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Hi everyone! I’m new to Linux and Orange Pi, but I’m really eager to learn and figure things out. I would be incredibly grateful for your help. Could someone write a simple, step-by-step guide—from a fresh Armbian installation to a fully working setup, including using files from a disk? I’m really trying to understand everything and I’ve already exhausted ChatGPT! Please, I would deeply appreciate any guidance you can give

So LinuxCNC setup (2.9.4) with 7i96S initially set at IP address 10.10.10.10:

mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid
(works)
LinuxCNC with 10.10.10.10 IP address works and inputs work
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --set ip=10.10.10.11
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --reset
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.11 --readhmid
(works)
LinuxCNC with 10.10.10.11 IP address works and inputs work
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.11 --set ip=10.10.10.10
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.11 --reset
mesaflash --device  7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid
(works)
LinuxCNC with 10.10.10.10 IP address works and inputs work

Did nothing else (never ran ip command at all)


 

I do power cycle the card each time, this is what it outputs with ip a:

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 ::1/128 scope host noprefixroute
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eno1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc fq_codel state UP group default qlen 1000
link/ether 34:17:eb:c5:16:36 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
altname enp0s25
inet 10.10.10.1/24 scope global eno1
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever


Keep in mind after using mesa flash to change my card's ip to 10.10.10.11, I can ping it but linuxcnc wont connect to it until I do:

sudo ip addr flush dev eno1
sudo ip addr add 10.10.10.1/24 dev eno1
sudo ip link set eno1 up
sudo ip neigh flush dev eno1

ping -c2 10.10.10.10
mesaflash --device 7i96s --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid

and if i restart my computer I have to redo that code, but I imagine I just need to set it as permanent, but nontheless it does not fix my issue even when linuxcnc and pncconf can communicate with the board on its new ip address


EDIT:  when I run a temporary hal instance via 
halrun
loadrt hostmot2
loadrt hm2_eth board_ip=10.10.10.11
loadrt threads name1=servo-thread period1=1000000
addf hm2_7i96s.0.read  servo-thread
addf hm2_7i96s.0.write servo-thread
start

and use getp to get the value of the pin, the limit switch DOES work

 

I've got Leadshine EL8 servo drives talking over ethercat and am trying to get sensorless homing to work.

With the help of the forums, specifically this post , I've found a way to request a specific homing mode. In the EL8 drive documentation, all the torque based sensorless homing modes are a negative number.

setp lcec.0.0.home-mode -6

is what I'm after. Other modes such as mode 35 which homes in place, works just fine so everything appears to be in order. As far as I can tell, the positive number homing modes work fine, but not the negative ones. I can't tell if this is a drive problem or a linuxcnc problem.

Would there be any reason why I can't pass a negative number? Syntax maybe?

Edit3: I have successfully changed the IP address to 10.10.10.11 and connected it back to my computer and it STILL only works in pncconf but NOT when i run my linuxcnc!!!!!

What is the host IP address set to?

The command:

ip a

will report this.

Also note that when you change the 7I96S EEPROM IP address, you must power cycle the card
or issue a reset command before the new EEPROM information is applied.
 

Most probably from the ini file and the respective values for each axis/joint and in correlation to kinematics used.
That is just off the top of my very tired head, so might want to wait for someone to confirm or deny that.
And i would not call it "virtual", it is an actual representation of the machine, but i am sure it can be argued both ways.

If you somehow find yourself here, do not use 2.9.5, use 2.9.6. More info here:
forum.linuxcnc.org/29-forum-announcement...xcnc-v2-9-6-released

Bump to remove it from "no replies" list.

Did all this and some more 2 days ago while i was building a small 4 axis cnc machine and waiting for it's parts to print (not shown here, but the round teethed thing shown here is also for that machine).
Notice the changes on the FreeCAD GUI, made it much more enjoyable to use

Yeah, no idea how to put this nicely, but you can not just put values at random and expect things to work, so:
-linear joints/axis must move in positive space, not negative
-z axis must move in negative space
-rotating axis/joints can move either way, depends on what the CAM being used outputs.
The above "must" is conditional as there are situations when stuff needs to move in negative space, but those were usually very old cnc controls.
First figure out what your CAM outputs, then set the workspace accordingly.
Then make sure the axis/ joints move in the correct direction, spindle going from left to right side should be increasing positive values for X on the DRO, spindle moving away from you should also increase values for Y in DRO, and spindle going down should increase the negative value for Z in DRO.

An interesting discussion, I've used FreeCad for a while for 3D printing.  Most of the machining I do is too simple to demand intervention by CAD so far

If people want information on some interesting concepts in FreeCad, here are some YouTube channels that might interest:

www.youtube.com/@4axisprinting/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@MangoJellySolutions/videos

www.youtube.com/@CADCAMLessons/videos

There are others, but I don't want to make this too lengthy

Glad you figured it out.
Now add some HOME_OFFSET to all joints so they back off of the switches when they finish homing sequence, usually 2-3mm are enough. And also set the HOME_FINAL_VELOCITY to something reasonable as by default they run at full machine speed for those 2-3mm, on fast machines that is terrifying!
Keep the HOME_ velocities low till you get all joints homing properly, joints move toward the switch, then back off, then again towards the switch and finally those 2-3mm and stop.

How does LinuxCNC/Mesa know there was a fault?
If drives have fault out, there might be something we can do, but for now i am out of commission as i spent the whole day chasing python scripts to output gcode for 3 and 4 axis machines from some really obtuse files some proprietary software outputs.

I think my original reply did not save - these did not work unfortunately

I remade from scratch a pncconf with axis gui. again in pncconf I am seeing the GPIO-000 pin and input-00 correctly change state when i press the limit switch. Similarly I see on the board the LED light of input-00 change state

However, when I run the actual axis instance, and use hal meter to view gpio.000 or input-00 neither change state anymore, HOWEVER, the led light on the board continues to change states correctly.

I am at an utter loss. It almost seems like the input side of mesa is not communicating when I am running the software, but I do not understand how that is possible. Do you have any other thoughts? I am at a complete loss

EDIT: I have an important clue I discovered: If I open my first machine's instance of linuxcnc, and go into hal config, then I am able to see my limit switch activate successfully. I believe this means there is some issue with having two of my mesa's on this computer even though I only have one plugged in at a time. Has anyone encountered this and know of a fix? I will purchase a new computer most likely regardless but I am still hoping to figure this out while I wait.

EDIT2: I am trying to change the ip address of this second mesa to 10.10.10.11 ( I have w4 and w5 set to eeprom). It says it changed successfully, but when I try to readhmid it says no board found, and I can no longer communicate with the board. So trying to fix this now... (when I do ping 10.10.10.11 it does ping successfully)

Edit3: I have successfully changed the IP address to 10.10.10.11 and connected it back to my computer and it STILL only works in pncconf but NOT when i run my linuxcnc!!!!!

What informs the GUI as to where the virtual spindle is placed in reference to the bounding box? (What else, other than using the center of the min and max joint values for each joint)