Slaving axis (rotating nut, 2 steppers for Y-axis)

I bought over 1800 euro worth of Mesa hardware in one go from EUSurplus. Need i say more?
Oh well ..... i do i do
i forgot to order THCAD at least 2, Andy told me later they have 7i43 for MPG and a lot of other things so i would have liked 2 of them also.
Finished 2 machine retrofits, still got the 7i76E waiting for a big plasma table, 7i92 and 6i25 for experimenting almost every day. Just the flexibility of them is worth every dime, support is the best, literally.

Thanks for the explanation Andy!

@rodw: Then, maybe i should go for the Mesa cards...

Maybe i do understand something wrong, but it took you 12 month to get the 7i76e to run ? i hope i understand it wrong...

I want to use the standard 7i76 + 5i25 with Leadshine easy servo steppers and drivers and i am not sure how difficult it will be but i cant believe it will take that long..., also because there are some tutorials out for the Mesa setup.

Again, like you are saying, there are some very useful advantages of the Mesa cards, but unfortunately the price for both cards is pretty high here in EU.

Thanks Tommy.

But, should i go for the ethernet version or the standard 7i76 for an cnc router (which maybe will be also used as an plasma cutter in future) ?

thanks in advance!

rodw wrote: Not to mention I have virtually unlimited expandability just by adding daughter cards..

It would be hard to add more than 16 more cards, so you can only really add another 768 IO points with current hardware.

denhen89 wrote: But, should i go for the ethernet version or the standard 7i76 for an cnc router

The standard 5i25 + 7i76 combination is supported by the LiveCD install and by the PnCConf config wizard.

The 7i76E requires a different kernel version to the LiveCD and you would need to hand-code the HAL.

If you have an available PCI port then the 5i25/7i76 looks easier. The 7i76E has one extra expansion port compared to the 5i25.

@Andy: That are good news and thanks again for the explanation!

Yes, i have couple available PCI ports on my MB (M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3), so i think i will spend the 345€ for the both mesa cards (5i25 + 7i76). Maybe its better to not save money on that parts.