ColorCNC Colorlight 5A-75E/5A-75B as FPGA controller board

This is the topic to discuss my contribution into Linuxcnc. The project is named "ColorCNC" because it's a firmware driver for Chinese board Colorlight 5A-75B, which was originally intended for control of LED video screens.A lot of stuff about this board is discussed here: github.com/enjoy-digital/colorlite and here: github.com/q3k/chubby75 My firmware is based partly on the liteeth project github.com/enjoy-digital/liteeth and partly on known pluto-p firmware from Linuxcnc repo. As of now, it implements in this $15 board:6 step generators24 di12 do3 pwmUnused possibilities:risc-v CPU synthesized processor core (provides 32 bits, 50 MHz CPU)and2M*16 SDRAM (totally 4 Mbytes of memory)It's open source and highly configurable. The firmware is built using yosys nextpnr toolchain.

That looks rather intriguing, thanks.

Any more info pinout etc ? I would love to give it a try Thanks for the MESA alternative.

That's very interesting,
I'm running my mill with a raspi + uC board and I was considering to switch to an FPGA.
Any more infos/source?
I'd like to try.
Fabio

github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/1422

how many logic elements does it use? I have to look into it more, but this could be used with the common ice40 fpgas' could it not?

Maybe we should put this into a dev branch and clean it up and test this out for a while.

Thanks for the link,

From a superficial code reading it seem to me that there are encoders already designed in fpga but they are not connected yet to linuxcnc.
Am I correct?
I like what I'm seeing: if the encoders will be functional in future, it will be all
that I need for a while.
I've ordered a pair of Colorlight 5A-75B for testing.
Thank you for sharing this!

What boards support input via the headers, if any ?

After a quick scan through the docs it seems that the ports are one way, apart from the RV901T which has a Spartan 6 FPGA.

Just thinking out loud....(not having access to a schematic)
It would seem that to get input on the Lattice based boards some of the 74HC245s would need replacement with 74LVC245s and a mod to change direction. These are 3.3v devices that have 5v tolerant inputs.

I was thinking about the input interfacing.
If the '245 that are on the board are HC and not HCT it would be enough to
connect their Vcc to 3V3 and invert Dir. This will enable for 3V3 inputs,
If the '245 on the board are HCT or one need 5V inputs, then a IC swap is necessary.
The limitation is that all the pins connected to one IC will be either all inputs or all outputs.

Here's the link the Colorlight 5A-75B LED FPGA card:

www.colorlight-led.com/product/colorligh...-receiving-card.html

www.colorlight-led.com/document/5A-75B/C...t-Specification.html

$16 listing  www.led-card.com/colorlight-5a-75-ture-color-led-processor.html