A Few Questions

  Hello, LinuxCNC group. 
    
It's been a while but, I believe I have a decent computer now. It has a Asus Prime H310-Plus mother board, I'm running Corsair vengeance lpx 32GB 2666MHz ram, Samsung sm961 512GB SSD, and an AMD Radeon 8490 1GB video card. I have also made a handful of changes to the bios. I have attached a Latency Histogram. If the group thinks its a solid Linuxcnc. I would like to know which is the best direction to go far as a Mesa set-up. I know the plug-n-go kits have been out of stock for while now. This is for a DIY CNC Router that I've been gathering parts for. I have both steppers and servos, they are old Parker Gemini drivers. Is the servos overkill? If not whats the best board for the steppers and servos? I know that I'll need to purchase two different set-ups for each the servos and steppers. If I can get the steppers to work. I like to give the servos a try.

Thanks,
JuniorC


 

Tommy,

 Thanks for the quick reply. I don't believe that I'll never need anymore than five drives. That would be a pretty complex machine more than I could build. Will all of the Mesa card that you mentioned support both servos and steppers? Thanks again for the info.

I believe I just answered my question. The 7I96S is for steppers, 7I83 is for servos, and the 7I85/7I85S appears to be stepper only. And with the 7I85/7I85S I need a serial port, 5I25, or 6I25 depending on my motherboard. Is this correct?
 

OP -

I think you're confusing the drive command signal format with the motor type.

The boards vary by command signal output and other capabilities, not by type of motor they can control.

• 7i96S can output step & direction signals
  • This is a 'main' board and connects to the PC/Linuxcnc
  • This is an FPGA board. A Mesa setup must have at least one FPGA board, but doesn't require more than one (in most cases)
  • Has one 'smart serial' port onboard
• 7i85s can output step & direction signals, as well as take encoder feedback in.
  • This is a 'DB25 daughter' board and connects to - in this case - the 7i96S
  • Has one smart serial port onboard
  • It cannot be used by itself
• 7i83 can output analog +/- 10v signals.
  • This is a 'smart-serial daughter' board and connects to either
    • 7i96s, or
    • 7i85s
  • It cannot be used by itself
• 7i84 is for IO only, no drives
  • 32 inputs + 16 outputs
  • This is a 'smart-serial daughter' board and connects to either
    • 7i96s, or
    • 7i85s
• No serial ports are required on the PC.
  • One ethernet cable connects the PC to 7i96S, and the 7i85s is plugged in to the 25-pin header on the 7i96s with a ribbon cable or DB25 to ribbon adapter cable
  • The above pair of boards provides two 'smart serial' connections and the 7i83 is plugged in to one of those using a modified ethernet cable.
  • The other smart serial connection can be used for the 7i84

Having said all of that, it's likely way more drive outputs than you need - those three boards can control 15 drives.

The Gemini's can handle step & direction input as well as analog +/-10v.  If you need four motors for your router (XYYZ) plus a spindle, the 7i96S can handle that all by itself.

It's likely you can get away with just a 7i96s, plus maybe a 7i84 for additional IO.  Count up all the IO you want and see if the 7i96S can handle it.  If not, add a 7i84.

If you find you want additional IO - say for an operator console or complex MPG - you can add a 7i73, but that will require a second smart serial connection... which means a 7i85 (or other DB25 daughter board with a SSerial port) also be purchased and plugged in to the 7i96s.

Spumco,

 Thanks for clearing thing up for me. I was a little confused. Now that I have some direction, I can now purchase a few Mesa card. I greatly appreciate everyone for sharing their knowledge and know how.

Thanks again!!

Make sure the Gemini is the right model.  Some of them are stepper drives, and others are program-only.  Those can only take serial commands or run an internal program.

The "GV" is what you want.  The GV6 and GV6K can't take step & direction inputs.  And the GT/GT6/GT6K are all stepper drives.

 

Oh dear, you trust me to do that?

Maybe we should get PCW to check it for accuracy before releasing to the public?