Provided by: linuxcnc-uspace_2.9.4-2ubuntu1_amd64 
NAME
hostmot2 - Smart Serial LinuxCNC HAL driver for the Mesa Electronics HostMot2 Smart-Serial remote cards
SYNOPSIS
The Mesa Smart-Serial interface is a 2.5Mbs proprietary interface between the Mesa Anything-IO cards and
a range of subsidiary devices termed "smart-serial remotes". The remote cards perform a variety of
functions, but typically they combine various classes of IO. The remote cards are self-configuring, in
that they tell the main LinuxCNC Hostmot2 driver what their pin functions are and what they should be
named.
Many sserial remotes offer different pinouts depending on the mode they are started up in. This is set
using the sserial_port_N= option in the hm2_pci modparam. See the hostmot2 manpage for further details.
It is likely that this documentation will be permanently out of date.
Each Anything-IO board can attach up to 8 sserial remotes to each header (either the 50-pin headers on
the 5I20/5I22/5I23/7I43 or the 25-pin connectors on the 5I25, 6I25 and 7I80). The remotes are grouped
into "ports" of up to 8 "channels". Typically each header will be a single 8 channel port, but this is
not necessarily always the case.
PORTS
In addition to the per-channel/device pins detailed below there are three per-port pins and three
parameters.
Pins:
(bit, in) .sserial.port-N.run: Enables the specific Smart Serial module. Setting this pin low will
disable all boards on the port and puts the port in a pass-through mode where device parameter setting is
possible. It is necessary to toggle the state of this pin if there is a requirement to alter a remote
parameter on a live system. This pin defaults to TRUE and can be left unconnected. However, toggling
the pin low-to-high will re-enable a faulted drive so the pin could usefully be connected to the
iocontrol.0.user-enable-out pin.
(u32, ro) .run_state: Shows the state of the sserial communications state-machine. This pin will
generally show a value of 0x03 in normal operation, 0x07 in setup mode and 0x00 when the "run" pin is
false.
(u32, ro) .error-count: Indicates the state of the Smart Serial error handler, see the parameters section
for more details.
Parameters:
(u32 r/w) .fault-inc: Any over-run or handshaking error in the SmartSerial communications will increment
the .fault-count pin by the amount specified by this parameter. Default = 10.
(u32 r/w) .fault-dec: Every successful read/write cycle decrements the fault counter by this amount.
Default = 1.
(u32 r/w) .fault-lim: When the fault counter reaches this threshold the Smart Serial interface on the
corresponding port will be stopped and an error printed in dmesg. Together these three pins allow for
control over the degree of fault- tolerance allowed in the interface. The default values mean that if
more than one transaction in ten fails, more than 20 times, then a hard error will be raised. If the
increment were to be set to zero then no error would ever be raised, and the system would carry on
regardless. Conversely setting decrement to zero, threshold to 1 and limit to 1 means that absolutely no
errors will be tolerated. (This structure is copied directly from vehicle ECU practice.)
Any other parameters than the ones above are created by the card istelf from data in the remote firmware.
They may be set in the HAL file using "setp" in the usual way.
NOTE: Because a Smart-Serial remote can only communicate non-process data to the host card in setup mode,
it is necessary to stop and re-start the smart-serial port associated with the card to alter the value of
a parameter.
ALSO NOTE: in the case of parameters beginning with "nv" (which are stored in non-volatile memory) the
effect will not be seen until after the next power cycle of the drive.
Unchanged values will not be re-written so it is safe to leave the "setp" commands in the HAL file or
delete them as you see fit.
DEVICES
The other pins and parameters created in HAL depend on the devices detected. The following list of Smart
Serial devices is by no means exhaustive.
8I20
The 8I20 is a 2.2 kW three-phase drive for brushless DC motors and AC servo motors. 8I20 pins and
parameters have names like "hm2_<BoardType>.<BoardNum>.8i20.<PortNum>.<ChanNum>.<Pin>", for example
"hm2_5i23.0.8i20.1.3.current" would set the phase current for the drive connected to the fourth channel
of the second sserial port of the first 5I23 board. Note that the sserial ports do not necessarily
correlate in layout or number to the physical ports on the card.
Pins:
(float in) angle
The rotor angle of the motor in fractions of a full phase revolution. An angle of 0.5 indicates
that the motor is half a turn / 180 degrees / π radians from the zero position. The zero position
is taken to be the position that the motor adopts under no load with a poitive voltage applied to
the A (or U) phase and both B and C (or V and W) connected to -V or 0 V. A 6 pole motor will have
3 zero positions per physical rotation. Note that the 8I20 drive automatically adds the phase
lead/lag angle, and that this pin should see the raw rotor angle. There is a HAL module (bldc)
which handles the complexity of differing motor and drive types.
(float, in) current
The phase current command to the drive. This is scaled from -1 to +1 for forwards and reverse
maximum currents. The absolute value of the current is set by the max_current parameter.
(float, ro) bus-voltage
The drive bus voltage in V. This will tend to show 25.6 V when the drive is unpowered and the
drive will not operate below about 50 V.
(float, ro) temp
The temperature of the driver in degrees C.
(u32, ro) comms
The communication status of the drive. See the manual for more details.
(bit, ro) status and fault.
The following fault/status bits are exported. For further details see the 8I20 manual.
fault.U-current / fault.U-current-not fault.V-current / fault.V-current-not fault.W-current /
fault.W-current-not fault.bus-high / fault.bus-high-not fault.bus-overv / fault.bus-overv-not
fault.bus-underv / fault.bus-underv-not fault.framingr / fault.framingr-not fault.module /
fault.module-not fault.no-enable / fault.no-enable-not fault.overcurrent / fault.overcurrent-not
fault.overrun / fault.overrun-not fault.overtemp / fault.overtemp-not fault.watchdog /
fault.watchdog-not
status.brake-old / status.brake-old-not status.brake-on / status.brake-on-not status.bus-underv /
status.bus-underv-not status.current-lim / status.current-lim-no status.ext-reset /
status.ext-reset-not status.no-enable / status.no-enable-not status.pid-on / status.pid-on-not
status.sw-reset / status.sw-reset-not status.wd-reset / status.wd-reset-not
Parameters:
The following parameters are exported. See the PDF documentation downloadable from Mesa for
further details.
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.angle-maxlim
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.angle-minlim
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.angle-scalemax
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.current-maxlim
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.current-minlim
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.current-scalemax
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvbrakeoffv
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvbrakeonv
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvbusoverv
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvbusundervmax
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvbusundervmin
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkdihi
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkdil
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkdilo
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkdp
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkqihi
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkqil
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkqilo
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvkqp
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvmaxcurrent
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.nvrembaudrate
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.swrevision
hm2_5i25.0.8i20.0.1.unitnumber
(float, rw) max_current
Sets the maximum drive current in Amps. The default value is the maximum current programmed into
the drive EEPROM. The value must be positive, and an error will be raised if a current in excess
of the drive maximum is requested.
(u32, ro) serial_number
The serial number of the connected drive. This is also shown on the label on the drive.
7I64
The 7I64 is a 24-input 24-output IO card. 7I64 pins and parameters have names like
"hm2_<BoardType>.<BoardNum>.7i64.<PortNum>.<ChanNum>.<Pin>", for example hm2_5i23.0.7i64.1.3.output-01 .
Pins:
(bit, in) 7i64.0.0.output-NN: Writing a 1 or TRUE to this pin will enable output driver NN. Note that
the outputs are drivers (switches) rather than voltage outputs. The LED adjacent to the connector on the
board shows the status. The output can be inverted by setting a parameter.
(bit, out) 7i64.0.0.input-NN: The value of input NN. Note that the inputs are isolated and both pins of
each input must be connected, typically to signal and the ground of the signal. (This need not be the
ground of the board.)
(bit, out) 7i64.0.0.input-NN-not: An inverted copy of the corresponding input.
(float, out) 7i64.0.0.analog0 & 7i64.0.0.analog1: The two analogue inputs (0 to 3.3 V) on the board.
Parameters:
(bit, rw) 7i64.0.0.output-NN-invert: Setting this parameter to 1 / TRUE will invert the output value,
such that writing 0 to .gpio.NN.out will enable the output and vice-versa.
7I76
The 7I76 is not really a smart-serial device. It serves as a breakout for a number of other Hostmot2
functions. There are connections for 5 step generators (for which see the main hostmot2 manpage). The
stepgen pins are associated with the 5I25 (hm2_5i25.0.stepgen.00....) whereas the smart-serial pins are
associated with the 7I76 (hm2_5i25.0.7i76.0.0.output-00).
Pins:
(float out) .7i76.0.0.analogN (modes 1 and 2 only) Analogue input values.
(float out) .7i76.0.0.fieldvoltage (mode 2 only) Field voltage monitoring pin.
(bit in) .7i76.0.0.spindir: This pin provides a means to drive the spindle VFD direction terminals on the
7I76 board.
(bit in) .7i76.0.0.spinena: This pin drives the spindle-enable terminals on the 7I76 board.
(float in) .7i76.0.0.spinout: This controls the analogue output of the 7I76. This is intended as a speed
control signal for a VFD.
(bit out) .7i76.0.0.output-NN: (NN = 0 to 15). 16 digital outputs. The sense of the signal can be set via
a parameter.
(bit out) .7i76.0.0.input-NN: (NN = 0 to 31) 32 digital inputs.
(bit in) .7i76.0.0.input-NN-not: (NN = 0 to 31) An inverted copy of the inputs provided for convenience.
The two complementary pins may be connected to different signal nets.
Parameters:
(u32 ro) .7i76.0.0.nvbaudrate: Indicates the vbaud rate. This probably should not be altered.
(u32 ro) .7i76.0.0.nvunitnumber: Indicates the serial number of the device and should match a sticker on
the card. This can be useful for working out which card is which.
(u32 ro) .7i76.0.0.nvwatchdogtimeout: The sserial remote watchdog timeout. This is separate from the
Anything-IO card timeout. This is unlikely to need to be changed.
(bit rw) .7i76.0.0.output-NN-invert: Invert the sense of the corresponding output pin.
(bit rw) .7i76.0.0.spindir-invert: Invert the senseof the spindle direction pin.
(bit rw) .7i76.0.0.spinena-invert: Invert the sense of the spindle-enable pin.
(float rw) .7i76.0.0.spinout-maxlim: The maximum speed request allowable
(float rw) .7i76.0.0.spinout-minlim: The minimum speed request.
(float rw) .7i76.0.0.spinout-scalemax: The spindle speed scaling. This is the speed request which would
correspond to full-scale output from the spindle control pin. For example with a 10 V drive voltage and
a 10000 RPM scalemax a value of 10,000 RPM on the spinout pin would produce 10 V output. However, if
spinout-maxlim were set to 5,000 RPM then no voltage above 5 V would be output.
(u32 ro) .7i76.0.0.swrevision: The onboard firmware revision number. Utilities (man setsserial for
details) exist to update and change this firmware.
7I77
The 7I77 is an 6-axis servo control card. The analogue outputs are smart-serial devices, but the encoders
are conventional hostmot2 encoders and further details of them may be found in the hostmot2 manpage.
Pins:
(bit out) .7i77.0.0.input-NN: (NN = 0 to 31) 32 digital inputs.
(bit in) .7i77.0.0.input-NN-not: (NN = 0 to 31) An inverted copy of the inputs provided for convenience.
The two complementary pins may be connected to different signal nets.
(bit out) .7i77.0.0.output-NN: (NN = 0 to 15). 16 digital outputs. The sense of the signal can be set via
a parameter.
(bit in) .7i77.0.0.spindir: This pin provides a means to drive the spindle VFD direction terminals on the
7I76 board.
(bit in) .7i77.0.0.spinena: This pin drives the spindle-enable terminals on the 7I76 board.
(float in) .7i77.0.0.spinout: This controls the analog output of the 7I77. This is intended as a speed
control signal for a VFD.
(bit in) .7i77.0.1.analogena: This pin drives the analog enable terminals on the 7I77 board.
(float in) .7i77.0.1.analogoutN: (N = 0 to 5) This controls the analog output of the 7I77.
Parameters:
(bit rw) .7i77.0.0.output-NN-invert: Invert the sense of the corresponding output pin.
(bit rw) .7i77.0.0.spindir-invert: Invert the sense of the spindle direction pin.
(bit rw) .7i77.0.0.spinena-invert: Invert the sense of the spindle-enable pin.
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.spinout-maxlim: The maximum speed request allowable
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.spinout-minlim: The minimum speed request.
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.spinout-scalemax: The spindle speed scaling. This is the speed request which would
correspond to full-scale output from the spindle control pin. For example with a 10 V drive voltage and
a 10000 RPM scalemax a value of 10,000 RPM on the spinout pin would produce 10 V output. However, if
spinout-maxlim were set to 5,000 RPM then no voltage above 5 V would be output.
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.analogoutN-maxlim: (N = 0 to 5) The maximum speed request allowable
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.analogoutN-minlim: (N = 0 to 5) The minimum speed request.
(float rw) .7i77.0.0.analogoutN-scalemax: (N = 0 to 5) The analog speed scaling. This is the speed
request which would correspond to full-scale output from the spindle control pin. For example with a 10
V drive voltage and a 10000 RPM scalemax a value of 10,000 RPM on the spinout pin would produce 10 V
output. However, if spinout-maxlim were set to 5,000 RPM then no voltage above 5 V would be output.
7I69
The 7I69 is a 48 channel digital IO card. It can be configured in four different modes:
MODE 0: Bidirectional mode (48 bits in 48 bits out)
MODE 1: Input only mode (48 bits in)
MODE 2: Output only mode (48 bits out)
MODE 3: 24/24mode (24 bits in = bits 0..23 and 24 bits out = bits 24..47)
MODE 4: Bidirectional mode (48 bits in 48 bits out) plus 4 MPG encoder channels oninputs 0 through 7
Pins:
(bit in) .7i69.0.0.output-NN: Digital output. Sense can be inverted with the corresponding Parameter.
(bit out) .7i69.0.0.input-NN: Digital input
(bit out) .7i69.0.0.input-NN-not: Digital input, inverted.
Parameters:
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.nvbaudrate: Indicates the vbaud rate. This probably should not be altered.
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.nvunitnumber: Indicates the serial number of the device and should match a sticker on
the card. This can be useful for working out which card is which.
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.nvwatchdogtimeout: The sserial remote watchdog timeout. This is separate from the
Anything-IO card timeout. This is unlikely to need to be changed.
(bit rw) .7i69.0.0.output-NN-invert: Invert the sense of the corresponding output pin.
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.swrevision: The onboard firmware revision number. Utilities exist to update and
change this firmware.
7I70
The 7I70 is a remote isolated 48 input card. The 7I70 inputs sense positive inputs relative to a common
field ground. Input impedance is 10 kΩ and input voltage can range from 5 VDC to 32 VDC. All inputs have
LED status indicators. The input common field ground is galvanically isolated from the communications
link.
The 7I70 has three software selectable modes. These different modes select different sets of 7I70 data to
be transferred between the host and the 7I70 during real time process data exchanges. For high speed
applications, choosing the correct mode can reduced the data transfer sizes, resulting in higher maximum
update rates.
MODE 0: Input mode (48 bits input data only
MODE 1: Input plus analog mode (48 bits input data plus 6 channels of analog data)
MODE 2: Input plus field voltage
Pins:
(float out) .7i70.0.0.analogN (modes 1 and 2 only) Analogue input values.
(float out) .7i70.0.0.fieldvoltage (mode 2 only) Field voltage monitoring pin.
(bit out) .7i70.0.0.input-NN: (NN = 0 to 47) 48 digital inputs.
(bit in) .7i70.0.0.input-NN-not: (NN = 0 to 47) An inverted copy of the inputs provided for convenience.
The two complementary pins may be connected to different signal nets.
Parameters:
(u32 ro) .7i70.0.0.nvbaudrate: Indicates the vbaud rate. This probably should not be altered.
(u32 ro) .7i70.0.0.nvunitnumber: Indicates the serial number of the device and should match a sticker on
the card. This can be useful for working out which card is which.
(u32 ro) .7i70.0.0.nvwatchdogtimeout: The sserial remote watchdog timeout. This is separate from the
Anything-IO card timeout. This is unlikely to need to be changed.
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.swrevision: The onboard firmware revision number. Utilities exist to update and
change this firmware.
7I71
The 7I71 is a remote isolated 48 output card. The 48 outputs are 8VDC to 28VDC sourcing drivers (common
+ field power) with 300 mA maximum current capability. All outputs have LED status indicators.
The 7I71 has two software selectable modes. For high speed applications, choosing the correct mode can
reduced the data transfer sizes, resulting in higher maximum update rates
MODE 0: Output only mode (48 bits output data only)
MODE 1: Outputs plus read back field voltage
Pins:
(float out) .7i71.0.0.fieldvoltage (mode 2 only) Field voltage monitoring pin.
(bit out) .7i71.0.0.output-NN: (NN = 0 to 47) 48 digital outputs. The sense may be inverted by the invert
parameter.
Parameters:
(bit rw) .7i71.0.0.output-NN-invert: Invert the sense of the corresponding output pin.
(u32 ro) .7i71.0.0.nvbaudrate: Indicates the vbaud rate. This probably should not be altered.
(u32 ro) .7i71.0.0.nvunitnumber: Indicates the serial number of the device and should match a sticker on
the card. This can be useful for determining which card is which.
(u32 ro) .7i71.0.0.nvwatchdogtimeout: The sserial remote watchdog timeout. This is separate from the
Anything-IO card timeout. This is unlikely to need to be changed.
(u32 ro) .7i69.0.0.swrevision: The onboard firmware revision number. Utilities exist to update and
change this firmware.
7I73
The 7I73 is a remote real time pendant or control panel interface.
The 7I73 supports up to four 50 kHz encoder inputs for MPGs, 8 digital inputs and 6 digital outputs and
up to a 64 Key keypad. If a smaller keypad is used, more digital inputs and outputs become available.
Up to eight 0.0 V to 3.3 V analog inputs are also provided. The 7I73 can drive a 4 line 20 character LCD
for local DRO applications.
The 7I73 has 3 software selectable process data modes. These different modes select different sets of
7I73 data to be transferred between the host and the 7I73 during real time process data exchanges. For
high speed applications, choosing the correct mode can reduced the data transfer sizes, resulting in
higher maximum update rates
MODE 0: I/O + ENCODER
MODE 1: I/O + ENCODER + ANALOG IN
MODE 2: I/O + ENCODER + ANALOG IN FAST DISPLAY
Pins:
(float out) .7i73.0.0.analoginN: Analogue inputs. Up to 8 channels may be available dependent on software
and hardware configuration modes (see the PDF manual downloadable from www.mesanet.com).
(u32 in) .7i73.0.1.display (modes 1 and 2). Data for LCD display. This pin may be conveniently driven by
the HAL "lcd" component which allows the formatted display of the values any number of HAL pins and
textual content.
(u32 in) .7i73.0.1.display32 (mode 2 only). 4 bytes of data for LCD display. This mode is not supported
by the HAL "lcd" component.
(s32 out) .7i73.0.1.encN: The position of the MPG encoder counters.
(bit out) .7i73.0.1.input-NN: Up to 24 digital inputs (dependent on config)
(bit out) .7i73.0.1.input-NN-not: Inverted copy of the digital inputs
(bit in) .7i73.0.1.output-NN: Up to 22 digital outputs (dependent on config)
Parameters:
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvanalogfilter
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvbaudrate
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvcontrast
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvdispmode
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvencmode0
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvencmode1
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvencmode2
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvencmode3
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvkeytimer
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvunitnumber
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.nvwatchdogtimeout
(u32 ro) .7i73.0.1.output-00-invert
For further details of the use of the above see the Mesa manual.
(bit rw) .7i73.0.1.output-01-invert: Invert the corresponding output bit.
(s32 ro) .7i73.0.1.swrevision: The version of firmware installed.
LinuxCNC Documentation 2008-05-13 SSERIAL(9)