On 3/3/20 6:22 PM, John Dammeyer wrote:
Hi Justin,
Clearly we're on different pages.
Thanks for your input.
John
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *justin White
*Sent:* March-03-20 5:35 PM
*To:* Machinekit
*Subject:* Re: [Machinekit] Re: PICnc with Machine Kit.
I thought I was quite clear about this.
Not at all, probably because you are misunderstanding the purpose of
the hardware you are mentioning in this post.
This PICnc version requires Ethernet. LinuxCNC through a MESA
Ethernet 7i92H or MACH3-4 through an Ethernet Smooth Stepper
control hardware. I am going to guess that the MESA driver for
the 7i92H also exists for MachineKit.
You want to run "mesa" ethernet from the 7i92H on the PICnc? Doesn't
sound easy and I doubt there is anything specific about the 7i92 in
the hm2_eth driver other than the fact that the board types are
probably added to the driver as they are released. MK is well behind
LCNC in Mesa drivers so no idea if it works....you should probably
test it. Mesa cards don't run at all on windows with the hostmot2
firmware that the MK/LCNC projects interface with, and nobody around
here can use a "smooth stepper" because of the architectural
differences between Linux Preempt kernels and the Windows way of doing
things. Windows devices tend to buffer things in hardware to avoid RT
requirements, which is why USB hardware is a thing in Windows and not
Linux. The "Linux way" is to run in a RT capable kernel and minimize
the "load" by having the hardware do the heavy lifting, but it is
still pegged in real-time.
So you're hardware is not going to just be compatible with both, there
is very little that is as it stands. This is probably not the place to
discuss your Mach3/4 Windows needs (it's making me cringe just
thinking about it). Mesa does however have a "SoftDMC" firmware that
is meant for WIndows applications. An FPGA is far more versatile than
a micro so there may be something you can do with that, but SoftDMC
will not run under LinuxCNC and I seriously doubt anyone here knows
much about it.
The MESA board I have has the stepping-PWM engines implemented in
an FPGA.
They all do, it's part of hostmot2 firmware, as are the encoder, Smart
serial and a few other firmware modules.
What I´d like, but what may not be possible, is to replace the
MESA 7i92H with the updated PICnc.
They functionally do the same exact thing. The PICnc is doing the
stepgen, encoder, PWM stuff as firmware modules in the micro as well.
The difference is ethernet, support, and an FPGA vs SPI, a dead
project, and a micro
If indeed the stepping engine is now within the PIC as well as the
spindle quadrature etc.....
It is
and the board is in effect the Break Out Board for the machine
then there is absolutely no reason you can´t have a single input
serve as a local-remote switch. In remote it behaves like, say a
MESA 7i92H and the buttons and display appear to behave like a
pendent on LinuxCNC. In local it´s a DRO & PowerFeed machine
controller with a bunch of useful buttons to simplify manual
operation.
That's not going to happen like you want it to, unless you are capable
of writing complex firmware. Your best bet is to abandon the PICnc
thing for what you want to do and call Mesa. Hostmot2 is
"host-based-motion-control" it only runs with a host i.e. LinuxCNC.
SoftDMC is something completely different and like I said, it's never
really discussed in the Linux world. The Mesa cards generally have 2
EPROMs and one can contain Hostmot2 firmware and the other SoftDMC.
SoftDMC may possibly be able to run by itself and take care of your
"local" thing....I don't know.
Now maybe this won't be possible without also having an FPGA
duplicate what is done with say the 792H.
Maybe this won't be possible at all with MachineKit.
The PICnc already does functionally what the 7i92 does, just alot less
of it and over spi.
The PICnc sounded interesting as I've never heard of it before. the
board isn't very interesting and the micro is too small, but the fact
that the original designer made firmware and drivers for it makes it
something viable for resurrection, with SPI IMO.
Honestly your intended use doesn't sound very interesting at all
because it requires way too much non-existent configuration and what
you are actually trying to do is SUPER EASY just using an Rpi and a
7C80, 7C81, the original picnc...whatever. A DE10-Nano running
MKSOCFPGA would do it all day.
I'm all in for a Rpi based SPI Resurrection of the original PICnc.
It is my understanding that Peter's 'softdmc' is motion only. Nice 50 us
cycle time, axis gearing, takes care of jerk, etc but needs all the
other stuff wrapped around it. Years ago there were rumors that someone
was writing a pkg for softdmc that would use all the lcnc development
except motion. I never found out the source of the rumor. I do think a
very bright team of about 4 to 6 coders could get a package working.
Softdmc has always been free but Mesa now lists it a free in some places
on the site and $100 in the price list. Just lifting out the lcnc motion
and dropping in softdmc sound easy but as ususal the devil is in the
details.
My D525 cpu rolled over and died so I'm working on a Rpi4B, 7i90, 7i33
servo setup using both rotary encoders and glass scales (X and Y). Z
will remain rotary encoder. No promises on time line.
HTH
Dave
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