There are two drivers, one for the AX5214 and one for the Futurlec PCI8255 card. They are called hal_ax5214h and pci_8255, respectively. The pci_8255 driver has been included with EMC2 since 2.2.0, the ax5214 driver has been there since before the 2.0.0 release.
For either card, you have to supply the base address to the driver, along with a string describing the directions you want the pins to be. AFAIK, the pci_8255 card has a single chip with the PCI bridge and the equivalent of 3 8255 chips in it. The PCI card should be seen and initialized by the BIOS or Linux. Usually there's a BIOS setting for "plug-n-play OS" or similar. Setting this to "no" or "off" makes the BIOS do more initialization than it would otherwise do, so even if Linux doesn't know what the card is, it should at least have its memory and IO regions set up correctly. The Linux kernel does this pretty well anyway - it'll just list unknown cards as "unknown vendor" / "unknown device" or similar, but should still set up address regions for those cards. (I know it does this with the Mesa cards, for example) There are only minor differences between the two drivers, but one or the other should work with just about any 8255-based card (or register compatible ones) with minor changes. - Steve Gene Heskett wrote: >On Wednesday 30 April 2008, Thomas J Powderly wrote: > > >>Gene, >>pci_8255 is in my cvs emc2 run-in-place installation >>pci_8255.c >>pci_8255.o >>and >>i think the hal_ax5214h.c driver in all emc2 installs is really an 8255 >>(the src doesnt say that, so may be wrong) >> >> > >>From the looks of the link I found on google, it is a ttl ssi version of a >pair of 8255's, for only 48 bits of I/O. If that driver can be expanded to >handle 3 'channels' or 'groups', and can have its I/O addressing made >compatible with this card, whose I/O addressing IIRC wastes addressing space >by not making all 3 chips contiguous, then it might work just fine. Those >are the gotcha's I recall from when I was playing with it before giving up >and throwing more money at a xylotex kit with 3 motors. > > > >>tomp >> >> >> >Great Thomas. Is this code you did, or were you able to make the code that >came on the cd's with the cards actually build on linux? > > > >>in On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 22:56 -0400, Gene Heskett wrote: >> >> >>>On Tuesday 29 April 2008, Andrew Ayre wrote: >>> >>> >>>>Wow - 8255s - I didn't know those were still used for commercial >>>>products. >>>> >>>> >>>Small correction, 82C55's, the cmos versions, so the board doesn't draw >>>much more power than is consumed by any outputs being pulled high. Each >>>line is limited to about a 2 mill load, but can pull rail to rail both >>>directions. I had some of them once, sent them someplace that was gonna >>>write a linux driver. I tried to write one myself, and found I knew very >>>little about 'PC' architecture. The card contains no bios AFAIK, so its >>>invisible to an lspci listing. >>> >>>Once a linux driver is available, I think they would make a very nice >>>interface for emc's use. With all 24 lines available on each chip, the >>>i/o expansion possibilities sure beat the usual parport, an architecture >>>originally built from the 8255 decades ago. IIRC the actual cabling from >>>each chip was on a 34 pin floppy drive sized cable, so each card gave you >>>3, 34 pin ribbon cables out of a spare slot opening in the back of the >>>case. >>> >>>One thing I ran into was that while that web site below shows prices in >>>USD, they billed my card in AUD and applied the exchange rate, so I paid >>>about a 20% premium over the quoted price. Quite close to a big buck each >>>at the time, which was about 4, maybe 5 years ago now. >>> >>>I also bought a few of stepper controllers based on the L298 they have, >>>touch them only with a very long pole, there is no current chopper >>>available for current regulation. >>> >>> >>> >>>>Andy >>>> >>>>Dave Keeton wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>>This board looks good! I did just buy a new NI DIO 96 board off of EBAY >>>>>for 50 bucks....If it does'nt work out I'll check it out. I guess i was >>>>>completely wrong about the I/O situation. You all have been a big >>>>>help....How do I go about setting up the drivers for these boards in >>>>>EMC? I am not all that familiar with Linux.... >>>>> >>>>>Dave >>>>> >>>>>----- Original Message ----- >>>>>From: "Thomas J Powderly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>>>>To: "Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC)" >>>>><emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 12:39 >>>>>PM >>>>>Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Classicladder >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>>to Dave Keeton: >>>>>>http://www.futurlec.com/PCI8255.shtml >>>>>>79$ US >>>>>>72 i/o points >>>>>>pci >>>>>>emc2 driver is available, "sorta beta" >>>>>>regards >>>>>>TomP >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>---------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>>--- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference >>>>>>Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save >>>>>>$100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. >>>>>>http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com >>>>>>/ja vaone _______________________________________________ >>>>>>Emc-users mailing list >>>>>>Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>>>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>----------------------------------------------------------------------- >>>>>-- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference >>>>>Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. >>>>>Use priority code J8TL2D2. >>>>>http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/ >>>>>jav aone _______________________________________________ >>>>>Emc-users mailing list >>>>>Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>>>>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >>>>> >>>>> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------- >>This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference >>Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. >>Use priority code J8TL2D2. >>http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javao >>ne _______________________________________________ >>Emc-users mailing list >>Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net >>https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users >> >> > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by the 2008 JavaOne(SM) Conference Don't miss this year's exciting event. There's still time to save $100. Use priority code J8TL2D2. http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;198757673;13503038;p?http://java.sun.com/javaone _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
