I have found myself here on the forums quite a bit as of late, So allow me to start by saying Thank you to everyone who has posted. I learn something new with each thread I read.
The current project that has my attention is a Taig milling machine I am in the process of setting up with LinuxCNC using Mesa hardware. I originally installed a Mesa 7I92 paired with a leadshine MX4660. This turned out to be a poor combo choice on my part. While the Mesa manual was clear under "STARTUP I/O VOLTAGE" that the initial state of the pins would be high. The leadshine manual was not as clear on it's description of the on board charge pump. The leadshine CP has no control over the I/O, only onboard drivers. This pose a problem for me as my AC spindle was controlled via a relay with one of those outputs!
My solution was to upgrade to the new Mesa 7I96S. Cheaper then swapping to Gecko stepper drivers and does anybody need a reason to buy more Mesa hardware. I will pair the 7I92 with a G540 for another project or perhaps a 7I76 not sure, a lot of options available for the 7I92 board. If I was to start over I would pair some G203V or GR214V's with a 7I96S board. This is the current state of my Taig milling machine after the retro fit to the Mesa 7I96S ( spoiler due to large image size, Ignore my wiring it is a mess )
My current configuration consists of.
- GK41 PC I picked up on amazon "
Here
" as recommended by The Feral Engineer on YouTube.
- Debian 11 with RT kernel
- LinuxCNC 2.9 Master
- Probe Basic
- Leadshine MX4660
- AvidCNC Nema 23 Steppers
- Mesa 7I96S
- Misc relays, terminals, fuses ect.
And here is a YouTube "short" video I filmed testing my home switches and spindle control after the 7I96S upgrade.