Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?

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25 Oct 2025 16:30 #337144 by melayate
Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250? was created by melayate
I just migrated from Mach4 and Pokeys57cnc, and was hoping to keep Postep60-256 drives in my new setup. I wired postep drive to Mesa 7i96s as follows: Postep pins 1/2/3/5, 2 to TB1 pin1 (GND) / 3 to TB1 pin5 (DIR+) / 5 to TB1 pin3 (STEP+) and 1(enable) to TB3 pin13 (OUT-).
I have been at it for about a week now, I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. Using Pncconf wizard, the home/limit/ estop are working but the drives are not getting enabled and the stepper motors are not getting any pulse.
any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!
ps! I am very new to Linuxcnc, migrating from Mach for almost 2 decades.

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25 Oct 2025 19:50 #337160 by PCW
Replied by PCW on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Can you show a bit more about how the enables are wired?

What is OUT0+ (TB3 pin 14) connected to?

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25 Oct 2025 21:19 #337165 by melayate
Replied by melayate on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Mach was running Via Pokey57CNC. I think I just got tired of Mach, LOL!
the thing with Postep60-256 Enable (inverted, 0=enable, 1=disable).
I am using LINUXCNC 2.9.4 and I am using AXIS for now until I get it up & running, trying to test with 3 axis  with the goal of a total of 6 (gantry has X1 & X2).
using engmate power supply 36V 10A
wiring is as follows: AxisMesa connectorMesa pin (TB1)Mesa signalPoStep60 IDC pinPoStep signalX1 (master)7i96S TB1Pin 3STEP0+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 5DIR0+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 1 (TB1 GND)GNDIDC Pin 2 (or any GND pins: 2,4,6,8,10)GNDX2 (slave)7i96S TB1Pin 9STEP1+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 11DIR1+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 7 (TB1 GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GNDY7i96S TB1Pin 15STEP2+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 17DIR2+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 13 (GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GNDZ7i96S TB1Pin 21STEP3+IDC Pin 5STEP  Pin 23DIR3+IDC Pin 3DIR  Pin 19 (GND)GNDIDC Pin 2GND
for the enable I tried to use TB3 pins 13 (OUT-) connected to pin1 of all 4 drives (enable pin) and pin 14 (OUT+) connected to Mesa GND. 

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25 Oct 2025 21:37 #337167 by PCW
Replied by PCW on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Typical issues with step/dir  not working are wiring or step pulse length being to short

I would make sure the initial step pulse length is at least 5 usec (5000 ns in LinuxCNC)

For the enable (since its active low) I would connect all enable pins to a say 1K pullup resistor
(so they default to being disabled) then connect OUT0+ to all enables and OUT0- to the drive
ground pin

 
The following user(s) said Thank You: langdons

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25 Oct 2025 21:47 #337168 by melayate
Replied by melayate on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
so sorry for the mumbo-jumbo I created earlier attached is a pdf for the pin locations 

This browser does not support PDFs. Please download the PDF to view it: Download PDF

 
Attachments:

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26 Oct 2025 02:21 #337175 by tommylight
Replied by tommylight on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?

Also, a 10A PSU seems a bit tight for 4 motor drivers!


10A PSU is more than enough for 4 stepper drives/motors.
With some reserve, even at 5A set for each motor (makes 20A), a 5A/36V supply is enough.
@LangdonS, now go read how and why that is possible, instead of posting about stuff you have no experience with.
Then, check if same is true for servo drives, and report back.

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26 Oct 2025 14:39 #337203 by tommylight
Replied by tommylight on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Think of it as a buck converter...

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26 Oct 2025 14:54 - 26 Oct 2025 14:55 #337204 by PCW
Replied by PCW on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Yep, consider that when static, a 5A stepmotor may only drop 3 VDC so ~15W.
So with a 48V driver, only about 400 mA at 48V is needed to get 5A at the motor.

 
Last edit: 26 Oct 2025 14:55 by PCW.
The following user(s) said Thank You: tommylight, langdons

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26 Oct 2025 21:39 #337253 by melayate
Replied by melayate on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Thank you guys so much for the heated debate about power supply. I have 2 power supplies each powering 3 of the drives. it worked like a charm with Pokeys57 board. I am not getting any juice out of the drives to the stepper motors, I tried the 1K pullup resistor, no luck. I to use a 10kΩ pull-up resistor from each PoStep Pin 1 to Pin 9 (+5V) to ensure drivers default to disabled state. and still nothing. I really don't want to go back to Mach4 & Pokeys board. I am just hitting a wall! 
Thank you!

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26 Oct 2025 23:36 #337257 by tommylight
Replied by tommylight on topic Mesa7i96s and Postep60-250?
Take some pictures of the wiring and upload them here on the forum so we can have a look.
Do you have a DVM or even better an oscilloscope? Or a simple small LED?
You can use those to check if the drives get any signal on the inputs, easy to check by changing direction of the axis being checked as that should swing from 0 to ~3.3 or 5V.
The following user(s) said Thank You: langdons

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