, but it does help me clarify my own thinking)…

My current thinking is that I would definitely build a new set up based around the RPi 5 but with one fullback option.

The reasons I would go with the RPi 5 are (I) the minimal form factor which does not require an external bulky PC, (ii) simplicity due to The inbuilt Wi-Fi, and ethernet ports and potential wireless keyboard / mouse via usb dongle, (iii) rapid bootup time (a few seconds) and overall speed of the Pi 5, (iv) The general of availability and future upgrade paths within the Pi family (even if difficult to purchase in the recent past), (v) ease of swapping out the micro SD card to change operating systems, (vi) Staying mainstream, rather than opting for cheaper fringe systems that are not well supported and may not be around in the future.

There are probably other reasons, but I can’t remember what they are at the moment.

The fallback option that I mentioned might be relevant if for some reason my RPi based system started having issues… In that case, I could replace the Pi simply use an external LinuxCNC PC and change one ethernet cable from the Pi---7i96s to PC---7i96s.

If the green user LEDS on the 7I76E count up, the 7I76E is receiving packets
What error do you get from ping?

Rodw
Thank You for Your video, I saw him and one more with configuration network, but in this distribution isnt grafical network manager. Tomorrow I try again start with fresh system, but I need suggestion, what i wrong do.
In Your movie, after powered card, all the time four green leds flashing. In my card after powered green leds dont flashing.

Tommylight
I havn't idea, why i was thinking, that i need "crossover" cable. If problem is in "straight" cable, that isnt problem
I set mesa to 10.10.10.10, and rpi to 10.10.10.1, 10.10.10.2, 10.10.10.11, 10.10.10.100, many times, but I dont tried change cable for "straigth", ehhh..

I cant wait check it tomorrow,

Bartek
 

First cable is "cross" so not sure if it works, allthough it should with all new-ish PC as they all have automatic settings.
The second cable is useless for networking as it is not a standard pinout/wiring.
Try using a normal "straight" cable.
Also, when Mesa is set at default 192.168.1.121 your settings should work. But if you change Mesa to 10.10.10.10 you also have to set the RPI to 10.10.10.11 for it to work.
And as a general rule, do not mess with systcl, edit only the interface file.

I think you are chasing the wrong thing. ip6 has nothing to do with it
In this video about 16 minutes in, I explain networking and how to set this up with a mesa card

Hi Guys,
I have problem with configuration connection between raspberry pi 4b and mesa card's 7i76e.
I downloaded official LinuxCNC 2.9.2 "Raspberry Pi 4 OS based on Debian Bookworm" from linuxcnc.org/downloads/ , and after installation is version 2.9.1 (?).
First trying, I used standard setting jumper w3 (up), ip: 192.168.1.121 and I add contents to file /etc/network/interfaces:
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.1
netmask 255.255.255.0
hardware-irq-coalesce-rx-usecs 0

but every time I have problem with ping 7i76e.
Configuration ifconfig -a showed inet6 , so I was thinking about problem with active ipv6. Next I tried disable ipv6, but after reboot ipv6 was active. (ipv6 is enabled by kernel). So - I added ipv6 to kernel blacklist. All the time i cant pinging mesa card. I change setting for ip 10.10.10.10, jumper, and the same situation. I use two ethernet cable, with configuration:
1-3   and   1-3
2-6             2-6
3-1             3-1
4-4             4-7
5-5             5-8
6-2             6-2
7-7             7-4
8-8             8-5
When I ping 7i76e 4 green leds are flashing with 1Hz frequency with binary code, but is mistake connection.
I used many different configuration, but every time is the same effect.
I havent more ideas. Tomorrow I try used fresh system again...
Somebody has any idea?

Bartek

Hi RNZ,
Newbie here and very interested in the RPi5 + Mesa 7I96S combo for a new Plasma CNC build.

You mention a 5V @ 3A power supply. Raspberry Pi recommends 5.1V @ 5A. Mesa recommends 4.75 to 5.25V @ 0.4A.

Could this contribute to the issue? Thanks.

 
Hi,
I am currently doing a project with EC500_v5 using remora firmware. I have flashed the controller board with the remora firmware and have done all the necessary steps mentioned in the remora documentation. When I faced certain problems, I had refered this forum and I could solve those issues on my way, Now I am able to open the LinuxCNC, but I am not able to come out of the e-stop. I am adding all the steps that I had done till now. I would like to get some help from this community for solving this problem.These are the steps that I had followed. I would like to know whether I have done anything wrong in this. I am new to LinuxCNC and trying to learn more about it. So sorry if I ask silly questions.
 

1. Flashed EC500_V5 with Remora Firmware
   1. File downloaded from the Github link ( github.com/scottalford75/Remora-RT1052-cpp/tree/main/Firmware )
   2. Latest version of firmware was installed: remora-rt1052-3.1.2.bin
2. Raspberry Pi LinuxCNC image downloaded from the link provided in Remora Documentation ( github.com/Expatria-Technologies/remora-flexi-hal/releases ) and installed to RPI4 Model B
3. Connected RPI4 with EC500_V5 (RT1052 Chip) by Ethernet cable
4. Copy files to upload the configuration file to the LinuxCNC
   1. Downloaded the files from Github ( github.com/scottalford75/Remora-RT1052-c.../remora-rt1052-basic )
   2. Copy the folder remora-rt1052-basic to the folder LinuxCNC > Configs
   3. Copy the folder components to the folder LinuxCNC
5. Installing the Remora Components
   1. sudo halcompile –install remora-eth-3.0.c
      1. Result: Success
6. Ethernet Setup
   1. Open DHCP configuration in terminal
      1. sudo nano /etc/dhcpcd.conf
   2. Navigate the file to the section ” Example static IP configuration ” , uncomment this section (by removing the #), modify it as follows, then save and exit nano (ctrl X, then Y then enter)
      1. interface eth0
         static ip_address=10.10.10.11/24
   3. Reboot you Raspberry Pi
   4. Verified that the ip address of the RPI4 has changed to 10.10.10.11/24 from the network settings window
      Terminal Emulator Command: hostname -I
      Result:
      10.10.10.11 192.168.40.209 2401:4900:4bbf:1813:83b0:6004:289d:6227
7. Upload the configuration file to the LinuxCNC
   1. Upload the configuration file – python3 upload_config.py ec500-rt1052.txt
      1. Result:
         Traceback (most recent call last):
         File “upload_config.py”, Line &, in <module>
         import tftpy
         ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘tftpy’
   2. Tried to install tftpy using the command
      pip install tftpy
      It showed that tftpy-0.8.2 got installed successfully
   3. Upload the configuration file – python3 upload_config.py ec500-rt1052.txt
      1. Result:
         Traceback (most recent call last):
         File “upload_config.py”, Line &, in <module>
         import tftpy
         ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘tftpy’
   4. Installed : pip install selenium
   5. Upload the configuration file – python3 upload_config.py ec500-rt1052.txt
      1. Result:
         Valid JSON config file, uploading to board
         Config file length (words) = 1716
         Config file length (bytes) = 6862
         Reminder = 2
         Padding added = [0, 0]
         Config file length with padding (bytes) = 6864
         CRC-32 = 0x580751a8
         (Furthermore sentences were there: Attached with this message)
8. Reboot the Controller Board and RPI4
9. Open LinuxCNC: Application > CNC > LinuxCNC
10. Open the configuration: My Configuration > remora-ec500 basic > remora-ec500-rt1052
    1. Error:
       Debug file information:

Note: Using POSIX realtime
remora-nv: dlopen: /usr/lib/linuxcnc/modules/remora-nv.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
./remora-nvem.hal:9: waitpid failed /usr/bin/rtapi_app remora-nv
./remora-nvem.hal:9: /usr/bin/rtapi_app exited without becoming ready
./remora-nvem.hal:9: insmod for remora-nv failed, returned -1
1798

1. 1. Downloaded the file from github.com/scottalford75/Remora-NVEM/tre...Components/Remora-nv
      and copied the file Remora-nv to LinuxCNC > Components
      Installed the file using the code:
      sudo halcompile –install remora.c
   2. Rebooted RPI4 and tried opening LinuxCNC
   3. Error: nvmpg file is missing
   4. Copied nvmpg.c file to LinuxCNC > Components
      Installed it using the command:
      sudo halcompile –install nvmpg.c
      Installed successfully
   5. LinuxCNC Axis GUI opened
2. Rebooted RPI4 and EC500
3. Check out of E-Stop - Failed

I had tried reflashing EC500 but no change. 
Hope to get a help on this.

- Aravind
 

Here in New Zealand I should be sleeping...

I have been searching for "Broadcom" and "coalesce" and have found nothing so far. However, I did find that both the Pi 4 and Pi 5 both use the same Broadcom chips:

Broadcom BCM54213 Gigabit Ethernet PHY

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi#Specifications

The good news for me at this stage (following Rod's suggestion) is that I have run 500,000 pings between my Pi 5 and 7i96s and unlike previous horrors there were 0 lost packets !!! I am now running it overnight with a target of 30,000,000 pings, so here's hoping.

Thanks a lot guys for the pointer on this. The learning curve is steep, but if the RPi 5 can perform, it would be a great solution. It boots to the log screen in about 5 s so is pretty quick. It would be nice to physically mount it on or above the Mesa card...

If you are willing and able, could you take a minute and describe what you think the coalesce setting is doing? My understanding is that once an interrupt is generated by an incoming packet, future interrupts are disabled for some time period and replaced with polling in order to reduce CPU overhead required by the interrupt operation.

Hi, I’m hoping that someone with a RPi Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 or a LinuxCNC desktop/laptop and Mesa 7i96s (or similar Ethernet card) can give me a little bit of assistance.

Could someone please try pinging the Mesa card for 5 or 10 or 15 minutes using the following commands to see if the ethernet comms stops communicating?

I have tried this myself using quite a few different permutations as hinted at in this post title, and in every case I have found the ethernet communications to fail within a few minutes. I am documenting this now and will post it below in a day or two.

==========================================================================

These are the commands I use on a fresh OS install and with Mesa card set to 10.10.10.10 using the W5 jumper.

nmcli con show // look for the ethernet name, probably “Wired connection 1”

sudo nmcli con mod “Wired connection 1” ipv4.addresses 10.10.10.11/24  // See the ethernet port to this address with mask 255.255.255.0

ping 10.10.10.10  // ping the Mesa card to see if the ethernet comms is working (assuming card is at address 10.10.10.10)

sudo chrt 99 ping -i 0.001 10.10.10.10  // repeatedly ping the card at 1 ms intervals and wait to see if the comms stops (5 minutes typ. in my experience)

==========================================================================

If you don’t get a failure of the communications, could you please post the version of Linux that you are using? You can use the following command.

uname -a

Thanks in advance.

For reference: 7i92 intermittant comms --->  forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/3656...2-read-error?start=0

 

After about 10 lots of 5000 packets, we lose 4 packets. Note that the time also increased from a series of 5003-5004 ms and jumped up to 5040 ms. So we lost 4 packets at a cost of 4x10 ms...

cnc@linuxcnc:~$ sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10 -c 5000
PING 10.10.10.10 (10.10.10.10) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
5000 packets transmitted, 5000 received, 0% packet loss, time 5003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.101/0.108/0.127/0.004 ms
cnc@linuxcnc:~$ sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10 -c 5000
PING 10.10.10.10 (10.10.10.10) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
5000 packets transmitted, 5000 received, 0% packet loss, time 5004ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.102/0.110/0.134/0.004 ms
cnc@linuxcnc:~$ sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10 -c 5000
PING 10.10.10.10 (10.10.10.10) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- 10.10.10.10 ping statistics ---
5000 packets transmitted, 4996 received, 0.08% packet loss, time 5040ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.102/0.109/0.242/0.005 ms

Mmmmmm.

Back to 10.10.10.11 on the Pi 5 and the ethernet packet losses are still there.

I have moved the Pi PSU to my iPad PSU which can supply 5V @ 3A. I am assuming that with all Apple's wealth, they have built a decent USB-C SMPSU.

sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q 10.10.10.10 -c 5000

5000 packets transmitted, 4995 received, 0.1% packet loss, time 5049ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.101/0.110/0.262/0.004 ms.

Is it the RPi OS?