[SoCalPlaneDoc]

did you try ./mesaflash (/mesaflash would not work unless mesaflash was in the root directory)
(./mesaflash assumes mesaflash is in the current directory)

if
sudo ls
fails, that suggests that sudo has been disabled (its probably there but not in the shells path)

(and you need sudo for access to PCI cards)

Thanks PC.. sudo ls - works. ./mesaflash also works. ./mesaflash --readhmid - doesn't fail, but doesn't list anything either.

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

I can't find an actual manual for mesaflash, but the --help output can be seen in the source code:
https://github.com/micges/mesaflash/...saflash.c#L100

It is --readhmid

thanks Andy, don't know why I was putting that extra d in there.. ./mesaflash --readhmid doesn't fail but nothing is listed; nothing at all.

[PCW_MESA]

thanks Andy, don't know why I was putting that extra d in there.. ./mesaflash --readhmid doesn't fail but nothing is listed; nothing at all.

The complete command would be:

sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --readhmid

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

The complete command would be:

sudo mesaflash --device 5i25 --readhmid

success!
Here's what was returned: What's it telling me?


General configuration information:

BoardName : MESA5I25
FPGA Size: 9 KGates
FPGA Pins: 144
Number of IO Ports: 2
Width of one I/O port: 17
Clock Low frequency: 33.3333 MHz
Clock High frequency: 200.0000 MHz
IDROM Type: 3

Modules in configuration:

Module: WatchDog
There are 1 of WatchDog in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 3
BaseAddress: 0C00
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz

Module: IOPort
There are 2 of IOPort in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 5
BaseAddress: 1000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz

Module: QCount
There are 2 of QCount in configuration
Version: 2
Registers: 5
BaseAddress: 3000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz

Module: PWM
There are 2 of PWM in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 5
BaseAddress: 4000
ClockFrequency: 200.000 MHz

Module: StepGen
There are 10 of StepGen in configuration
Version: 2
Registers: 10
BaseAddress: 2000
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz

Module: LED
There are 1 of LED in configuration
Version: 0
Registers: 1
BaseAddress: 0200
ClockFrequency: 33.333 MHz

Configuration pin-out:

IO Connections for P3
Pin# I/O Pri. func Sec. func Chan Pin func Pin Dir

1 0 IOPort StepGen 4 Table3 (Out)
14 1 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
2 2 IOPort StepGen 0 Table3 (Out)
15 3 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
3 4 IOPort StepGen 0 Table3 (Out)
16 5 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
4 6 IOPort StepGen 1 Table3 (Out)
17 7 IOPort PWM 0 /Enable (Out)
5 8 IOPort StepGen 1 Table3 (Out)
6 9 IOPort StepGen 2 Table3 (Out)
7 10 IOPort StepGen 2 Table3 (Out)
8 11 IOPort StepGen 3 Table3 (Out)
9 12 IOPort StepGen 3 Table3 (Out)
10 13 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
11 14 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
12 15 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
13 16 IOPort QCount 0 Quad-IDX (In)

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

1 17 IOPort StepGen 9 Table3 (Out)
14 18 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
2 19 IOPort StepGen 5 Table3 (Out)
15 20 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
3 21 IOPort StepGen 5 Table3 (Out)
16 22 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)
4 23 IOPort StepGen 6 Table3 (Out)
17 24 IOPort PWM 1 /Enable (Out)
5 25 IOPort StepGen 6 Table3 (Out)
6 26 IOPort StepGen 7 Table3 (Out)
7 27 IOPort StepGen 7 Table3 (Out)
8 28 IOPort StepGen 8 Table3 (Out)
9 29 IOPort StepGen 8 Table3 (Out)
10 30 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-IDX (In)
11 31 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-IDX (In)
12 32 IOPort QCount 1 Quad-IDX (In)
13 33 IOPort Null 0 Null3 (null) (In)

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

Finished machining new encoder wheel... still waiting for sensors to arrive..

Attachment 361218..

[brianbonedoc]

Perfect so now it's just software which we can help with!

[andypugh]

success!
Here's what was returned: What's it telling me?
...
Module: QCount
There are 2 of QCount in configuration

You have two quadrature counters.

IO Connections for P3

This is the external DB25

    Pin#    I/O     Pri. func    Sec. func    Chan      Pin func        Pin Dir

     1        0     IOPort       StepGen       4        Table3          (Out)    
    14        1     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
     2        2     IOPort       StepGen       0        Table3          (Out)    
    15        3     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
     3        4     IOPort       StepGen       0        Table3          (Out)    
    16        5     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
     4        6     IOPort       StepGen       1        Table3          (Out)    
    17        7     IOPort       PWM           0        /Enable         (Out)    
     5        8     IOPort       StepGen       1        Table3          (Out)    
     6        9     IOPort       StepGen       2        Table3          (Out)    
     7       10     IOPort       StepGen       2        Table3          (Out)    
     8       11     IOPort       StepGen       3        Table3          (Out)    
     9       12     IOPort       StepGen       3        Table3          (Out)    
    10       13     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
    11       14     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
    12       15     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)    
    13       16     IOPort       QCount        0        Quad-IDX        (In)

And the external DB25 has only the index channel of encoder counter 0 internally connected to a pin (which is wierd). It is GPIO number 16 and is on physical pin 13.

IO Connections for P2

And this is the internal header

    Pin#    I/O     Pri. func    Sec. func    Chan      Pin func        Pin Dir
...
    10       30     IOPort       QCount        1        Quad-IDX        (In)    
    11       31     IOPort       QCount        1        Quad-IDX        (In)    
    12       32     IOPort       QCount        1        Quad-IDX        (In)    
    13       33     IOPort       Null          0        Null3       (null)          (In)

And this is saying that you have three pins for the index of encoder counter 1. (You would expect something like:

11     48   IOPort       QCount           2        Quad-IDX        (In)
12     49   IOPort       QCount           2        Quad-B          (In)
13     50   IOPort       QCount           2        Quad-A          (In)

So something doesn't really make sense. I am suspecting a slight bug in Mesaflash. Perhaps it identifies all pins as IDX. Though it works OK on the 7i80 I have here as the output above shows.

[PCW_MESA]

So something doesn't really make sense. I am suspecting a slight bug in Mesaflash. Perhaps it identifies all pins as IDX. Though it works OK on the 7i80 I have here as the output above shows.

Pretty sure that (weird index only counter) is due Tormachs funny bitfile for hardware interpolated position
support for the (1 wire) RapidTurn interface

To do standard quadrature would require a new bitfile (which is pretty trivial)
or perhaps adding a base thread and using a software encoder module if the encoder resolution is low enough

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

Perfect so now it's just software which we can help with!

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

To do standard quadrature would require a new bitfile (which is pretty trivial)

trivial for you,, difficult for me

or perhaps adding a base thread and using a software encoder module if the encoder resolution is low enough
)

new encoder has 40 teeth. so 40 As & 40 Bs or 80 between the two, or 160 state changes.. whichever value is important - is that low enough? I could make it lower if need be. Mechanical Design I know.. bitfiles are voodoo .


durn post office sent my digikey order to the wrong city... even though I used their own zip code system!!

[MFchief]

You should try living in a town named California, in a different state! Lol Government offices and the post office in particular can't seem to get their heads around it.

Terry

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

You should try living in a town named California, in a different state! Lol Government offices and the post office in particular can't seem to get their heads around it.

Terry

Lordy, I cant even imagine that. what state?
I'm in San Diego, Ca.. there's a town in Texas also called San Diego that I visited maybe 20 years ago. Little dump of a place, almost exclusively Mexican population. Most of their street names also existed in my city. They had some interesting tales of confusion

[brianbonedoc]

SocalPlanedoc- I think if you ask PCW to alter the bitfile so that there is and index, a, and b pulses instead of 3 index pulses you'll be all set to start modding the Hal file.

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

SocalPlanedoc- I think if you ask PCW to alter the bitfile so that there is and index, a, and b pulses instead of 3 index pulses you'll be all set to start modding the Hal file.

PCW, is that possible? might there be an existing file that would do the job?

I was thinking I'd follow Turbo's method of using a parrallel port so that PathPilot wouldn't yell at me during an upgrade. but maybe that's not that big of a deal?

[MFchief]

I'm in Maryland, California is next to another small town named Hollywood! Hollywood wasn't named after the California version, it's just an area that is covered in wild Holly trees. I do believe that California got it's name because some joker thought it would be funny. When I first came here back in the 70's I moved from San Diego (best weather on the planet), I had a California drivers license, and they kept mailing my renewal to Hollywood, CA. Drove around for a month on an expired license before they unscrewed it.

Terry

[PCW_MESA]

PCW, is that possible? might there be an existing file that would do the job?

I was thinking I'd follow Turbo's method of using a parrallel port so that PathPilot wouldn't yell at me during an upgrade. but maybe that's not that big of a deal?

Its easy to make a bitfile that has a full encoder on P2, but there are a couple of side effects:

1. You need to defeat Pathpilots re-flashing the 5I25 with Tormachs bitfile
2. Rapidturn support would be lost (you would need to go back to Tormachs bitfile for this)
3. You of course need to modify the hal and ini files to connect and scale the encoder

[kstrauss]

Can one (certainly not me!) create a bitfile supporting Rapidturn on P1 and a full encoder on P2?

[PCW_MESA]

Can one (certainly not me!) create a bitfile supporting Rapidturn on P1 and a full encoder on P2?

Yes, its certainly possible, but may require some driver/hal file changes to merge support for position interpolation (AFAIK Tormachs firmware
uses hardware position interpolation in the firmware for threading with the 1 pulse per turn RapidTurn sensor) and normal quadrature encoders

[brianbonedoc]

Defeating the Re-flashing is easy. After you apply a pathpilot update, it will ask if you want to re-flash the Mesa and you just his escape.

The other issue, once he mod's the hal file, after ea update you have to copy the hal file back into the directory.
This really isn't too bad, you only have to do a few times a year when the updates come out, or just skip every few updates, doesn't really matter.

I think the benefit of having rigid tapping certainly outweighs the burden of the flash and hal issues.

[SoCalPlaneDoc]

yay! sensors finally arrived...back to getting the hardware squared away.

so no matter which avenue I follow (mesa vs parallel port), I'll be making changes to hal, ini, and post processor files. Seems to me if I follow the parallel port path I could at least eliminate having to manage a custom bitfile.