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i think i finished the prototype stage, all of the prototype faults are corrected, pcb updated, Linuxcnc HAL Driver finished with safety mechanism (watchdog + jump code checksum, (also in the pico)), added optional lcd connector(128x64 sh1106) to the pcb, python library is ready for other uses (experimenting, remote io, etc....)

 

Ok, sorry, did not know that it is about ethercat.
building new boards for this is of course a good thing, i thought there would be another ESP32/Arduino board or something.

hostmot2 is open source.

I've put to together a couple of open source boards that work with a dev board, so far I've only had some interest from some guy on github.

There's nothing special on the FPGA side that is different from a Spartan6 dev board, SPI & EPP are easy to do. Ethernet is a little bit more difficult, but it is doable, I'm just having issues with using Mesaflash writing bitfiles.

With EtherCAT, after You made your XML file, there is no real difference between Mesa or EtherCAT to be honest.
I got a Beckhoff coupler with 10 natively supported modules running in LinuxCNC in about 5 Minutes. For my custom board it was about 10 Minutes.
The only real additional work is making the XML file.

I also like the Mesa boards, but the boards I need are never on stock, when I need them (of course alway on stock, when I don't want to buy one).

I think the huge advantage of EtherCAT are the cheap (chinese) AC-servo and stepper drives and the really simple wiring. Advanced diagnostics are also simple with the TwinCAT software, but that sadly requires a Windows PC and a supported NIC.

The main reason designing a pendant is, that I have seen a nice one with a display for Mach3, and I really got envios

ajar171 wrote:

Also the ethercat driver in LinuxCNC works very nicely, and is in my opinion easier to configure than a Mesa card.

So far you are the only one who thinks so!
That is from reading here, i have no EtherCAT experience, yet, so i can not deny nor confirm that.
But i can configure Mesa while sleeping...

Thanks for the answers!

Why new? I use ethercat a lot at work, so I also wanted ethercat on my machines

Yes, a lot of hardware (stepper, servo drives, etc.) have ethercat and I also use them, but an encoder input from Beckhoff costs a fortune even on the second hand market. Also the ethercat driver in LinuxCNC works very nicely, and is in my opinion easier to configure than a Mesa card.

The I/O board is only a side project to be honest, my main goal is an open source ethercat MPG pendant with a display.

I've been having issues with MB2HAL and an L510 VFD rebrand. I was hoping to try VFDMOD but unfortunately, the ARM DEB package is armhf and I am using an Rpi 5.Early days for my linuxCNC'ing, but....Is it possible to repackage for arm64 from 32bit?Also thought I'd attach the wiki here just in case. 

Try an add on network card, or a USB to LAN adapter.

why something new again ?

there are now enough projects, why not bundle the work?


- encoder scaling: where is it applied with a Mesa board? In the FPGA (did not find anything in the VHDL) or the hostmot2 driver or in LinuxCNC main software?

RIO calculate the offset and scaling inside the hal_component


- motor acceleration and max speed: the same question

and this inside LinuxCNC and the PID controller

Always use --show at the end of latency histogram, it will show the number of excursions that are not inside the visible area of the histogram, but they can be seen as multicolored columns on both sides of the histogram.
Also, use --nobase if there is no need for the base period, it adds more timing strains to CPU that will mess with the servo period latency results.
For both periodsFor servo period only

ajar171 wrote:

Now to my questions:
- encoder scaling: where is it applied with a Mesa board? In the FPGA (did not find anything in the VHDL) or the hostmot2 driver or in LinuxCNC main software?
- motor acceleration and max speed: the same question

 

In LinuxCNC, in the ini file.

Hi,

Before starting to change kernels etc. I thought maybe first do the latency-histogram test.
I did this on 2 different pc's.

From what i read here : max us > 100 = is bad.
Is this value both the same for base- & servo-thread?
Or maybe i am reading the histogram not correct.

 
 
 

Hi everyone!

Long time lurker here

Being fed up with the random avaiability of Mesa hardware in the EU, I decided to start designing an open source interface board. The schematics and PCB designs are almost finished, the firmware works so far, that I have communication between a development board and LinuxCNC and can control digital and analog inputs and outputs, read encoder inputs, etc.. So far so good...

Now to my questions:
- encoder scaling: where is it applied with a Mesa board? In the FPGA (did not find anything in the VHDL) or the hostmot2 driver or in LinuxCNC main software?
- motor acceleration and max speed: the same question

Thanks in advance!



 

The task check to avoid execution on load can also be put into the ngc remap like this:


Also, as you have already found out, the 'print()' statements are actually executed during read ahead. If you want messages from the command queue you could use something like this:

Of course, having a "senior moment".