grblHAL for stm32F0xx based boards....

[simrim1]

Hi,
I am making a CNC and looking around for Controller firmware for microcontroller based hardware and came across this controller software. I don't have much knowledge of configuration and compilation of firmwares. I have looked at the drivers for different MCUs but couldn't find one for STM32F0xxx. How difficult and time consuming it is to compile for STM32F0xxx. I want to compile it for FLY D5 3d printer board.

Thanks

[terjeio]

How difficult and time consuming it is to compile for STM32F0xxx.

That depends on your skill, best is to start with an existing STM32 driver and modify that. The F3xx driver is the simplest, it might be easy to port. Anyway, unless you want the challenge, you likely will be better off by getting a supported board.

[simrim1]

Thanks for your response. Why F3xx is simplest? What makes the driver simplest? Because it is using less number of plugins or something else? thx

[simrim1]

Thanks. I have commented out M3_HOME_PORT/PIN. I think there is redundant code in files. That is causing a lot of confusion.

Anyways I am stuck again at a very strange line of code. Please have a look at the attachment.

As you can see the code is referring to STEP_PORT. As far as I can understand this can only be defined in board map file, as a convenience, if all axis are using the same step port. Later in the code it is split into corresponding axis definitions e.g. X_STEP_PORT. These definitions can be found in driver_opts2.h and motor_pins.h as follows.

#ifdef STEP_PORT
#ifndef X_STEP_PORT
#define X_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#ifndef Y_STEP_PORT
#define Y_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#ifndef Z_STEP_PORT
#define Z_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#if defined(A_AXIS) && !defined(A_STEP_PORT)
#define A_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#if defined(B_AXIS) && !defined(B_STEP_PORT)
#define B_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#if defined(C_AXIS) && !defined(C_STEP_PORT)
#define C_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#if defined(U_AXIS) && !defined(U_STEP_PORT)
#define U_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#if defined(V_AXIS) && !defined(V_STEP_PORT)
#define V_STEP_PORT STEP_PORT
#endif
#endif

My understanding is STEP_PORT should never be referenced again to program the contents of this port. it should always be referenced with the specified port like X_STEP_PORT or Y_STEP_PORT etc. Am I Right?

[terjeio]

Am I Right?

No, outmode GPIO_MAP or GPIO_SHIFTx require the pins to be assigned to the same port.

[simrim1]

Yes. You are right. So dumb of me. I should have figured it out that Shift Registers are also supported in grblHAL. I should have used GPIO_BITBAND because I have independent pins from different ports for step, direction and enable signals. Right?

I have managed to build grblHAL. Well, almost. The code size and RAM used is too much to fit in. The chip on my board has 128K flash and 16K RAM. My code is overflowing by 8k on RAM and 129K on Flash. Is it realistic? I am only using eeprom and keypad modules along with internal peripherals I2C, USART and SPI. I am wondering if I made a blunder or binary code can really get that much bigger. It it possible?

[terjeio]

The chip on my board has 128K flash and 16K RAM. My code is overflowing by 8k on RAM and 129K on Flash. Is it realistic?

Yes, your best bet is to change to the last available version for the STM32F103 128K flash MCUs. Or switch to a more capable version of the F0 with at least 256K flash and enough RAM.

[simrim1]

Sorry but it didn't work either. I also downloaded the related core and enabled only USB CDC but it failed again with 608 bytes RAM overflow and almost 3KB of flash overflow. Looks like grblHAL is not for 128KB flash size anymore. Have to look around for alternatives.

Thanks anyway for your messages and tips to get it working.