Advanced Search

Looks like there is more support for Mesa than I was aware of.
linuxcnc.org/docs/2.9/html/drivers/mesa_...us.html#_quick_start

But it still looks more complicated than using USB.

Using the USB dongle is much simpler and uses supported drivers that are included with Linuxcnc.

Using the Mesa board for controlling an RS485 device is more involved. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that you would be required to a custom firmware that would then need a custom modified Linux driver that supports your specific RS485 device (each device implements Modbus control differently.) There is very little if any documented support for this using Mesa. I've only read a few threads where people were wanting to try this, but I don't think I've seen any posts declaring success, let alone instructions.

If those are AI suggestions, they are pure nonsense...

To reduce network latency:

1. Make sure basic host latency setup is done (disable power management etc)

2. If you have an intel MAC on the host PC, disable IRQ coalescing.

3. Use isolcpus to run LinuxCNC on the last CPU

4.  (in conjunction with #3) Pin the Ethernet IRQ to the last CPU
(and set irqbalance to one-shot mode so it doesn't mess with the IRQ pinning)

To check maximum network latency:

sudo chrt 99 ping -i .001 -q -c 60000 10.10.10.10

( Assuming 10.10.10.10 is the 7I76E IP address ) 

This will run for 1 minute and print statistics

 

Thank you Erick, i am not sure but i think it was the LB version, but if possible wait till i confirm that as i am not near it nor is the person that uses it.
Thank you very much for the offer.

Mesa nutzt die Smart Serial, die pins wird automatich gemacht, mus nur im hal diese pins mit anderen pins werknupfen.
Ich denke es gibt etwas im PncConf uber das, aber kein firmware wechsel ist notig.

I may be able to help if you can tell me which control(s) are on it. 160i could be L, P, LA, PA, LB, PB. I think those were all the versions of the 160i that would be on such a machine.

I did the 
ping between mesa is less then 0,3ms and it is per to per connection

I did not try the custom firmware 
goal is -
resualt is no change at all ... 

pl.studentoflife wrote:

I'm using those drivers currently. They are quite a beasty. It is possible to use them in standalone mode, but  i would advice against it if your motor is relatively low current (below 5A). I burnt one motor this way as setup of IRUN (with CFG pins) is half range up to full power - this is probably linear scale so 5 -10 A.

Best option is to have additional SPI capable device (arduino, rasperry pi, even 8081 probably would do) just to configure the driver(s).
Connect DIR/Step (and maybe DIAGs) to parallel/mesa card. 

Quite important to supply all 3 power inputs (took me some time to get figure this out)
- main board HV (0-60) 
- stepstick adapter VIO for logic (5V)
- stepstick adapter VM/ 24V (it can be lower - i'm  using 19.5V/4A now). As mentioned this input is exposed as VM on stepstick adapter - it should be used to  supply colling FAN but is also used to supply TMC internal voltage regulator and then some internal circuitry !!! 
As a observation it looks like this input require some power too like few amps (my 24V/1.6A died when suppling 3 drivers- was good with one).
 
Next step is just to tune parameters and you are set.


 

I did manage to get these boards to work in the mode I needed through SPI programming.
NEMA23 - 48v 3A
I measured the current on the 24V branch - 20-30mA when the engine was running.
Programming via SPI from STM32 has its own tricks, but it was actually very interesting!
 

So you tried stuff AI has, what have you tried and what were the exact results ? To save repeating stuff.

Just to check if i messed op the ui file, i made a new project, just with essential items to start. The behaviour is the same. When a running a program or mdi move, and press a button with feed_percent_, rapid_percent_ ,spindle_percent_ the display stops updating for about 5 seconds. When watching distance to go in hal, this keeps moving.

 

Hey Mark,

really nice work with your Maho retrofit. I'll certainly use your gearbox component in my conversion as well

I am actually using the original M23 connectors. The assembly concept is also shown on the Github page.

These are pictures of the very first test PCB, not the latest v0.9.5
 
 

Wow, nice work.
One aspect of the Heidenhain hardware which is outstanding is the quality of their cables (double shielded) and connectors (M23). Why downgrade to D-Sub rather than making your board compatible with M23, so you can plug the scales straight in?
Mark

Hello gentelmen,

How to reduce the read-all timig from 0,8ms to something below please? Ping I have beloe 0,3ms and latency at servothread below 800ns 

I am using 7i76e+7i77 at P1 with 3 axis setup..

I have tried everything what AI told me but without any success ... 

thanks

Thank you for your suggestions. I'll test them within the next two weeks and keep you updated – I'm currently in the middle of my exam period, so my rime for the retrofit is limited :/

Hey folks, 

i'm currently retrofitting my Maho MH400E and also needed a interpolator for my linear scales. I wanted to ditch the big clunky 3 channel board of Heidenhain and also avoid the EXEs with the same reason. Without knowing about your project i started my own interpolator also based on the iC-NV and reached out to the manufacturer iC-Haus. They kindly provided some more details and also the hint to have a look at the datasheet of the iC-NQC. In that datasheet, there is a analog frontend suggestion, that can be feed with 11µA, 1V and TTL signals (the NQC is a BiSS interpolator/converter). So i pretty much copied that input circuit (ditched the TTL input) and added some lowpass capacitors like they suggested in a other part of the datasheet. In case they don't work it's easy enough to just not populate them. 

The current list of features are: 
- DB15 plug matches pinout of Beckhoffs EP5101-0011
- In case somebody doesn't use it with a EP5101 it also supports reverse voltage protection
- All inputs and outputs are ESD safe
- Current limiter for sensor supply (currently set to 120 mA - can be bridged if not needed)
- Differential and single ended output possible (manually selectable via solder jumpers or by 0 ohm resistors)
- All signal lines are length matched to all other encoder channels
- Sensor can be plugged in via pin header or RJ45 (different pinout than yours - pin matched with Heidenhain)
- Board is meant as eval board as well as "finished product". Every input can be changed via a switch or the provided potentiometer

At the moment i'm at version 0.9.2, that's the first "finished" pcb layout, the texts for the switches, testpoints, ... are missing. I'll get to these in around 2 weeks, when my exams are over. 
You can find the project here on Github: github.com/PedPEx/SinCosEnc-Conv_EP5101
When you have any inputs on that project, just let me know