2 Mesa Cards

How do I add 2 different PCI mesa cards to the hal file? I have a 5i20 with a 7i33 daughter card. I just added a 5i25 with a 7i74 card. I want to use the 5i25 and 7i74 to control my VFD through the RS-422. However, i don't really understand how I would load the configuration in hal. Currently I have:

loadrt hm2_pci config="firmware=hm2/5i20/SVST8_4.BIT num_encoders=4 num_pwmgens=2 num_stepgens=4"

How do I do the same for the 5i25?

Thanks
Brian

I am very confused on the smart serial, I think it might be a bit over my head.

Is there a configuration example of something similar to using a 5i25 with a 7i74 connected to GS2 VFD driver? I may be completely wrong on how to do this, I am learning as I go.

Thanks

Smart Serial only supports smart serial real time remote I/O devices
(and this is all pretty much automagic regardless of the remote serial device)
the sserial interface does not support Modbus

Andy Pugh has added UART support to HostMot2 so it should be possible
(with a lot of work) to communicate with Modbus devices via a UART built into the 5I25,
driving the 7I74 RS-422 interface but its sure not going to be straightforward...

That sounds above my skill level, so I think I will just go back to the way it was working before.

Thanks for the help

My computer does not have a serial port, so I bought a cheap PCI serial card and then a RS232 - RS485 converter. It was working fine, except sometimes the spindle stops for no reason. Or spins the wrong direction. It is commanded correctly - but the VFD shows it as being commanded to stop I do not really know how to troubleshoot modbus stuff so I lived with it and just assumed it was a combination of the cheap PCI card, adapter, and me being a novice at this. Now I have a job where I need the machine to run "lights out" and cannot have the spindle randomly stopping. I thought the mesa system would work, but looks like I did not do enough research. I am thinking of buying a better quality RS485 PCI card to eliminate the adapter to see if that helps. I also have a live tooling motor that I would like to control the same way. (Not sure if you can load the GS2 driver twice though...) (My controller is actually a GS3, but I think it works the same as far as the communication is concerned).

If that does not work, I will probably try using PWM.

I have 2 Mesa Cards

first is the 5i20 with a 7i33 daughter card. (the daughter card runs the steppers and handles the encoder feedback from the spindle) the rest are gpio

Now I have a 5i25 and a 7i74 daughter card.

The VFD is a GS3-23PO