REXYGEN Community Forum

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hello,

I hope you can help. I have to setups: an old one with RPi 1 and an Intellisys PIO Board and a new one with a RPi2 and another PIO Board. On the RPi everything is working as expected. Unfortunately on the Pi 2 the board is not identified. I already activated the SPI and i2c interface in the /boot/config.txt

dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
dtparam=spi=on
dtparam=i2c1=on
dtparam=i2c0=on
#dtparam=i2s=on

but I can't access the UI, AO or i.e. the RTC. I am confused.

Do you have any idea?

Your help is really appreciatd - thanks many time in advance,
demarque

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi again,

I checked the old RPi 1 B again. In have two of these running with PIO boards. One with kernel: 4.1.15+ and one with 4.4.9+. So, both Pi have already the device-tree model. I2C and SPI is _not_ activated on both of them - but they work. No special kernel modules or something like that. A fresh RPi2 with device-tree and activated i2c or activated i2c + spi or just spi does not work

Maybe someone has an idea?

Thanks

tomáš čechura

Administrator

Registered: 2016-02-22

Posts: 371

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hello demarque,

RPiDrv driver, which is responsible for correct working of PIO board with Rex Control system, doesn't need any special I2C or SPI settings. It means that if you try clean Raspbian image, install Rex Control System the PIO board pins should be accessible via Rex Control System.
I checked the Blink example from GitHub repository with Raspberry Pi 2 (kernel 4.4.13) and it worked well. My /boot/config.txt doesn't contain any activation of I2C nor SPI. I use the default one with all parameters commented.

Please, can you try clean Raspbian installation and the basic Blink example to separate other errors?

Regards, Tomas

---

Raspberry Pi as a miniature industrial PC. Analog and digital I/O, RS-485 and 1-Wire bus.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi Tomas,

thank you very much for the input.

First and foremost: good to hear that the Pi2 ist compatible with Rex and PIO. Unfortunately it is a absolut fresh install of Raspbian. I did not modify the config.txt before - just after I saw, that I can't communicate with the board.

But I will check it again and give you feedback.

Thanks and best regards,
demarque

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi Tomas,

I've checked it again. No luck. Maybe the Pi GPIO's are damaged? Can you provide me with you config.txt? I tried to interface with the PIO directly.

#include "/var/tmp/pio/libpio.h"
#include <unistd.h>

int main (void)
{

        int RTC_status;
        int RTC_year;
        Pio_SYSTEM_Init();
        RTC_status = Pio_RTC_Start();
        RTC_year = Pio_RTC_Year_Read();
        if (RTC_status == 1) { printf ("The clock is started successfully %i\n");}
        if (RTC_status == 0) { printf ("The clock was just started %i\n");}
        if (RTC_status == -1) { printf ("The clock is not started %i\n");}
        printf ("The current year is : %i\n", RTC_year);
}

The output is:

The clock was just started 0
The current year is : -1

The c code works on other Pi's with the same PIO

Thanks again

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

My kernel on the Pi 2 is: 4.4.26-v7+.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

I downgraded the kernel to your version Tomas: same bad result. I also organized another board: a pi b+. Same results as with the pi 2. So I think it is a software error or there are different version of PIO boards out there.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

I checked a fresh raspbian install: no luck. Then I disconnected one of my running Pi 1 version and connected the SD card to the b+ and 2: no luck.

It is weird.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

I have to correct one thing: the alternative b+ I used is also a Pi 2. So I did not check compatibility with b+. But if you Tomas checked the Pi 2 this can not be the problem.

Last edited by demarque (2016-11-10 20:29:40)

tomáš čechura

Administrator

Registered: 2016-02-22

Posts: 371

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi demarque,

the Raspberry Pi I tested is Pi 2 model B.
Here is my config.txt file.

According to your posts it seems to me like some hardware issue on your Raspberry Pi.

If there is anything I can test for you, please, let me know.

Cheers, Tomas

---

Raspberry Pi as a miniature industrial PC. Analog and digital I/O, RS-485 and 1-Wire bus.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi Tomas,

thank you. I tried already to Pi 2 model B. First I also thought that it must be a hardware / failure related issue - but after trying the 2nd one I do not think so any more. I ordered a Pi B+ - at the moment I would bet, that this one works. I will inform you.

Regards,

demarque

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi,

the Pi B+ is working. Thank you again for your config.txt. I compared it and also copied it but unfortunately with no new results. When I look for strings in the libpio.so I only see reference to the chipset bcm2835.

bcm2835_delayMicroseconds
bcm2835_st_read
bcm2835_st_delay
bcm2835_gpio_write_multi
bcm2835_gpio_write_mask
bcm2835_gpio_set_pud
bcm2835_spi_begin
bcm2835_spi_end
bcm2835_spi_setBitOrder
bcm2835_spi_setClockDivider
bcm2835_spi_setDataMode
bcm2835_spi_transfer
bcm2835_spi_transfernb
bcm2835_spi_writenb
bcm2835_spi_transfern
bcm2835_spi_chipSelect
bcm2835_spi_setChipSelectPolarity
bcm2835_i2c_end
bcm2835_i2c_setClockDivider
bcm2835_i2c_read_register_rs

I can't find any reference to the chipset of the Pi 2 bcm2836. I also tried to contact someone at Intellisys. Bad luck. In the past these guys were really helpful and friendly but I think the system is not really supported anymore?

Is Rex completely independent from the libpio.so? Is it possible to write small c / python programs with Rex or do I have to use the GUI on MS Windows? Is there are MAC or Linux port?

Thank you,

demarque

tomáš čechura

Administrator

Registered: 2016-02-22

Posts: 371

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi demarque,

our PIO driver is based on the libpio.so library however we implemented it in our own way - this can be reason why it is possible to use PIO boards on newer RPis such as RPi 2 or RPi 3 with REX Control System. It seems that Intellisys doesn't support PIO board any more (my personal guess according to their outdated website).

Fully supported operating system for REX Development Tools is only Windows at the moment. However it is possible to use it also with WineHQ (should be compatible with Linux and also Mac OSX).

I would recommend you to try REX Control System by following Getting started with REX and Raspberry Pi .

If I can be of assistance, feel free to contact me.

Regards, Tomas

---

Raspberry Pi as a miniature industrial PC. Analog and digital I/O, RS-485 and 1-Wire bus.

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Thanks Tomas. I will give it a try. Some parts of my project have to be fully MS Windows independent.

lulanord

Member

Registered: 2017-05-25

Posts: 1

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi...i am a new user here. As per my experience PIO driver is based on the libpio.This can be reason why it is possible to use PIO boards on newer RPis such as RPi 2 or RPi 3 with REX Control System. It seems that Intellisys doesn't support PIO board any more.

printed circuit assembly

Last edited by lulanord (2017-06-23 21:10:53)

jaroslav_sobota

Administrator

Registered: 2015-10-27

Posts: 535

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi lulanord,
welcome to the community! Can you please clarify your question? Your post only rephrases facts mentioned in previous posts... Thanks!

Jaroslav

---

Monarco HAT for Raspberry Pi - Lightweight I/O for monitoring, archiving and control.
Raspberry Pi in industrial automation!

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi,

I will migrate my environment soon. Then I will have access to a Development-station with MS Windows. I still own the PIO Board.

Would it be possible to try your libpio in front to fully setting up REX? Is it in a deb package on your site?

Thank you very much again,

demarque

jaroslav_sobota

Administrator

Registered: 2015-10-27

Posts: 535

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi demarque,
I'm sorry but our repository does not contain a standalone library for PIO Board, it is embedded in REX binaries.

Btw, on Linux machines, you may install REX development tools using Wine 2.0 or later. Although we test the development tools in Wine regularly, please note that this is meant for experienced Linux users and only a very limited support is provided.

Best regards,
Jaroslav

---

Monarco HAT for Raspberry Pi - Lightweight I/O for monitoring, archiving and control.
Raspberry Pi in industrial automation!

demarque

Member

Registered: 2016-11-06

Posts: 13

Re: Raspberry Pi 2 Intellisys PIO

Hi Jaroslav,

ok, thank you. I am not the biggest fan of wine but maybe I will give it a try.

Best regards,

demarque