7i76e + 7I73 Help

joshwuh
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4 years 1 month ago #251189 by joshwuh

7i76e + 7I73 Help was created by joshwuh

Hello,

I've spent the better part of 3 hours now trying to figure out how all of this comes together, and I've gotten to the point where I think I've just got to ask some questions. I have a 7i76e that I want to use in conjunction with a 7I73 for a pendant. My machine is already up and running with the 7i76e for a couple years now, and I think I've got the pendant wiring all figured out to work with a 4x8 keypad and LCD.

The pendant is currently *not* connected to the 7i76e. I was trying to figure everything out before connecting.

Some details of my journey so far:

Page 20 of the 7i76e manual describes how to connect a CAT5/6 cable to TB3 to utilize the RS-422 interface. I got this part down.
andypugh's post about "Mesa Card Basics" gave some good starting point details, including making me aware of hostmot2 and mesaflash
I found a YouTube video in German that has shown me how to use mesaflash to flash a .bit file to a 7i76e (although - I do not know German so I cannot decipher the words he is saying).
I downloaded this .zip file from the mesa website that contains some hostmot2 configs (7i76 + 7i73 does not appear to be one of them)

I'm struggling because I haven't yet found any guidance that presents all pieces of the puzzle for connecting these two devices together. This is what I *think* needs to happen....

It seems like the first step is to make the 7i76e aware that it should expect a 7I73 to be connected to pins 15-20 on TB3. This seems to be the purpose of flashing. When I do

Code:

mesaflash --device 7i76e --addr 10.10.10.10 readhmid

I get a readout that appears to be the standard response -- it shows 3 "SSerial" values for secondary functions on Pin #7-10 on "on-card", but I do not see how those numbers would correspond to TB3's.
Somehow I need to get the "configuration" of the 7I73 sent over to it. It seems like this is done in HAL? I found this page which makes me think I will have commands in a HAL file that will tell the 7I73 how it is expected to behave.
Somewhere in this whole ordeal I'll need the nonvolatile memory parameter

Code:

.7i73.0.1.nvcontrast

to be configured so I can set the LCD contrast.

Obviously I have a poor grasp on this, as you can tell. You don't have to spoonfeed me if you don't want to, but could you guys point me to some items to watch/read in sequential order that should tell me everything I need to know to get this going?

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joshwuh
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4 years 1 month ago #251190 by joshwuh

Replied by joshwuh on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

Correction to above - the readhmid response has 4* SSerial entries. Here are the results of that query:

Warning: Spoiler!

Code:

joshua@printnc:~$ mesaflash --device 7i76e --addr 10.10.10.10 --sserial
SSLBP port 0:
  SSLBP Version: 1.43
  SSLBP Channels: 2
  SSLBP Baud Rate: 2500000
  sserial device at channel 0: 7I76 (unit 0x1A000708)
    SwRevision = 15
    HwRevision = 1
    NVBaudRate = 2.5Mb
    NVUnitNumber = 0x1A000708
    NVWatchDogTimeout = 50ms
    SOFTWARE MODE IO_Spin [index 00]
    SOFTWARE MODE IO_Ana_Spin [index 01]
    SOFTWARE MODE IO_Enc_Ana_Spin_FV [index 02]
joshua@printnc:~$ mesaflash --device 7i76e --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid
Configuration Name: HOSTMOT2

General configuration information:

  BoardName : MESA7I76
  FPGA Size: 16 KGates
  FPGA Pins: 256
  Number of IO Ports: 3
  Width of one I/O port: 17
  Clock Low frequency: 100.0000 MHz
  Clock High frequency: 200.0000 MHz
  IDROM Type: 3
  Instance Stride 0: 4
  Instance Stride 1: 64
  Register Stride 0: 256
  Register Stride 1: 256

Modules in configuration:

  Module: DPLL
  There are 1 of DPLL in configuration
  Version: 0
  Registers: 7
  BaseAddress: 7000
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

  Module: WatchDog
  There are 1 of WatchDog in configuration
  Version: 0
  Registers: 3
  BaseAddress: 0C00
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

  Module: IOPort
  There are 3 of IOPort in configuration
  Version: 0
  Registers: 5
  BaseAddress: 1000
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

  Module: StepGen
  There are 5 of StepGen in configuration
  Version: 2
  Registers: 10
  BaseAddress: 2000
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

  Module: QCount
  There are 1 of QCount in configuration
  Version: 2
  Registers: 5
  BaseAddress: 3000
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

  Module: SSerial
  There are 1 of SSerial in configuration
  Version: 0
  Registers: 6
  BaseAddress: 5B00
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 64 bytes

  Module: LED
  There are 1 of LED in configuration
  Version: 0
  Registers: 1
  BaseAddress: 0200
  ClockFrequency: 100.000 MHz
  Register Stride: 256 bytes
  Instance Stride: 4 bytes

Configuration pin-out:

IO Connections for on-card
Pin#  I/O   Pri. func    Sec. func       Chan      Pin func        Pin Dir

 1      0   IOPort       StepGen          0        Dir/Table2      (Out)
14      1   IOPort       StepGen          0        Step/Table1     (Out)
 2      2   IOPort       StepGen          1        Dir/Table2      (Out)
15      3   IOPort       StepGen          1        Step/Table1     (Out)
 3      4   IOPort       StepGen          2        Dir/Table2      (Out)
16      5   IOPort       StepGen          2        Step/Table1     (Out)
 4      6   IOPort       StepGen          3        Dir/Table2      (Out)
17      7   IOPort       StepGen          3        Step/Table1     (Out)
 5      8   IOPort       StepGen          4        Dir/Table2      (Out)
 6      9   IOPort       StepGen          4        Step/Table1     (Out)
 7     10   IOPort       SSerial          0        TXData0         (Out)
 8     11   IOPort       SSerial          0        RXData0         (In)
 9     12   IOPort       SSerial          0        TXData1         (Out)
10     13   IOPort       SSerial          0        RXData1         (In)
11     14   IOPort       QCount           0        Quad-IDX        (In)
12     15   IOPort       QCount           0        Quad-B          (In)
13     16   IOPort       QCount           0        Quad-A          (In)

IO Connections for P1
Pin#  I/O   Pri. func    Sec. func       Chan      Pin func        Pin Dir

 1     17   IOPort       None
14     18   IOPort       None
 2     19   IOPort       None
15     20   IOPort       None
 3     21   IOPort       None
16     22   IOPort       None
 4     23   IOPort       None
17     24   IOPort       None
 5     25   IOPort       None
 6     26   IOPort       None
 7     27   IOPort       None
 8     28   IOPort       None
 9     29   IOPort       None
10     30   IOPort       None
11     31   IOPort       None
12     32   IOPort       None
13     33   IOPort       None

IO Connections for P2
Pin#  I/O   Pri. func    Sec. func       Chan      Pin func        Pin Dir

 1     34   IOPort       None
14     35   IOPort       None
 2     36   IOPort       None
15     37   IOPort       None
 3     38   IOPort       None
16     39   IOPort       None
 4     40   IOPort       None
17     41   IOPort       None
 5     42   IOPort       None
 6     43   IOPort       None
 7     44   IOPort       None
 8     45   IOPort       None
 9     46   IOPort       None
10     47   IOPort       None
11     48   IOPort       None
12     49   IOPort       None
13     50   IOPort       None

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PCW
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4 years 1 month ago #251192 by PCW

Replied by PCW on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

1. If you make the correct cable and connect the 7I73 to the 7I76E

2. Have 2 or more sserial devices enabled in the hal file:
sserial_port_0=00xx

You should be able to start LinuxCNC and have the 7I73
detected and all its pins/parameters available

Thats it.

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joshwuh
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4 years 1 month ago #251200 by joshwuh

Replied by joshwuh on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

As it turns out, you are correct... I went out there and wired it up and it worked just as you said.

I wish I understood how. I suppose I've got more reading to do. For the non-volatile parameters such as

Code:

.7i73.0.1.nvcontrast

.... to set the default contrast voltage

do you just write those all the same in custom.hal? I guess since it is non-volatile should I theoretically only ever have to do it once then I could take it out of the HAL?

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PCW
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4 years 1 month ago #251201 by PCW

Replied by PCW on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

Yes, if you set the NV parameter you should only do it when you need to change it.

In fact you don't really need to change the NV parameter at all, you can just
set the volatile parameter (hm2_7iXX.0.7i73.0.N.contrast) in the hal file

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andypugh
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4 years 1 month ago #251682 by andypugh

Replied by andypugh on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

joshwuh wrote:
As it turns out, you are correct... I went out there and wired it up and it worked just as you said.
I wish I understood how.

That's the "smart" part of Smartserial. The 7i76E enquires on the serial port what cards are there, and the cards respond with their card name and what HAL pins they expect to be writing to.

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ESanford
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4 years 1 month ago #251912 by ESanford

Replied by ESanford on topic 7i76e + 7I73 Help

In your custom.hal this is the syntax for changing your contrast voltage:

setp lcd.00.contrast .45

.45 is what worked well for my LCD, but it can be any number from zero to one. Just open your HAL config and use the "test HAL command" input to change it until you find what works best for yours then toss it into your custom.hal

Hope that helps.

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