Remora EC500

Remora-Novusun firmware allows Novusun Mach3 Ethernet controller boards to be used with LinuxCNC. In this video, a (Novusun) Digital Dream EC500 board is upgraded from a 3 axis Mach3 controller to a full 6 axis LinuxCNC controller by flashing the Remora firmware.
github.com/sco...

[@powermate]

Hi All, Just got this working on a J1900 NUC with LinuxCNC 2.8.2 Debian 10 Buster PREEMPT-RT ISO. I installed advanced network manager (mine was not working to edit the connection) then Probe basic (maybe this helped). I set up the connection like they do for mesa boards. Then installed as per this video and the Nvem video. I am no exert on this, all black magic to me.. So far seems to be working great. thanks Scott for your help so far.

[@durvalhenke]

CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP .. effusive applause, freedom freedom, spread your wings over us.. Thank you Scott..

[@michelathlan5298]

Thank you so much scott for this great video. I just got the EC500 version 5. And i couldn't figure out how to flash the Remora firmware on this board because it seems to have a different configuration. The pins on this board are GND SCK SWD PRO-B 3.3v BOOT I was wondering wich of each pin will connect on the stlink v2 in order to flash this board

[@scott3d506]

There is heaps of info and a guide in the LinuxCNC forum topic. forum.linuxcnc.org/18-computer/44828-remora-ethernet-nvem-cnc-board?start=1640#295702

[@Jesusnovocastro]

Muy bueno sigue así 😃😃😃😃👌 comentar para que Google lo ponga más arriba

[@henrikjensen5557]

Looking for this DD EC500 on ebay and amazon. They are with the model EC500, no Digital Dream marking. Will one of these work with the Remora firmware. (They look 99.99% the same, just DD text missing) My RPI5 with LinuxCNC 2.93 is just waiting for this project upgrade.

[@labgsm8185]

Thank you Scott

[@bogas78]

hi I have a quick question as now I can see that new EC500 has LED's near each output / input pins and I also wonder if they changed something on the board itself as well and if this will be working with your firmware ? I plan to make second cnc machine and i'm looking for new controller and if this will be a good option then i will order that board and use this remora firmware

[@bogas78]

btw I can not see EC 500 folder on your github hh sorry it is Remora-RT1052 folder right ?

[@estasnozes]

Hello, I have an EC500 board with a burnt microcontroller. Is this firmware the main one? If I replace the microcontroller and reprogram it with this firmware, will it start working again?

[@scott3d506]

Hi, if you board has the NXP RT1052 chip, these are not easy to replace. The STM version of the board would be a little easier but still difficult without the proper equipment.

[@kmpnelson]

You should throw up an affiliate link, if you're actively working on this I'd totally buy one and follow along.

[@choco107]

Just bought one. This is great. Could this be set up to work with a tool changer (encoder)

[@scott3d506]

Encoder support in on the to do list and very achievable as it's already available for the 3D printer board version of Remora.

[@luciosilva3274]

hello, someone managed to work with this board in mach3 with RT1052 microcontroller?

[@powermate]

Hi Scott, All is going well now i have finished the hardware. I can not seem to find how to change the motor direction in the ec500 config.txt. Could you please give me an example of changing motor direction thanks.

[@scott3d506]

Hi, the motor direction is set in the LinuxCNC configuration. In the INI file the change the SCALE for the joint to be a negative or positive value to change the direction.

[@powermate]

@@scott3d506 thankyou. Did you get the 0 to 10v for the motor speed controller working. Thanks for all your help.

[@scott3d506]

@@powermate Yes, it's working for the STM32 version and I have a software PWM version working for the RT1052 version but I have not released it yet as I want to get the flexIO version working. Been busy with work so hopefully of the Christmas break.

[@powermate]

Hi , thanks for the video. I was given an ec500 to experiment with. I am trying to connect to mach 3 first to see if the ec500 connects are usual before upgrading to remora. No such luck yet. I was hopeful you might have a copy of the original software before upgrading. Thanks in advance. I will be going down the remora path hopefully in the future.

[@scott3d506]

Happy to share, but there are a few versions of the board. Is yours the same as in the video?

[@powermate]

@@scott3d506 Hi Scott, I have just noticed your reply. thanks. Been working on my mill. Have all the servos now. I have just set up a working computer with linuxcnc and is working great not so i am going to just convert my ec500 ( looks that same as yours) to remora. I think that this is going to be great solution. Better than lpt and easier than the mesa cards which are hard to get. I really think this is a great middle ground for the diyer. I am looking forward to the 0-10v motor controller part working for the vsd. I am from sunny Queensland in Australia and were curious to know what part of the globe you are on. I also have a UC300 (small red board) , it seems to be and stm32 to breakout pins. thanks very much for videos, looking forward to the next one. Brad

[@powermate]

I just pulled my ec500 apart and it is the V3 exactly the same us yours. Circuits look the same also. Brad

[@scott3d506]

@@powermate Hi Brad, I'm in NSW.

[@partyboarderdos]

hey Scott, do you or does anybody in the comments have by any chance saved the original 6axis firmware? ;)

[@scott3d506]

Hi, I've got a copy of the original firmware from my "3 axis" EC500. I suspect the firmware is the same for all versions and they limit the axes with the mystery IC that's on board. I can share if you would like it.

[@partyboarderdos]

@@scott3d506 Thanks, i suspected something like this. but hey ... this pushes me to go to linuxcnc ... that is not a bad thing :)

[@akka4751]

Hello scott, could you tell me if this board was supporting BACKLASH COMPENSATION in mach3?

[@scott3d506]

Sorry, but I've never used the board with Mach3 so I can't answer.

[@powermate]

Hooray . Finally got it going great. My bad. As a newbie to Linux I had to refer to the other video (NVEM) and accidentally used the wrong software. I also had to install the tftpy library and for some reason the halcompile did not work so i re stalled that too. I would like to get it going on a pc with Debian 7 Wheezy ISO. So far I am trying to compile the component but errors out cannot find any of the library files. I have the pc communicating with the ec500 board . Has anyone a got a idea on how to get halcompile working. Anyway thanks very much for the start.

[@scott3d506]

HI Brad, great news. to get halcompile you need to use the dev version of LinuxCNC.

[@scott3d506]

sudo apt-get install linuxcnc-uspace-dev

[@powermate]

@@scott3d506 I did try (sudo apt-get install linuxcnc-uspace-dev) on my PC. Can you get that dev as an iso if not I think building it would be above my pay grade :) As you can see the math.h is missing and when i change it to rapi_math then the next library is missing and so on. Does not find any of the librarys. make KBUILD_EXTRA_SYMBOLS=/usr/realtime-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae/modules/linuxcnc/Module.symvers -C /usr/src/linux-headers-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae SUBDIRS=`pwd` CC=gcc V=0 modules make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae' CC [M] /tmp/tmpHZfwXY/remora-nv.o /tmp/tmpHZfwXY/remora-nv.c:25:18: fatal error: math.h: No such file or directory compilation terminated. make[4]: *** [/tmp/tmpHZfwXY/remora-nv.o] Error 1 make[3]: *** [_module_/tmp/tmpHZfwXY] Error 2 make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2 make[1]: *** [all] Error 2 make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/linux-headers-3.4-9-rtai-686-pae' make: *** [modules] Error 2 bradmohr@cncmill:~/linuxcnc/Components/Remora-nv$

[@powermate]

Hi All, The software is working great now to hardware. When i measure the voltage on the direction pin (PE13) it goes from -3.2v to +3.2v. My servo expects 0 to +3.2v or more. I did fix this using a diode in the direction pin. Do you guys think that this can be fixed by firmware or is it just part of this hardware board. thanks Bradley

[@scott3d506]

Hi Brad, great to hear. Step by step your getting there. The EC500 step and direction drivers are a differential pair. This is what you are seeing. Try using + terminal and a ground (common). There is a com0 on the spindle terminal. This is how I've been testing with my logic analyser.

[@powermate]

@@scott3d506 thank-you, I will give that a go. The raspberry pi is more that enough for my mill. speed wise. I will mount the pi on the ec500 for a neat unit.

[@oscarbeltran1105]

Hi Scott, I'm having a problem, when I run python3 upload_config.pi ec500-full-config.txt it displays this Timeout waiting for traffic, retrying... Timed-out waiting for traffic resending last packet Resending packet WRQ packet: filename = config mode = octet on sessions Any idea on why I'm having this problem?

[@scott3d506]

Hi, which version of the EC500 so you have. The STM or RT1052 version. The RT2052 firmware does not have the capability or need to upload a config. It has everything enabled in the firmware.

[@oscarbeltran1105]

@@scott3d506 I have the RT1052, does the config need to be uploaded?

[@scott3d506]

@@oscarbeltran1105 No, the firmware is hard coded. I'll be releasing a specific firmware version for the EC500 in the coming days with all of the IO except for the MPG operational.

[@oscarbeltran1105]

@@scott3d506 Great! Thank you!