New Board and Driver Development

Hi All-
I would like to get into developing my own hardware and hardware driver due to recent problems with shortage on hardware.  
I would like to start with EPP parallel port first.  Which driver source files are simple to use as a base or as a sample?  What would be a good IDE to compile and test the driver?  
Thanks,
Rick
 

Not sure what or why, there is already a driver for parallel port included in LinuxCNC that uses all the modes offered by it, be it IN, OUT or X mode.
There are also Mesa and Pico boards that use parallel port differently to enable more options and faster step rates.
For those there should be configs included with LinuxCNC so you can have a look there of at the source code on github.
If you mean developing an external controller/driver board, something like 3D printer boards with ethernet and drives, using Toshiba S109 drives or TMC high voltage ones would be nice.
But that would bring us back to the current chip shortage ...
Or am i missing something?

If you mean developing an external controller/driver board, something like 3D printer boards with ethernet and drives, using Toshiba S109 drives or TMC high voltage ones would be nice.

Ha! I did just this (using ST PowerStep01 chips= 85V 10A) Now unobtanium...
They don't even list a lead time, just "undefined"

Has anyone looked at parallel port  ECP mode with DMA?
(do modern ports even support DMA?)
 

Thanks for your reply.
It will be similar to 7i43 EPP. Mesa boards are out of stock for a while according to Mesa. So I am looking for a solution to the shortage using other available ICs.
Also, having more options to me is always a good thing.

PCW wrote:

Has anyone looked at parallel port  ECP mode with DMA?
(do modern ports even support DMA?)
 

I have always used ECP mode with DMA enabled, that is till you told me EPP is OK for LinuxCNC.
I have never looked at what the Enhanced options are, though.

I use this board. And it is working in EPP mode. I am not sure if they have what you are asking for.
The chipset is NCT6683.
download.mitacmct.com/Files/datasheets/motherboards/PD10BI.pdf

RBC wrote:

Thanks for your reply.
It will be similar to 7i43 EPP. Mesa boards are out of stock for a while according to Mesa. So I am looking for a solution to the shortage using other available ICs.
Also, having more options to me is always a good thing.

 

Note that Pico Systems has plenty of stock of the Universal Stepper Controller and Universal PWM Controller boards, and also the PPMC board set for analog servo drives.  These boards use FPGAs to accelerate encoder counting and step/PWM output.
Jon