7i76E with 7i77 or better 7i92 with 7i76 and 7i77

Hallo,

I am rebuilding with a friend an Deckel FP3 with automatic tool changer.
The machine has 4 servo amps with analog in. The encoders are connected directly to the servo amps, and the glas scales should go to mesa cards for position feed back.

Because of the tool change, I will need about 50 Input and 20 outputs (including home and ref switches, etc.)

So I looked for different MESA hardware combinations and ended up with two solutions:
1 7i76E
1 7i77
€ 449,44
(one DB-25 and two SSerial ports left for extension)

or
1 7i92
1 7i77
1 7i76
€ 456,34
(two SSerial Ports left for extension)

from price side, there is only a minimal difference, so that is no question.

I have seen, that there is a bit file for the 7i76E (Justio), what does this mean. I would like to remain all hal pin, except the step/dir part. Is there a possibility to use that pin also as IO, even if they only do support 5 V it would be a possibility to connect some hardware buttons to that part.

Any other solutions are also welcome!, May be anyone has already a Deckel FP3 ATC running with MESA hardware.

Norbert

Norbert, I'm not really the expert with mesa cards but I think if you needed a 7i76 and a 7l77 via ethernet, I'd go with the 7i76e and the 7i77. That way, you still have a spare 25 pin connector for additional expansion. If you used a 7i92, you'd have both 25 pin connectors in use. I really have been so impressed with my 7i76e. It has amazing flexibility.

Hallo Rodw,

have you ever tried the 7i76e_JUSTIO bitfile? I am not sure if I can use that one to make the not needed Step/Dir pins availible.

Norbert

Norbert. No I haven't. I have loaded a bit file to expose the 7i76e's UART and it was a pretty straight forward process. I have heard the stepgens can be repurposed to IO.

The other thing I've seen guys do is use the 7i92/7i74/7i77 and then run up to 4 I/O smart serial daughter cards off the 7i74. Say a 7i70 & 7i71 which give either 48 inputs or 48 outputs each.That may be a more mainstream approach but check the voltage specs suit your hardware. I think both are good at 24 volts.

You can use the step and dir pins as 5V outputs if you disable the stepgens in the driver config line
This does not need a different bit file and is true of all bitfiles (if special output functions like stepgens, PWMgens, UARTs
etc are disabled in hal, their pins revert to being GPIO )

For example, if you have num_stepgens=3 on a 7I76E, step4/dir4, step5/dir5 are available as general purpose outputs
They cannot be used as inputs because the step/dir output drivers on the card are output only

If the servo amplifiers are analog, why do you need to generate steps? Is a requirement to have ethernet?

A single 7i77 connected to a 5i25 plus provides a lot of inputs and outputs and you can still connect a popular 7i84 that we often use to the panel interface on the 7i77 and still have the expansion port of the 5i25 available.

On eusurplus store, 5i25+7i77+7i84 +- 430€ and you will have 64 inputs and 32 outputs

For example, if you have num_stepgens=3 on a 7I76E, step4/dir4, step5/dir5 are available as general purpose outputs
They cannot be used as inputs because the step/dir output drivers on the card are output only

PCW, could you name the pin of step and dir 4 and 5, so I can try here on my desktop test environment.

Thanks Norbert

If the servo amplifiers are analog, why do you need to generate steps? Is a requirement to have Ethernet?

A single 7i77 connected to a 5i25 plus provides a lot of inputs and outputs and you can still connect a popular 7i84 that we often use to the panel interface on the 7i77 and still have the expansion port of the 5i25 available.

On eusurplus store, 5i25+7i77+7i84 +- 430€ and you will have 64 inputs and 32 outputs

I do not want to use any more internal cards, that is the only reason to select the 7i76E.
I have one Laptop, and I can plug it to any of my machines, so I save hardware
A friend of mine is designing a very universal control panel, that will also work with Ethernet connections to control any kind of machine with MESA Hardware. As soon as it is available, I will post it here, as he wants to offer that one also for sale.

And be sure, I will order at EU-Surplus, as in the past, I have been very happy with your service!

Norbert

The easiest way to check the pinout is with Mesaflash

For example with the default 192.168.1.121 address:

mesaflash --device 7i76e --readhmid

or with the EEPROM 10.10.10.10 address:

mesaflash --device 7i76e --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid