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Hi, "the friend" here. First of all, thanks Peter, for your support. I've no experience in flashing PICs so far so I'm not sure what the problem is. When I open the hex files in the MPLAB IDE (v8.92) the first 0xffff bytes are 0xff and then the contents of the hexfile starts at offset 0x1000.
When opening the hexfile in a text editor I can at least verify that it does not start at offset 0 but at an offset 0x2000. The first line, for example, reads

:182000004440A8003420EF0060042000E0ECB70020022000E1ECB7008C

From left to right 0x18=24 bytes, offset 0x2000, record type 0x00 = data, then 24 data bytes and one byte checksum.

I'm not sure where the difference between 0x1000 and 0x2000 comes from. But when I read the firmware back with the programmer and save it as a hex file it starts at 0x0000.

:020000040000FA
:10000000D9043700B40900003C0C0000500C00007B

So I assume that maybe in the first 0xfff bytes is something like a bootloader or similar.
The only way I could get the firmware to run was using the lines up to offset 0x2000 from the original firmware read from the board before flashing and combining them with the lines from the file you sent. So when I read the firmware back I get the file I attached (the one named ...readback.hex). The firmware flashed that way runs, is recognized as firmware 16 by LinuxCNC and e.g. the analog inputs work fine, only the matrix_kb doesn't work at all. In the previous firmware 14 only the buttons in column 0 did not work (most probably as they are sampled first).

Regarding the configuration section, I believe it is handled correctly by MPLAB, at least it is read the same way. However it differs in one byte

7I73S16H1.HEX
:0200000401F009
:100000000F000000FF000000070000008300000058
:10001000C50000004000000007000000C300000011
:00000001FF

read back with MPLAB
:0200000401F009
:100000000F00000000000000070000008300000057
:10001000C50000004000000007000000C300000011
:00000001FF

I also noticed that the firmware flashed via upload-eth (named ...before-flashing.hex in the attached zip file) differs in several places from the firmware flashed with the programmer, although, both are version 16, I'm not sure if this is intentional.

I'll try flashing the firmware 14 again tomorrow at check if the matrix_kb buttons, apart from column 0 are working again.

I believe that (data at the end) is the configuration data.
(which is necessary as it does things like setup the clock source)

Can the PICKit3 be told that the configuration data is included in the hex file?

If not, maybe that can be setup by hand, as it's only a couple of options.

Maybe I've found the problem. Looks like the hex file is malformed.
The ":00000001FF" is the EOF - end of file - marker. After EOF it looks like there is more data and another EOF marker.
Looks like there is the missing data!
I can copy the parts after the end to the beginning of the file and try again... unfortunately will take some days of uncertainty before I can try.
Your programming tool could just ignore the EOF marker and also read the extra data.

This is the very end of the 7I73S16H1.HEX intel hex file:
:10A8C800320000000000000000000000000000004E
:10A8D8000000000000800000102700001E0000009B
:10A8E8000080000064000000785600003412000068
:08A8F80000000000AA55000059
:00000001FF
:0200000401F009
:100000000F000000FF000000070000008300000058
:10001000C50000004000000007000000C300000011
:00000001FF

At the risk of the blind leading the blind, to me that is not quite the right question. That chart is for your micro-stepping. Like the 800 is 4 microsteps, if you're using a 1.8 deg. stepper. I have always looked at it this way - What are you doing with the motor? If your opening a door or driving a ram, picking 800 would be fine, but using that on a belt or lead screw may very well end up leaving artifacts in the work due to the rougher movement between points. The downside is the more micro-steps you have the more torque you lose. 3200 (16 micro-steps) seams to be a reasonable middle ground that most use as standard. The controller will put out as many steps as directed by LinuxCNC to make a revolution, just a matter of how fast it can do it.

Whatever you chose, that gets figured out when you tell LinuxCNC in your .ini file how many pulses it takes to move one unit. That is set with the SCALE on each axis. Like for me, I have 16 micro-steps (3200) and a 5mm pitch screw, which works out to SCALE = 640 or -640 depending which way you need the motor to move.

Thanks Slow.

In all that reading I couldn't find how to do what I have been doing.

I have a user button that allows me to align the laser on the sheet where i want 0,0 to be. I press the button and the machine moves to this point and re-zero's the machine.

Could you guide me on an appropriate code that would work in place of "G92 x0 y0/ G0 x-2 y 104/G92 x0 y0" ?

Cheers

I Started with an erased 7I73 and it works properly

Its known that the R14 base part will not work properly
with the R16 user part (keyboard does not work).

If I load the full R16 firmware image (with the checksum above)
with my programmer,  the memory image starts at 0.

Maybe some image incompatibility or hex file option difference
with your programmer is causing the offset.

I have included three most recent full images, I suspect none will work without
some change in your programmer.

Note that I am using a older programmer as well but not a PICKit
(a melabs U2) I do have a PICKit 4 I could try

 

Thank you for this amazing contribution! Does it also work with CL3-E57H? The documentation seems to mention support for the dual version, but not the single one, but then it seems that this version is nearly identical to CS3E-D507, only for the Asian market? Getting this version would help me save quite a lot of money compared to CS3E-D507!

My friend just wrote me that by merging the start of original & rest of the new hex file he could make it run and linuxcnc says fw16 but the buttons are still not working.
Maybe as you mentioned it has something to do with the bootloader it is not a good idea to copy the old bootloader? I really don't know how to fix this now...
Are you sure this file contains a bootloader or whatever is on address 0x0000 - 0x0FFF? Maybe it works for you because you don't erase and only overwrite the area from 0x1000 - ....?
I also feel like PicKit 3 maybe is too old and not doing same procedure as a newer one?

Merci beaucoup 

Thank you so much! This is hugely helpful! The only remaining issue is my Delta MS300 VFD that is currently controlled over 0-10V analog voltage, but I saw it's not too difficult to also set it up with RS485. If someone knows how to do this with LinuxCNC or knows some tutorials, I'd be super thankful.

You can ask them for the catalogue - they have really impressive products, especially their physical CNC control panels that have Ethercat interface. panelmate.en.alibaba.com/ they were so kind they offered a video call with a tour over their showroom right after I messaged them.

Here's what the monitor with built-in PC looks like imgur.com/a/Jaz9kU5

peter@peter-HP-EliteDesk-800-G1-USDT:~/Downloads$ md5sum 7I73S16H1.HEX
0b52431c4f7865ad1e122a7d0b2caf17  7I73S16H1.HEX

Is what I programmed my test 7I73 with and it works:

Erased DSPIC, reprogrammed with 7I73S16H1.HEX (md5 sum: 0b52431c4f7865ad1e122a7d0b2caf17)


 

A friend an I now spend several hours on finding an old PicKit3 programmer and getting it to run under Win11 using programmer version 8.92.
Unfortunately the 7i73 still does not work.
After flashing the hex file from 7i73r16.zip, the leds are dark and nothing happens. Luckily my friend read out the original hex file before we wrote the new one. We could recover it by flashing the original read hex back on it.
Are you sure the file in the Zip contains all necessary parts? The original file included data from Address 0x0000 and the hex in the zip starts at 0x1000 when checked in the programmer.
This starts being some pita - please help!
best regards,
Alex

Whoa!

I think streaming video to your PC during machine operation is gonna really increase latency, especially as you probably don't have a dedicated graphics card.

Why not just connect the PC to a wireless router via ethernet and then connect the camera the same router wirelessly?

The PC and camera can communicate via the router without any Wi-Fi card in the PC.

Problem solved!

Looks like no 5V to the 7I76U

(7I92T W4 needs to be "up")