LinuxCNC + Orange Pi (allwincnc)

I need more time to add the H5/H6 boards support. And some work is already done. But H2+/H3 is better choice for now

Thanks.
So I'm going to design an interface board.
First version will be pretty basic, but will have four 5A 48v stepper drivers, and some pin protection for end stops etc.

Oh my, this looks amazing!

I've just been getting into linuxcnc and having trouble finding/choosing modern hardware that will actually be affordable and provide decent latency.

I almost can't believe that the H2/H3 chips have a separate RISC chip so suitable for pulse generation - kind of a dream come true (particularly because I already own a bunch of these).

If it works as well as I hope, I can't help but think that this post should possibly be getting more attention.

Big thanks to MX_Master for his work on this - can't wait to test it out and see how I go! (will be sure to report back here).

Exciting stuff.

Added support of H5 boards (arm64/aarch64).

H6 support is coming...

I haven't had a ton of time to work on the board but it's coming along.
I'm using the trinamic drivers common with 3d printers (though the TMC5160 I'm using is much more powerful).
Among other things they support stall detection (though that requires some tuning).

What about supporting spi for controlling the stepper drivers?

That adds a ton of possible features.

blog.trinamic.com/2018/04/09/realtime-mo...thout-a-realtime-os/

Stepper drivers with SPI interface are not general in use There are some other drivers with SPI interface at the market right now. And each device has a very own method of usage. STEP/PWM/DIR are more general.

But if you have some time, you can make an SPI driver for the TMC5160 by yourself. There is an example SPI driver for the Raspberry Pi here:
github.com/machinekit/machinekit-hal/blo...al/drivers/hal_spi.h
github.com/machinekit/machinekit-hal/blo...al/drivers/hal_spi.c

Why would you want to use SPI for controlling motion with the TMC5160 when you have Step and Dir? SPI is not a long distance bus.

SPI is faster, lower overhead, uses fewer pins, and exposes a ton of tuning features.
Why would it need to be long distance?

SPI can be used for tuning. That is not a problem since the Allwinners have a working SPI interface.

I'm not sure that's possible on the trinamic drivers, they are in step/direction mode or SPI.
Besides it ignores all the other advantages.
I will make my first prototype board to allow switching (with jumpers) and see about the software side.

Also I'm still curios what you meant by "long distance"
The drivers would be in the same enclosure as the orange pi, and I think spi is good to several feet.