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Hi Linuxcnc community, 
I have installed OS in raspberry 5 and Instead of using IO expander I want to use individual ESP32+W5500 for every motor and generate step pulses. If this is possible please help me with the steps in achiving it.
Refer the image below and get what I want to achieve
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JCuLksqd7dcpAcJ44GajRwzOFmay_xuQ/view?usp=sharing 
Thankyou

I working also on 2 other new boards:

1. 3Axis adapter-board with NEMA17 drivers for the iceBreaker Devboards 


2. own FPGA-Board with ice40uP5k and 6Axis as Raspberry-Hat (hope it works ):


both can be build, flashed and connect directly from the RaspberryPi via SPI

 

Hi, i was solving issue with raspberry pi 5 with guys at etherlab, and from my understanding 1ms or 1kHz ethercat cycle is limit for genetric driver. You can get faster cycles when using native drivers like e1000 or igb for intel based ethernet cards.

gitlab.com/etherlab.org/ethercat/-/issues/104#note_1772346704

I was just posting that but then got distracted.
I feel that too many are ready to jump to the latest kernel without really testing.

Seems to be a kernel issue, to many PC's having the same issue, i though this was already fixed by using new kernels.

Forum member Kam visited with a new (old stock) 7i96, got the same packet loss problem.
Tried Windows laptop and Linux laptop, with different cables, all fail.

I note that my install shows as LC2.9.1, not LC2.9.2 as listed in download page.

Replaced LC2.9.2 (1) SD card with a new SD card fresh Imager burn of my old image of LC2.8.4, SUCCESS.
2950 packets for 0% lost.

Both the LC2.9.2(1) and LC2.8.4 were official downloads.

LC2.8.4 loads and opens AXIS.
But still grappling with the Custom Hal to get my E-Stop control working.

Basically back to where I was prior to trying to get WiFi operational.

Now, some more investigation of why my LC2.9.2(1) fails.

Stay well,
John.

pncconf in master supports the 7C81

To use older pncconf with the 7C81 you can make
a configuration with similar hardware (stepgens PWMgens etc)
 and then change the driver name in the .hal file
and card name in the .ini file.


So for example to make a simple step/dir setup
you could choose a 5I25 and prob_rxf2
 then change the:

 loadrt hm2_pci xxxxx

 line in the hal file to:

loadrt hm2_rpspi xxxxx

and the

CARD0=hm2_5i25.0

line in the .ini file

to

CARD0=hm2_7c81.0

 

Hello,
Thank you for your help. I have managed to enable SPI. 
sudo mesaflash --device 7c81 --addr /dev/spidev0.0 --spi --readhmid, now shows that the card is present.
I probably will update to another Pin-configuration for the Mesacard.
How can I use the hm2_rpspi driver? I wanted to build my machine config with the  PNCconf  Wizard and then modify the .hal and .ini files for more things which are outside the capabilities of the Wizard. 
Maybe someone can give me a push in the right direction?
I a have little experience with LinuxCNC and Linux in general.
Also I have used xrdp remote client to access the PC headless and it is giving me trouble. If I install it it works fine, but when I restart the setup the screen shows some distorted mess of pixels. Maybe someone has an idea what goes wrong there?
 

Use the hm2_rpspi driver, the other driver will is it not suitable, if it was we could use it with the RPi5.

You need to enable the SPI interface by editing config.txt

If you run menu-config using sudo there should be an option to either edit config.txt or enable interfaces, uncommercial the line that refers to spi.
Reboot and you’ll have your spi enabled.

Have you followed the instructions for the hm2_* driver that you are using?

And is it linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/man/man9/hm2_rpspi.9.html

or
linuxcnc.org/docs/stable/html/man/man9/hm2_spi.9.html

( I don't know which is expected to work best on the pi4)

Hello,
I have a problem on how to enable SPI on my PI4. I have used the   Raspberry Pi 4 OS based on Debian Bookworm  Image and now I am stuck. I already have installed mesa flash and try to see if can see my Mesacard with mesaflash but that only gives me the message: No 7C81 board found. 
Thanks in advance.

USB to Serial isn't relevant here. I think that plug is intended for transferring G-code to the controller, not for machine control.

USB to parallel won't work either.

Do you have a PC with a physical parallel port? (some have one as headers on the motherboard, but don't connect it to the rear panel)

You could also consider using a Raspberry Pi 4 (not 5 at the moment) but there isn't a config wizard for the Pi GPIO pins.

The attached picture shows a usb to serielport plug with the capabilites to connect diferent pins together. Will this plug comunicate with the linux cnc program to run the cnc  lathe to  make a cutting path for wood turning?
The  below information is from the manufacture of this plug. Thanks CJ Cappella

                                                                      Seriel  to usb cable information from manufactureThis USB cable allows a computer or Raspberry Pi to connect directly to an industrial CNC controller. The circuit inside mimics a RS232 serial port, so the computer software can utilize a standard COM port.Standard off the shelf serial cables will generally not work with industrial CNC machines because there are pins that need to be connected together on the DB25 connector. Custom cables can be purchased, or you can make your own. This USB to serial cable makes it easy to add the connections using internal switches that can be configured to your CNC controllers settings, rather than soldering wires together.

with su you are required to have\know the root password.
sudo only requires you to know your root password.

Latency can be improved by adding isolcpus=2,3 to the kernel command line.The location of the file that needs to be edited is under different directories of /boot depending if you use a pre made Linuxcnc image or install on top of a Raspberry Pi Foundation image. With the RPi Foundation images I use rasp-config to switch from wayland to X11.

I'm not sure what the exact figures are for mesa hardware stepping are but they are way more then you would ever need/find a stepper driver that could use a pulse train that quick.

Be wary of the DIY projects, they are excellent, but sometimes assembling all the hardware required for voltage level translation, coping with differential signals for encoders can come close to Mesa hardware. If you have experience in this field it can be done, I've been down that track, adjusting Mesa source code to suit a dev board and then designing hardware to suit and getting PCBs made then patching Linuxcnc drivers to work with my DIY stuff.

With regards to the latency tests with hardware stepping the constraints aren't so tight, but there is an upper limit.

If I was to try software stepping my list of candidates would be(also some notes on usable interfaces for the RPi models):
1. An x86 system, 4 core if possible with a RT_PREEMPT kernel, for 2 cores maybe a RTAI kernel. (A PC and a parallel port card can be cheaper than an RPi)
2. A RPi5 as this is overall a faster product than the RPi4, but it wont support hardware stepping via SPI. TLDR; the Linuxcnc driver to access the SPI at the hardware level needs a rewrite. Ethernet hasn't been seen to be a problem.
4. A RPi4 (or even better because of a slightly faster clock an RP-400) but don't expect the the machine to excite the world. Spi interface is an option as is Ethernet is also fine for mesa boards.

Be aware that some DIY SPI based options require a servo & base thread, whereas the 7c81,7c80 & 7i90 do not.