Prototrak Plus Retrofit with Mesa 7i77 & 5i25 cards

[TRAJ]AXES in the INI is 3
So, the hal pins will only have axis.0.... axis.1.... and axis.2....

You can use any encoder and any analogout for any axis, but I really don't understand why you have [AXIS_2], [AXIS_3] and [AXIS_4] in the INI rather than the normal 0,1,2. Not only is this unusual, it won't work. Other parts of LinuxCNC (homing, for example) look explicitly for [AXIS_0] to find sequence numbers and speeds.

new2linux wrote:

If there is something I'm missing in my approach or if possible to test another set of non standard, say go to (TB3 & TB4) ENCODER 2 & ENCODER 3 with (TB5) DRV 2 & DRV 3, just wondering.".

That is perfectly OK. But keep [AXIS_0] and axis.0... and so on, just map them to different encoders.

net x-feedback axis.0.motor-position-fb <= hm2_5i25.0.encoder.06.position

For example.

setp hm2_5i25.0.7i77.0.3. <==== you can not change that, that is a mesa board sserial address. They have to be the same in your hal file.
You can change the analogout.0 and encoder.0 respectively.

new2linux wrote:

Todd & andypung many thanks to you guys for your help!!
If all the lights work (on the card) is that the ok or is there a way to test cards to see if the card has issues?

You can read the inputs and drive the outputs manually.

Wire an MPG or even a motor + encoder to one of your encoder terminal blocks.
Power up the cards.
Start the PC, but not LinuxCNC, and open a terminal window.
Start a HAL sessionYou can now type the usual HAL commands and make changes to the live system
The commands below can use tab-completion. I suggest that you actively do this, to ensure the correct spelling of the HAL pins, which I am guessing from memory.At this point I would expect to see some LEDs on the cards, and maybe a slow-flashing "heartbeat", But without a 7i77 to test with, I can't say for sure.

Get a list of all the HAL pins and parameters Copy this from the terminal and put it in a text file for later reference
Now open a halmeter to display the encoder counts.You can now select encoder.0.counts in the halmeter selection dialog. Plug the physical encoder into the relevant TB, and rotate it, the numbers hould change.
Repeat for the other encoder plug positions.

And exercise the analogue outputss. (I really don't know what these are called for sure, but you should, by this point)
Test them with a multimeter.
You should be able to test the 7i77 GPIO the same way too. Look at the HAL pin list for the names, and use the "setp" command to set them to 0 or 1. Test with a multimeter.