Remora 1.0.0_rc released for testing

Today I have created Remora 1.1.0 release.

github.com/scottalford75/Remora/releases/tag/1.1.0

Feedback from the 1.0.0_rc release candidate has been incorporated plus the latest features.

1. Inputs and Outputs increased from 8 t 16
2. LinuxCNC component now has optional command line arguments to set
  a. Controller board chip type
  b. SPI frequency clock divider
  c. PRU Base frequency - for those that want to play with step generation speeds

This release is in preparation for STM32F1 controller board support in the develop branch.

As far as IO's go each stepper requires a Step and Dir.
Limit and Home may be combined or have separate IO's.
Spindle requires ON/OFF or  a PWM.
Incremental encoders require A and B. A third with Index.

So for a 3 axis mill the number of IO's needed:
6 for Step and Dir
1 for spindle
1 for Home and Limit (if combined)

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8 Minimum

+6 for encoders/closed loop

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14 for the above with closed loop

If you want a separate IO for each Home and Limit then you would need up to 6 IO vs the 1.

+5

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19 for all.

16 is great for now. Should we consider 24 IO's for STM32's with lots of IO and enough counters?

I was under the impression that the io limit was only regarding GPIO and not stepgen (not sure about the others), and that it is 16 input and 16 outputs. otherwise you couldnt really run a printer with only 8 outputs if stepgen is included, dont know about pwm though

Hi Scotta
The ARCH_MAX.bin file I assume is the SEED ARCH MAX board so I should be able to run this on the STM32F407VET6 Black board? os.mbed.com/users/hudakz/code/STM32F407VET6_Hello/shortlog/
as I use seed arch max profile to program it in mbed. if so this will really make using linuxcnc very accessible as these boards are cheap and available I have 3 on my desk right now I normally use eclipse or now STM cube as my environment. I have a mill running with EtherCAT servo drives.
so this will be tested on my CNC plasma table so a very high rf noise environment so it should be interesting

ah the catch I will have to change the sd card

Bari, As far as IO's go each stepper requires a Step and Dir. 

The inputs and out puts are separate from the step gens.
so they are not taken up by step and dir
Remora supports 8 drivers.

16 inputs and 16 outputs.
The only weird thing that takes up an input is the encoder index pulse but i don't think it's a big deal as it's only important on a spindle or rotary axis.  

The pwm does not take up an output and there are 8 pwm channels.

wazza77 wrote:

Hi Scotta
The ARCH_MAX.bin file I assume is the SEED ARCH MAX board so I should be able to run this on the STM32F407VET6 Black board? os.mbed.com/users/hudakz/code/STM32F407VET6_Hello/shortlog/
as I use seed arch max profile to program it in mbed. if so this will really make using linuxcnc very accessible as these boards are cheap and available I have 3 on my desk right now I normally use eclipse or now STM cube as my environment. I have a mill running with EtherCAT servo drives.
so this will be tested on my CNC plasma table so a very high rf noise environment so it should be interesting

Hi, yes absolutely correct. I was directly contacted by a user who wanted to use this board for a gantry router. He's currently getting it going and learning LinuxCNC along the way. This board gives full flexibility on IO, so heaps of potential.

Why will you need to change the SD card?

Aaroncnc wrote:

Bari, As far as IO's go each stepper requires a Step and Dir. 

The inputs and out puts are separate from the step gens.
so they are not taken up by step and dir
Remora supports 8 drivers.

16 inputs and 16 outputs.
The only weird thing that takes up an input is the encoder index pulse but i don't think it's a big deal as it's only important on a spindle or rotary axis.  

The pwm does not take up an output and there are 8 pwm channels.

Hi Aaron, thanks for clarifying things for the others. Your work on the config tool means you're totally across the capabilities of Remora. 

Thinking on your comments regarding the encoder index pulse. We could embed this into the bit 0 of the encoder count feedback. We bit shift the count over by 1 and toggle the 0'th bit for the index. Of course we would need to do the reverse on the LinuxCNC side...

Its not broken currently and works well with the expanded inputs.
Not many use cases for taking up 16 inputs unless someone is trying to make a physical keyboard/control panel.

Of the things i am working on the dedicated pins for hardware pwm/QEM for each board needs to be found. I have just not had time. so my tool currently only has the default values for the skr1.4 but once i get the rest of the PID and thermistor support in the hal generator i will work on letting the board selection box pre populate all the correct default pins.

Any luck an an updated PID config example for the axis?

I have reworked my implementation for spindle pid.
No longer using an abs component and also using the limit1 with min of 0 and max of 100. so far its going very well.

Hi Scotta
The seed arch max uses SPI2 for the sd card whereas the black uses SDIO. I tried compiling in MBED studio last night but I had a few issues
but at 3 am I wasn't going to push it any further