LinuxCNC-RIO - RealtimeIO for LinuxCNC based on FPGA (ICE40 / ECP5)

another option would be shiftregisters,
this works great for DC-PWM signals and also for not too fast encoders, but you should test it first.
my favorite at the moment is the Devantech iceWerx iCE40-HX8K, which has many IO's and can also be soldered well by hand

www.youtube.com/shorts/BiJppd6_cA4

github.com/multigcs/rio-motoman

got the Yaskawa encoder to work
www.youtube.com/shorts/YpUjbus9lQc

The ICE40 module is very nice, unfortunately for us living in Australia the $34 module has an $86 shipping fee, then converted to AUD it will be close to $190 AUD...the ECP5 kit will land here for about $100, and has a lot more IO. 

When you say programming the ECP5 is slow, is that via USB within Riocore and are we talking minutes or half an hour ? I can stock extra coffee ! 

Cheers.
Russell.

don't really remember, maybe 1 minute, but a USB blaster for 5USD is worth it

Righto then, hang the expense I'll order myself a USB blaster as well. 

got the Panasonic encoder up and running
youtube.com/shorts/X3PZUS_JLVA

3 BLDC on one TangNano9k
youtube.com/shorts/vBrvq76CJBk

thanks Russell for the inspiration

github.com/multigcs/riocore/tree/dev/riocore/plugins/riosub

but it will be a long time before it works properly.

Hmm I am usually more of a bad influence than inspiring but I'll take it haha.

That sounds awesome, are you aiming at using this for faster inputs/outputs that aren't suitable for shift registers/modbus/I2C ?

So theoretically if someone had a 6 axis closed loop to the controller milling machine the second FPGA could be used for the encoder feedback and maybe some extra IO?

yes, the advantage over shiftreg is that the evaluation of e.g. encoders is already carried out on the external fpga and only the finished values are transferred