7i97t with 7i84d connection problem

Hello,

my Mesa cards for the LCNC retrofit just arrived. I'm using 7i97t as the main card which is connected to the pc with ethernet. After some trouble updating Mesaflash i got that connected to the PC fine and the pins already work (in Hal show with an MPG encoder).

For the hal file I wanted to get a starting point by follwoing the Pncconf wizard and then editing the file as needed. The pncconf however has no infos on the 7i97t and I need to use the discovery function. THis also works and the card is detected. All seems well and I can even configure the Pins on my 7i84d which is connected through sserial to the 7i97t with a chopped ethernet cable connected as per 7i97t's instructions. When I start LinuxCNC with this config however, I get an error that a pin on the 7i84 is missing. If I don't configure the pins on 7i84d in Pncconf LCNC will launch but halshow won't let me see the I/Os on the 7i84d, only 7i97t.

when I type "
mesaflash --addr 10.10.10.10 --device=ETHER --readhmid
into the terminal i also cant see the pins on 7i84d. both cards have power and the status LEDs are indicating ok. 

Do I need a different firmware on the 7i97t?
Any help is greatly appreciated.

try

mesaflash --addr 10.10.10.10 --device=ETHER --sserial

Note that you need to set the pwmgen to offset mode,
and for the 7I97T, use a 75 KHz PWM frequency with
dither enabled.

Here is an example config file that has the PWM setup

freeby.mesanet.com/basic7i97.zip
 

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately it raises more questions than it answers. I won't get back to the machine before the morning but i will first try the command you suggested and post the result.

I can't seem to download your file, and even if I could I don't know what to do with it.

On which of hte cards do I need to set the pwmgen to offset mode and how would I do that?

 

The zip file contains a basic 7I97 configuration file set (hal and ini files)

 

The 7I97T PWMgens need to be set in offset mode
(as shown in the example hal file)

I can download the file now, great.

I am completely new to LCNC and have never done a conversion so everything is a mystery to me. I haven't found an example of a retrofit with a 7i97t as it is a relatively new card.

I'm quite certain that I've omitted some crucial steps in setting my mesacards and the pc up. Perhaps I was a little too optimistic about the kind of configuration work i need to do.

Could you roughly break down everything I need to do from opening the box of mesa cards to having a completed hal file?

Note that  7I97T and 7I97 hal files are interchangeable
with the exception that the 7I97T analog out resolution
is best with the PWM frequency set to 75 KHz and dither
enabled.

The zipped example files comprise a complete configuration
but of course there are many machine specific setup things
that need to be added/changed to match your specific machine.

 

so loading Lcnc with these files should at least work but my inputs and outputs are not connected to software pins correctly?

Editing the hal files is something that can be looked up and is documented well by many people so once I get to that stage I will probably get everything to run given enough time.

My initial problem of not seeing the 7i84d pins needs more info from the machine after posting "mesaflash --addr 10.10.10.10 --device=ETHER --sserial" to the terminal?
 

There are many things that need to be setup to match
your hardware so no generic hal/ini file set will work
on an unknown machine without editing. Things needed:

Setting up inputs  for limit/home

Setting up the encoder scaling and direction

Making sure that the position feedback is negative
rather than positive (positive feedback=runaway)

Tuning the PID loop

Setting up spindle controls

Setting up generic outputs (coolant etc)

etc etc

Why the 7I84D does not work with your pncconf created
is unknown but there are some simple diagnostics

The precise error messages will help here also.

On easy way to capture these is to run LinuxCNC
from the command line. When this is done, the errors
will be printed in the terminal so can be copy pasted
to the forum.

 

Thanks for your help so far

I just entered 
mesaflash --addr 10.10.10.10 --device=ETHER --sserial
and get this response:

SSLBP port 0:
     SSLBP Version: 1.43
     SSLBP Channels: 1
     SSLBP Baud Rate: 2500000

I will now record the errors I get with my own configured hal file and then try the one you made.

I have the 7i84d connected with a chopped ethernet cable as described in the manual