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Just completed a successful installation of LinuxCNC version 2.9.8 on a Pi 4 with 4 gig of RAM.

Thanks to forum user "NWE" for recommending the version to download, named below:
2026-01-21-raspios-lcnc-2.9.8-trixie-arm64.zip

After downloading and using balenaEtcher to flash a 256Gig micro SD card, it booted to a Debian 13 Trixie style desktop and opened a "boot wizard".  After creating an account, the wizard recommended loading updates.  There was trouble after that, the login dialog box wouldn't accept any userids/passwords.

After rebooting and choosing NOT to load s/w updates, everything worked fine.  

I'm using LinuxCNC to retrofit a 1990's vintage Intelitek ProLight 3000 CNC lathe.  The original lathe was controlled using proprietary h/w and PC-based s/w.  I acquired a Mesa 7i76EU board as recommended by Mesa Technical Support so the journey is underway.

I see that LinuxCNC has a Mesa board config tool so I'll use that.

Any advice or coaching for me as an absolute LinuxCNC newbie is much appreciated.

 

Hi, I bought a used Rat Rig StrongHold that ran fine for the previous owner. I re-flashed a fresh Flexi-Pi image and now I’m stuck. Setup: • Rat Rig StrongHold, Flexi-HAL (STM32F4, SPI), Raspberry Pi 4• LinuxCNC 2.9.8, QtDragon_hd 1.5• remora-flexi config (~/linuxcnc/configs/flexi-hal/)• Gantry: TWO Y motors (joint.1 + joint.3), but only ONE Y limit sensor• Sensors: Heschen SN04-N2 (inductive, NPN, NC) Problem: • Status shows “hard limits tripped”, machine won’t turn ON• HOME X / HOME Y / HOME Z read as triggered (red) permanently in the INPUTS panel, machine sitting free in the middle• The separate “LIMIT” input does NOT light up Key finding — this is the important part: • If I DISCONNECT a limit switch, NOTHING changes — the home input stays triggered.• So the input reads as permanently active regardless of whether a sensor is connected or not.• Toggling .not on the home-sw-in lines in the HAL does nothing either. Commenting the lines out completely also changes nothing.• The sensors themselves work fine (LED on sensor and breakout board switches with metal, they have power). I did NOT change any wiring — it’s exactly as it ran for the previous owner. So it seems the inversion/logic is not on the LinuxCNC side at all. My question: Where does the limit/home input polarity get set for the Flexi-HAL? Is it a grblHAL firmware setting on the board itself (like $5 invert limit pins, or an NC/NO setting), separate from the LinuxCNC HAL/INI? If so, how do I read and change it — through LinuxCNC, or do I need to connect to the board another way? Since disconnecting the switch doesn’t change the input at all, I suspect the board is configured to expect the opposite switch type (or the pins are inverted at the firmware level). Also (probably separate): MODBUS ERRORS counter keeps climbing (was ~174, rising), FAULT 0x0 — that’s the VFD/RS485 side (vfdmod, set for Durapulse GS10 by default). Happy to post photos of the board, breakout PCB, INPUTS panel, and my full HAL/INI. Thanks a lot!

Hello All,

  I'm attempting to retrofit a 90's vintage Intelitek Prolight 3000 lathe.  This is a small slant bed CNC lathe marketed to high school and technical college programs, and originally controlled by proprietary electronics and a desktop PC.

The plan is to use LinuxCNC on a Raspberry Pi 4, mated with a Mesa 7i76EU board, along with TB6600 stepper drivers to control and X- and Z-axes as well as a stepper driven 8 position tool changer.  The spindle motor speed is analog controlled 0 - 10 volt signal input.

I have zero experience with most of this and would appreciate any coaching on:

- which Linux distro to load on the Pi 4.
- any resources for configurations, etc.
- any other stuff I don't even know that I don't know.

Thanks in advance!
 

I found the culprit!

Apparently, the customized component that handles the SPI communication with the customized remora-spi firmware is not compatible with trixie.

This is the part in the code that breaks it.

The soc ranges path is different in trixie.

I modified the component so, that when the path does not exist, I just consider it as a Raspberry Pi 5 with RP1 chip, and now it works!

I know it's just a quick and dirty workaround, but works for me.

jean wrote:

Hello, good afternoon. Could someone help me load the .bin firmware onto the EC500 RT1052? I've tried several programs and commands, but without success. I have the Chinese Stlink V2 and a Raspberry Pi Pico.
 

The EC500 does not like programming and I have bricked two controllers some time ago.
Fortunatelly this is possibility to bring it back to life. 
I have developed the following procedure:
1. Disconnect the controller from the power supply.
2. Disconnect the programmer.
3. Short by jumper the BOOT_M0 pin with 3V3 (programming connector).
4. Turn on the 24V power supply and do not turn it off until the end.
5. Remove the jumper.
6 Connect the programmer (I use ST-Link, but others also work).
7. Run the script below:8. If it doesn't work, keep trying until you succeed.  

Its been some months since I started this quest, and only a week or so ago, I managed to get a reliable spindle orientation system working.
This was only achieved by working with that bright but sometimes impossibly childlike system, Co-Pilot.
Just about the same time I started looking at this, the 1983 parajust spindle vfd  became unmendable, so I adopted a Yakagawa vfd and although it ran to me normally, I hadn't appreciated a few finer points, like what is the minimum rpm figure and what happens if the input stage receives a negative voltage indicating reverse, when the machine is setup to have a reversing relay.
So the basic premis is that the spindle, which is to all intentes direct driven as the motor is connected by a 1:1 HPD belt, has on it a 48 tooth wheel passing two hall effects sensors suitably spaced to output a quadrature signal. There is a separate single tooth index on the other edge of the pulley.  The version of Linuxcnc is 2.9.3 and on a Raspberry PI (5) platform. The latter fact caused a lot of confusion as there are some subtle timing issues wrt to index pulses. Once overcome, the trying to use the Orient command failed as the orient window ends up being 22° wide, and maybe because the motion controller expects an encoder with over a thousand counts per rev, not 192. Anyway, means I cannot use Orient.
Neither could I use M19, and I could not find any pin that would light up when M19 called, so have adopted M119 as a custom command. (There is also an M109 to cancel M119, but not used as the M119 contains the shut down itself down after a wait.) M19 cannot be remapped as its too deep in the motion control, I believe.

The vfd can be set to run right down to less than 20rpm and the machine's spindle brake is hard wired into the vfd enable signal, so the only viable method I have found is to set the index enable, run the spindle until the index enable pin goes low, and disable the vfd and apply the brake.
You'll see from the attached hal file that this simple statement led to a complex solution.

The Normal spindle commands M3 and M4 on this machine do not require a spindle PID. The vfd on its own without any feedback runs the spindle stably and consistently, so is not implemented. Because I have a reversing relay, the vfd speed signal needs to be abs, so not to go negative. Also before I set out on this orientation quest, rigid tapping via M33.1 worked, so that encoder feedback requires being maintained.

This may not be elegant, but it does work for me, where none of the other methods, and I try try too many of them, didn't suit my hardware.

The actual code here was written by Co-Pilot and my relationship with 'him' has been interesting Just because he gets the syntax right once, don't be surprised when  some iterations later, 'he' 'forgets' and has to be reminded. At times it has been extraordinarily frustating, but the way I see it is that he has read the whole forum, github releases and a lot more, so can guess at solutions, but won't know if something that was put forward actually worked, so if you engage in this kind of torture, you have to go back with facts, and he will rewrite, over and over..

One thing left over to solve is that when running at 3000 rpm say, and calling for a tool change, the spindle enable signal disappears and the spindle brake applies instantly, and to my mind its uneccessarily violent. I asked Co-Pilot to write me a soft stop that instead of simply cutting the enable signal, reduces the speed to 450 rpm speed, so the spindle is braked internally via the vfd and braking resisitor to a much slower speed before applying the brake. This is written, but not yet tested.

 

Hey everyone! 

I'm pretty new to LinuxCNC and I'm trying to figure out what kind of computer or hardware setup works best for running it smoothly.

I've been reading some posts about latency issues and it got me kinda confused lol. Like, does it matter a lot what CPU or motherboard you use? And is a regular desktop PC always better than something like a mini PC or a single board computer (like Raspberry Pi)?

Here's kind of my situation:
- I don't have a huge budget, so I want something reliable but not super expensive
- I'll mostly be using a parallel port or maybe Ethernet-based motion controller
- Low latency is really important I think, but I don't fully understand how to test for it yet

I've been browsing some options online, maybe these can help others too:

www.amazon.com/s?k=mini+pc+intel+n100

www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=dell+optiplex+linuxcnc

etechdevices.com/collections/pc-servers-software

If anyone can share what PC or hardware setup they're using and whether it runs well, that would be super awesome! Even just a quick "this works great" or "avoid this" would help a lot. 

Thanks so much in advance, you guys seem really helpful here!

Hallo zusammen,

ich versuche aktuell einen StepperOnline 750W EtherCAT AC-Servomotor (17-bit Absolutencoder, ohne Bremse) in mein LinuxCNC System zu integrieren.

Der Motor ist bereits mechanisch und elektrisch angeschlossen (Netzfilter, Treiber, Motor + Encoder), soweit ist die Hardware grundsätzlich lauffähig.

Mein Ziel ist es, LinuxCNC als EtherCAT Master einzurichten, um zunächst den einzelnen Motor in Betrieb zu nehmen und später mehrere Achsen meiner Maschine schrittweise auf EtherCAT umzubauen.

Ich hatte bereits einen ersten Installationsversuch mit EtherCAT (vermutlich IgH oder SOEM / LinuxCNC Integration), dabei traten jedoch wiederholt Fehler auf. Nach meiner (mehr GPT) Analyse waren vermutlich noch Reste einer früheren (nicht sauberen) Installation bzw. evtl. Raspberry-Pi-bezogene Pakete oder Konfigurationen im System vorhanden, die Konflikte verursacht haben könnten. Diese habe ich inzwischen entfernt bzw. bereinigt, mit GPT .

Aktuell möchte ich deshalb bewusst mit einer sauberen und nachvollziehbaren Schritt-für-Schritt Anleitung neu beginnen, da ich vermeiden möchte, erneut eine fehlerhafte Konfiguration aufzubauen, die ich nicht verstehe.

Ziel ist es zunächst:
- einen einzelnen EtherCAT Servo in LinuxCNC zu betreiben
- einfache Bewegungen und Tests durchzuführen
- später schrittweise weitere Motoren der Maschine (Masacard/Alt-System) auf EtherCAT umzubauen
- langfristig die gesamte Anlage auf EtherCAT umzustellen

---

## Systeminformationen

Distribution:
Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)

Kernel:
6.1.0-48-rt-amd64 (PREEMPT_RT)

LinuxCNC:
2.9.8 (linuxcnc-uspace)

CPU:
Intel Core i3-6100 @ 3.70 GHz (4 Threads)

RAM:
8 GB

Storage:
Toshiba SSD ~120 GB (ext4)

Network:
- enp1s0: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 (r8168 driver) – DOWN
- enp2s0: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 (r8168 driver) – UP (100 Mbit/s)

Kernel Modules:
r8168 driver is used for both NICs

PCI:
Intel H110 chipset system

---

## Kernel / RT Status

PREEMPT_RT kernel is active and confirmed.

---

## Frage

Ich suche eine saubere, empfohlene Vorgehensweise zur Installation und Konfiguration von EtherCAT (z. B. IgH EtherCAT Master oder alternative Lösung) in Kombination mit LinuxCNC 2.9.x auf Debian 12 RT.

Wichtig ist mir vor allem:
- stabile Echtzeitfähigkeit
- keine “versteckten” alten Pakete oder Konflikte
- möglichst nachvollziehbare Schritt-für-Schritt Installation
- Empfehlung für Netzwerkinterface (Realtek vs. alternative NIC falls nötig)

Vielen Dank für jede Hilfe!
Mücke

Hi all,
I’m looking for some advice on configuring a tool changer for a Samurai 120 CNC.The machine is currently running a Raspberry Pi 5 with EtherCAT-based Leadshine EL8 servo drives and motors.
The tool changer will require two additional motors, which I haven’t purchased yet. At the moment I’m considering the StepperOnline EtherCAT servo motors, as they’re significantly cheaper than the Leadshine units.
Has anyone here configured an EtherCAT-based tool changer using two motors, or got any advice on the best way to approach the setup and control side of it?I’m also using the Probe Basic interface, so I’ll probably need some help understanding how to correctly configure everything to work with that as well.Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
 

A bit of background I had gifted a 1995 Cipher engraving table controlled by a Multicam M23 box all new in the day I wanted to bring it up to date and do a complete rebuild and upgrade and as I knew/know just a little I firstly built a control box using a raspberry PI5 and attached it to a testrig I made and then to a chinese table learning how to use Linuxcnc Freecad and any other useful addons.

Now for the issue I have rebuilt the Cipher table with my Pi5 control box and it all works sensors steppers BUT initially it was engraving text mirrored so I fiddled with the INI file settings  min limit and max limit...and eventually got it to do machining BUT the layout is upside down and the X and Y axis numbers are negative below is an image showing the home and extents I have also attached the INI file
I would like to be able to load the files right side up All works fine on my first table build.

I should add that the table image attached is as the physical table but the image on screen in axis shows the home position top rhs if I "fiddle and get the home to btm left on the screen it messes with the homing 

 

I get a 'Connection refused' error shown below when I try to start linuxcnc using a Raspberry Pi 4B and a new MESA 7i96S card.
I can successfully ping the MESA card from the RPi

• I can get card information using mesaflash --readhmid
• iptables is configured to accept all packets and not drop any.
• The yellow and green LEDs are on for both the RPi and the MESA.

I've tried multiple RPis, MESA cards (both are new), power supplies, network cables, Linuxcnc versions, RPi imagers, ip configurations, disabling WIFI and setting the IP address on the MESA to both 10.10.10.10 and 192.168.1.121.  
The results are the same; Connection refused.

Any thoughts or information on how to resolve this issue is greatly appreciated.

Found file(REL): ./cncmill.hal
Shutting down and cleaning up LinuxCNC...
Running HAL shutdown script
hm2: loading Mesa HostMot2 driver version 0.15
hm2_eth: loading Mesa AnyIO HostMot2 ethernet driver version 0.2
hm2_eth: ERROR: Could not retrieve hardware address (MAC) of 10.10.10.1: Connection refused
hm2: unloading
Removing HAL_LIB, RTAPI, and Real Time OS modules
Removing NML shared memory segments

Debug file information:
Note: Using POSIX realtime
hm2_eth: rtapi_app_main: Connection refused (-111)
./cncmill.hal:9: waitpid failed /usr/bin/rtapi_app hm2_eth
./cncmill.hal:9: /usr/bin/rtapi_app exited without becoming ready
./cncmill.hal:9: insmod for hm2_eth failed, returned -1
1509
Stopping realtime threads
Unloading hal components
Note: Using POSIX realtime

 

 

www.google.com/search?q=mesa+7c81+raspbe...+site%3Alinuxcnc.org

Hi Victo4,

congrats for your project, that is pretty cool.

Your modded vertical Linuxcnc version is available to download?
I can't find it on your github...

Thanks and regards,
Adam

Quite a few people have used 500 Hz servo thread instead of normal 1000 Hz on Raspberry Pi etc so I wonder how much of a difference it really makes? Ethercat would still be doing its thing internally. You'd have to test.

Hello, good afternoon. Could someone help me load the .bin firmware onto the EC500 RT1052? I've tried several programs and commands, but without success. I have the Chinese Stlink V2 and a Raspberry Pi Pico.