Mesa FPGA choice for 6 axis stepper.

Hi,

I was searching on the Mesanet and found a few FPGA boards.
Wich one is usable for making a 6 axis step/dir configuration with ethernet connection?

Thanks !

Really, the answer is all of the Either net connected boards can support more than 6 step-gens. But none of them have 6 ready to use step/dir outputs like a 7i76. One of the best solutions would be to use either a 7i76e (or 7i96) plus a 7i78 for a total of 9 available step/dir outputs. Another option would be a 7i93 plus a 7i47. However any of the FPGA cards are capable of more than 6 step-gens by them selves, if you are willing to risk using some of the FPGA pins bear or with some other breakout board(s).

Hi Todd,

My order wiil be 2 separate boards.

1. One ethernet board ready, and easy to go,

But for this ethernet board i need the thcad add on board, and also din rail mounted cable plug in's.

2. One ethernet fpga board with the possibility for 6 axis stepper with a few i/o.

But there are more then 4 fpga boards, and the description on the Mesenet website is limited. So i can't really see what the difference is. The Mesa numbers are quite confusing. If they have numbers related to board function it's better to understand for newbies.

If you are going to use use LinuxCNC master I would use a 7I96 and a 7I78
or a 7I96 and a generic Ebay 5 Axis BOB

A 7I76/7I76E makes more sense if you can use the 48 digital I/O points but those would likely go unused on a plasma machine.

Hi Pcw,

You know me, I want best of the best from Mesa. Extra I/O is welcome, no problem.
I use almost master. I have master and 3 run in place versions with option's to run when i am in the mood.
When you hear about Debian 9... you know it's the best.

Can you configure for me one system for Ethernet control, max 6 stepper, multi i/o, with voltage divider input board from Mesa,
if possible all the din rail option's for this configuration. If you can give me the numbers i can check them this week before ordering.

In the same order, the second purchage is the FPGA board. Wich one is suited for 6 axis stepper with multi i/o.
If there are limeted configuration examples, i see no problem. If there is one stepper example with limited i/o example i can figure it out.

I hope you can help me pcw.

@Tommy,

First i have to try Mesa. I want to try it once. It cost's me learning money now. But maybe it's good.

While PCW says a plasma machine does not use much IO, I have managed to use all of the inputs on my 7i76e on my plasma table. Also, make sure that you have MPG inputs. (At least 1). I have a very cool wireless pendant that wires into the mesa hardware natively that would be good as a value added additional cost option for a commercial plasma table. Even on a 1200 x 1200 table, I would be lost without a pendant.

The 7i96 has a RS485 port on board which would be great for talking to Hypertherm plasmas but the 7i76e should be able to do this on its 4 wire RS422 port.

So unless PCW has another option with a MPG input, maybe its a 7i76e/7i76 or a 7i96/7i76

If you start doing a downdraft table 25 metres long, you'll need heaps of outputs to trigger downdraft zones so I think for an experimental build, Grotius should get as many IO pins as he can get. One of my suppliers has a 90 metre long table......