Remora - ethernet NVEM / EC300 / EC500 cnc board

wrote:

I think MX_Master may have looked into this before, but it seemed how some of the pins were utilized didn't make much sense, so he didn't pursue it further.

Lets see how you go mate.

Remora does not rely on hardware timers that have limited pin connectivity, so I think there is a very good chance of getting it running. I'm very suspicious that the original NVEM firmware uses DDS based step generators just like Remora.

The very new bit for me is the ethernet side of things. This will be the next challenge..

this is exciting to watch.
I bought a w5500 for use on my boards incase i decide to not use a rpi4.

But one question.
If on the above board nothing is hardware based and all in software will this be a problem for high speed encoders?

I understand not everyone has a need for one and could get away with lower resolution to track something simple like a spindle. ie not using a 300ppr quad encoder and going for closer to 80-100ppr.

Hi Aaron,

You might be in luck. It looks like the adjust port is setup as an encoder input and the pins used can be connected to TIMER 4, so the Remora hardware QEI module can be assigned to this. This will give at least one high speed encoder input.

The inputs are opto isolated, not sure if this will limit the max frequency.

I'll need to trace out the other inputs to see if others can be used for QEI as well.

This would raise another question around the default configuration of the board as it does not have an SD card, the config will need to be hard coded. Well at least initially. There is an unmarked IC on the board which I'm suspicious is an EEPROM.

Hmm think it would be possible to send a config over ethernet?
so you would have a config file located in your linuxcnc config folder then sets the values.

But i think for getting off the ground fast just setting it for most other peoples use case would be better.
I myself do have a few st-links in a drawer somewhere if i needed to make changes.

Whats the part number on the optos?

Aaroncnc wrote:

Hmm think it would be possible to send a config over ethernet?
so you would have a config file located in your linuxcnc config folder then sets the values.

But i think for getting off the ground fast just setting it for most other peoples use case would be better.
I myself do have a few st-links in a drawer somewhere if i needed to make changes.

Whats the part number on the optos?

That would be a neat way of doing it, just no idea at the moment how to implement it. I'm just now getting into how to configure the STM32F207 for ethernet with the LAN8720 PHY that is on the board. On the learning curve at the moment.

scotta wrote:

There is an unmarked IC on the board which I'm suspicious is an EEPROM.

good good, this will work for 3d printers as well, but how would you do this....something like how the 3dprinter configs work (i dont know how that is anyways)? like some kind of hard coded config based on board target, then load to i2c/spi eeprom on initialization, then change config over ethernet/serial? or something like a blank slate config thats configured from hal? sorry, i dont know how it really works just brainstorming.