SoftDMC on 7I93

Hi,

My 7I93 came in a few days ago, and I am just now finding some time to play with it. I want to load SoftDMC on it, but I seem to be struggling with finding the information to do this. I can't find the manual for the 7I93 on Mesa's site (or the card itself), but have been assuming that it is similar to the 7I80 so I have been reading through the 7I80 manu7al in order to learn something. Can someone confirm this or provide a link to the 7I93 manual?

Here's the link to the card I bought. It's from John's site as I can not find the cards listed on Mesa's page anywhere except for the pricelist. mesaus.com/index.php?route=product/produ...th=66&product_id=119

Also, any pointers on installing/using SoftDMC would be appreciated. My assumption is that I download the bitfile to the 7I93 like any other configuration via MesaFlash , but I don't know where to find the bitfile(s). Additionally, in the Ethernet IO manual (7I80) I see under the heading "Supplied Configurations" entries such as "SVST8_8IM2" or "SVST4_8". I believe all these entries are specific to HOSTMOT2, not SoftDMC.

Also in the 7I80 manual I was reading about the LBP16 COMMANDS which are used via UDP to read/write registers in the FPGA & it speaks about Address Space 0 & notes it for HOSTMOt2 registers. In my case, I won't have HOSTMOT2 loaded at all so I'm not real clear the data flow from UDP -> SoftDMC.

As you can see, I'm quite the assumption making cnc'er right now, and not making much progress. Any light that can be shed would help greatly. I seem to be stuck in the garage & may need to change my username to SuperConfused.

Thanks,

Len

Andy,

Thanks for the link, but I was going by this: "The SoftDMC firmware is included free with all Mesa FPGA based cards and can be licensed for a nominal charge for non-Mesa cards and embedded FPGA designs. SoftDMC is an ideal replacement for LM629 and other ASIC based motion controllers, assuring long term availability and ease of modification due to its open FPGA based design." found at: www.mesanet.com/ in the description of SoftDMC. I just noticed that this phrase is also in the link you gave. I think it just shows a price so someone can order a license for it to use in their own design.

I just don't know how to download & communicate to it via the 7I93. Since LinuxCNC doesn't use SoftDMC, I'm sure it's not the most asked about feature.

Do you have any thoughts on if the manual for the 7I80 (or any of the other ethernet based FPGA designs for that matter) applies to the 7I93. It looks like it's the same design with just one less 50pin connector. I actually tried to order the 7I80HD but it was out of stock.

Len

I called Mesa and have sent an email at their request, so hopefully I can make a little progress this weekend.