LitexCNC: firmware and driver for 5A-75B and 5A-75E

Small update on the progress:

• no encoders: all stepgen work;
• with 4 encoders (or less): the last stepgen does not work;
• with 5 encoders (or more): the last two stepgen do not work anymore.

Was thinking it was due to some error in writing to the FPGA, but it turned out that the reading was too short! The error has been resolved and going to merge the changes now (getting late though). Release is planned for tomorrow.

Just released version 1.2.1 of LitexCNC! This is the bugfix version for stepgen module, which was affected by an error in the encoder module.

Due to an upgrade in the detection / comparison of the version of the firmware this version will show a warning message if older firmware is used (NOTE: the communication has not changed, thus re-compilation is not required). In the next minor release (i.e. version 1.3) this change will correctly enforce recompilation of the firmware. A change in minor version (i.e. the upcoming 1.2 -> 1.3) indicates a modification in communication protocol and thus requires an update of the firmware.

Other changes:

• driver:
  •  encoder: counts and position of encoder can be reset (#74)
  •  encoder: incorrect required read buffer reported has been corrected. This affected the module ``stepgen`` (#79)
  •  watchdog: the watchdog is reset when the card is reset. Prevents the ``has_bitten`` message when LinuxCNC is restarted without power-cycling the card. (#80)
  • Fixed showing the correct version of LitexCNC in HAL.
  • Temporary fixed comparison between version of FPGA and driver. When the minor version changes in an upcoming release, the driver will now correctly enforce a recompilation of the firmware.
• cli:
  • install_toolchain: Fixed issue with detection of OS on desktop. Also git and openocd are installed on x64-architecture systems (#78).

I have already tested it. Runs flawlessly for me. Unfortunately, I don't have any encoders on the stepper motors, so I can't test it now. But I still have a handwheel somewhere in the workshop. If I find it, I'll also test one of the encoder inputs.
Until then, many thanks and respect for your work.

Incredibly grateful for the work and effort you put into this, Peter. Whatever the reason(s) for this, the last bug fixes made LiteXcnc so much more stable and performant (tmaxes, ping, everything is high perf!). Obviously only yourself would know the reason... just thought I'd let you know. image missing /media/kunena/emoticons/cool.png

image missing https://i.postimg.cc/hv0spB5Y/Screenshot-2024-02-14-05-04-12.png

Ehsan_R reported a small bug in the command-line interface, preventing the installation of the toolchain. Fixed the error and released version 1.2.3 on PyPi.

Version 1.2.2. has been yanked (no longer available). However if you have this version, you can keep using it. The error does not affect driver, nor firmware. If you get errors with using the CLI, please upgrade.

Heads up! LitexCNC version 1.3.0 will be released on 1st March 2024. This version will have following improvements:

• stepgen: timings are now per individual stepgen. This makes mixing different drivers with different timing constraints possible. Also solved some issues with roll-overs at high frequencies.
• pwm: possible to invert the output
• new modules:
  • shift_out: expand outputs using 74HC595.Up to 32 shift registers can be daisy-chained together, using 4 datalines.
  • shift_in: expand inputs using 74HC165. Up to 32 shift registers can be daisy-chained together, using 4 datalines. NOTE: these inputs are not real-time. Great for user panels, pendants, etc. Not to be used for homing inputs and ESTOP for obvious reasons.
• cli: upgraded the toolchain to include Yosys v0.38.