Re: PCI I/O cards

[Ray <rehenry-at-up.net>]

Kurtis

I didn't see your original post of this but have a few comments.  First 
the software issues and then the hardware.

Fred's comments re the stg are that you can use the extra STG I/O that 
isn't used for axis stuff for anything that you wish.  The hook here is 
that you will have to hack the bridgeport C code to do that.

There is a Tcl/Tk parallel to the bridgeportio named tkio.  You can read 
about creating a PLC and about using Tcl/Tk  with the iosh interface in 
the linuxcnc.org/handbook.  You can run tkio by simply replacing 
bridgeportio with it on the approariate line in your ini file.

You do not need any external proprietary device drivers.  The interface 
iosh which is called by tkio and several of the tcl scripts can be used to 
directly read and set any hardware that has a specific address.  This 
direct access to ports is typical of the EMC.   An example of this 
approach is emc/tcl/scripts/IO_Exercise.tcl.  If you have a free parallel 
port, you can use this script to pull solenoids and read switches as a 
stand alone or running alongside the EMC.  If the Sealevel card has or can 
be configured to have a defined location you can directly access that 
location using the available emc software.  I don't have a clue how you 
would do this across the PCI bus.

There was some talk a while back about using a common parallel port with 
some external logic chips.  The parports eight out could be expanded to 
many descrete signals and the five in could be combined from many descrete 
signals.  This could be accomplished with a few logic chips and a power 
supply.   

I have the advantage of knowing a little tcl but what I would do in your 
case is write it using Tcl.  It is a rather easy language to learn at the 
level that you would need for your PLC project.  Doing this would require 
some processor power but it is a quick code to test.  You could have your 
code starting to pull servos and read switches in a few minutes.  
(Immediate gratification is good here!)  As the code and logic grows and 
evolves to include full machine control and safety and is running the 
machine to your satisfaction, you could migrate, or hire, or con someone 
into migrating that code to C to produce a final system. 

This code would eventually become of value to other emc users if you built 
it as a set of blocks, ie tool logic, pallet logic, operator panel logic 
that could be configured from the ini file or an aux ini and combined to 
produce a working machine.

I'd be able to share my ideas and work with you a bit on the tcl coding 
here.

Ray

On Saturday 08 December 2001 10:29 pm, Don wrote:
> The STG card has 32 bits of digital input.  Isn't that enough?  Of
> course, we're not PCI yet.
>
> Don McLane
> Servo To Go, Inc.
>
> At 11:46 AM 11/30/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
> >
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> >
> >Calling Linux programmers,
> >
> >My EMC application requires more I/O than is presently configured to
> > the parallel port with the Bridgeport "plc".
> >I am hoping to move the parallel port stuff
> > (lube,spindle,coolant,estop) to a Sealevel PCI Bus 48 TTL Digital I/O
> > Interface as well as incorporate the remaining I/O.
> >(8 tool limit switches, remote pendant functions, x and y axis brakes)
> >The software that came with the Sealevel card has two steps:
> >step 1.  =  install drivers.  This worked and prompted installation
> >complete.
> >step 2.  =  load drivers.  This uses the mknod command to create device
> >special files.  Running the load drivers resulted in :  mknod: wrong
> > number of arguments
> >The manufacturer of the card (Sealevel) assures me that the program
> > works on Linux.
> >How can I read and write to this PCI card the way I do with the Servo
> > to Go card.
> >
> >The next step will be to include STG analog inputs of spindle speed and
> >spindle load on the Tkemex Gui.  Ray says the GUI stuff is the easy
> > part.
> >
> >Kurtis
> >
> >
> >
> >--Boundary_(ID_KUzl4HCuPVZJ1AAgI0loPg)
> >Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
> >Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
> >
> ><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
> >Calling Linux programmers,
> >
> >My EMC application requires more I/O than is presently configured to
> > the parallel port with the Bridgeport "plc".
> >I am hoping to move the parallel port stuff
> > (lube,spindle,coolant,estop) to a Sealevel PCI Bus 48 TTL Digital I/O
> > Interface as well as incorporate the remaining I/O.
> >(8 tool limit switches, remote pendant functions, x and y axis brakes)
> >The software that came with the Sealevel card has two steps:
> >step 1.  =  install drivers.  This worked and prompted installation
> > complete. step 2.  =  load drivers.  This uses the mknod command to
> > create device special files.  Running the load drivers resulted in : 
> > mknod: wrong number of arguments
> >The manufacturer of the card (Sealevel) assures me that the program
> > works on Linux.
> >How can I read and write to this PCI card the way I do with the Servo
> > to Go card.
> >
> >The next step will be to include STG analog inputs of spindle speed and
> >spindle load on the Tkemex Gui.  Ray says the GUI stuff is the easy
> > part.
> >
> >Kurtis
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >--------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary--
> >--Boundary_(ID_KUzl4HCuPVZJ1AAgI0loPg)
> >
> >
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> >--------------InterScan_NT_MIME_Boundary--