Ubuntu Manpage: hm2_rpspi - LinuxCNC HAL driver for the Mesa Electronics SPI Anything IO boards, with

Provided by: linuxcnc-uspace_2.9.1-2ubuntu1_amd64

NAME

       hm2_rpspi  -  LinuxCNC  HAL  driver  for the Mesa Electronics SPI Anything IO boards, with
       HostMot2 firmware.

SYNOPSIS

       loadrt hm2_rpspi

           config [default: ""]
                  HostMot2 config strings, described in the hostmot2(9) manpage.

           spiclk_rate [default: 31250]
                  Specify the SPI clock rate in kHz. See SPI CLOCK RATES below.

           spiclk_rate_rd [default: -1 (same as spiclk_rate)]
                  Specify the SPI read clock rate in kHz. Usually you read and write at the  same
                  speed.  However,  you may want to reduce the reading speed if the round-trip is
                  too long (see SPI CLOCK RATES below).

           spiclk_base [default: 400000000]
                  This is the SPI clock divider calculation fallback  value.  Usually,  the  base
                  rate  is  read  from /sys/kernel/debug/clk/vpu/clk_rate and used in the divider
                  calculation (for the Rpi3 it should be 250 MHz). The spiclk_base is  only  used
                  as  a  fallback  if  the  system's  cannot  be  read.  It is normally safe (and
                  recommended) that you leave this parameter as is.
                  You should set this manually to 250000000  if  your  system  does  not  provide
                  access  to  the kernel clock settings. Otherwise, your SPI clock frequency will
                  be only 62.5% of the requested value.

           spi_pull_miso [default: 1 (pull-down)]

           spi_pull_mosi [default: 1 (pull-down)]

           spi_pull_sclk [default: 1 (pull-down)]
                  Enable or disable pull-up/pull-down on the SPI lines. A value of 0 disables any
                  pull-up/down  on the pin. A value of 1 means pull-down and 2 means pull-up. The
                  chip enable line(s) are always pull-up enabled.

           spi_probe [default: 1]
                  Probe SPI port and CE lines for a card. This is a  bit-field  indicating  which
                  combinations of SPI and CE should be probed:
                   -  1 = SPI0/CE0,
                   -  2 = SPI0/CE1,
                   -  4 = SPI1/CE0,
                   -  8 = SPI1/CE1,
                   - 16 = SPI1/CE2.

                  The  probe  is  performed  exactly  in  above  order.  Any boards found will be
                  numbered 0...4 in the order found. See also INTERFACE CONFIGURATION below.

                  It is an error if a probe fails and  the  driver  will  abort.   The  SPI0/SPI1
                  peripherals  are  located  at  GPIO  pins (with 40-pin I/O header pin-number in
                  parentheses):
                   - SPI0: MOSI=10(19), MISO=9(21), SCLK=11(23), CE0=8(24), CE1=7(26)
                   -  SPI1:  MOSI=20(38),  MISO=19(35),  SCLK=21(40),   CE0=18(12),   CE1=17(11),
                  CE2=16(36)

           spi_debug [default: -1]
                  Set  the  message  level  of  the  running process. The message level is set if
                  spi_debug is set to a positive value between 0 and 5, where 0 means no messages
                  at all and 5 means everything. A value of -1 does not touch the current message
                  level.

                  Caveat Emptor: changing the message  level  is  process-wide  and  all  modules
                  within  the  process  will  spit  out messages at the requested level. This may
                  cause quite some clutter in your terminal.

DESCRIPTION

       hm2_rpspi is a device driver for the Raspberry Pi 2/3 that  interfaces  Mesa's  SPI  based
       Anything  I/O boards (with the HostMot2 firmware) to the LinuxCNC HAL.  This driver is not
       based on the linux spidev driver, but on a dedicated BCM2835-SPI driver.

       It is strongly recommended that you unload/disable the kernel's spidev driver by disabling
       it  using  raspi-config.   Please  note that having both kernel and user-space SPI drivers
       installed can result in unexpected interactions and system instabilities.

       The supported boards are: 7I90HD.

       The board must have a compatible firmware (ie.: 7i90_spi_svst4_8.bit) loaded on the  board
       by the mesaflash(1) program.

       hm2_rpspi  is only available when LinuxCNC is configured with "uspace" realtime.  It works
       with Raspian and PREEMPT_RT kernel.

INTERFACE CONFIGURATION

       Up to five devices (7i90 boards) are supported. Two on SPI0 and  three  on  SPI1.   It  is
       recommended that you, at most, use two devices and each device connected to a separate SPI
       port. You can choose which CE lines you prefer or fit the design and setup  the  spi_probe
       parameter to instruct the driver where to search for the board(s).

REALTIME PERFORMANCE OF THE BCM2835-SPI DRIVER

       TBD.

SPI CLOCK RATES

The maximum SPI clock of the BCM2835-SPI driver and the 7i90 is documented over 32MHz. The
SPI driver can provide frequencies well beyond what is acceptable for the 7i90. A safe
value to start with would be 12.5 MHz (spiclk_rate=12500) and then work your way up from
there.

The SPI driver generates (very) discrete clock frequency values, especially in the MHz
range because of a simple clock divider structure. The base frequency is 250 MHz and the
divider for SPI0/SPI1 scales using discrete factors. The following list specifies the
spiclk_rate setting and the discrete SPI clock frequency (250 MHz / (2n) for n > 1):
- 62500 - 62.500 MHz,
- 41667 - 41.667 MHz,
- 31250 - 31.250 MHz,
- 25000 - 25.000 MHz,
- 20834 - 20.833 MHz,
- 17858 - 17.857 MHz,
- 15625 - 15.625 MHz,
- 13889 - 13.889 MHz,
- 12500 - 12.500 MHz,
- 11364 - 11.364 MHz,
- 10417 - 10.417 MHz,
- 9616 - 9.615 MHz,
- ....

The lowest selectable SPI clock frequency is 30 kHz (spiclk_rate=30) for SPI0 and SPI1.
Theoretically, the SPI0 port could go slower, but there is no point in doing so. You
should not expect any real-time performance with such slow setting, unless your machine is
located next to a black hole.

The highest SPI clock frequency is, theoretically, 125 MHz. However, you will not be able
to build any reliable hardware interface at that frequency. The driver limits the clock to
62.5 MHz (cpiclk_rate=62500). The chances are rather slim that you get the interface to
work reliably at this frequency. The 7i90 interface only supports frequencies up to 50 MHz
and that is with perfect cabling and impedance matching (in write direction only).

Writing to the 7i90 may be done faster than reading. This is especially important if you
have "long" wires or any buffers on the SPI-bus path. You can set the read clock frequency
to a lower value (using spiclk_rate_rd) to counter the effects of the SPI-bus round-trip
needed for read actions. For example, you can write at 41.67 MHz and read at 25.00 MHz.

It should be noted that the Rpi3 must have an adequate 5V power supply and the power
should be properly decoupled right on the 40-pin I/O header. At high speeds and noise on
the supply, there is the possibility of noise throwing off the SoC's PLL(s), resulting in
strange behaviour.

For optimal performance on the Rpi3, you must disable the "ondemand" CPU frequency
governor. You may add the following to your /etc/rc.local file:
echo -n 1200000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_min_freq
echo -n performance > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/policy0/scaling_governor

Be sure to have a proper heatsink mounted on the SoC or it will get too warm and crash.

LICENSE

GPL