7i76e with 7i85S to control 9 steppers

You don't need power or even the card for pncconf.
You do need field power supplied for some of the pins to show up in HAL when running linuxcnc.

Look like pncconf is mis-naming the 7i76e pins.
I suggest manually renaming them in the HAL file.

Chris m

pncconf will create the correct connections and pin names but you must select them from the "7I76 I/O" tab

pncconf doesnt need the card connected unless you run one of the tests

Not sure why your field I/O is not there, maybe your GPIO settings are causing an issue
(in general you should not mess with GPIO at all on a 7I76E unless you are manipulating one of the expansion connectors I/O bits)

Ah, I didn't realize that the 7i76 I/O tab needed to be populated like that. It felt like I was double entering things, so I didn't fill it out. Now the .hal file is reading the correct "input-16", etc...

Sorry for having to ask these simple questions, but I'm slowly climbing up this learning curve.

Fresh off of the PncConf, the Digital Outputs don't work for me.

When I try to run linuxcnc I get this error code:If I comment out the digital outs, it also fails at the homing inputs.

I've attached the .ini and .hal files. I am absolutely perplexed that people are able to get this up and running on the first try.

I decided to try a multi-prong approach to the homing:

linuxcnc only fails on the input-00 and not on the gpio.015.in lines. What am I doing wrong?

First I would delete any gpio related lines in the hal file since they are not appropriate
for your use

if the field I/O pins (hm2_7i76e.0.7i76.0.0.xxxxx) are not found that means there an issue with the field I/O

For field I/O to work you need:

8 to 24VDC on TB1 (+8 to 24 on pin 1 = bottom Gnd on pin 8)
This must be present on linuxCNC startup

W1 left

W8 left

My field power pins were correct. However, I checked the jumper pins as you suggested and noticed that W8 was to the right, in "SETUP" mode. The 7i76e manual explains that it changes the baud rate of the communication, but it doesn't explain any other difference between SETUP or OPERATE mode. I had no idea that it would deactivate the homing pins. I figured I was still trying to get things set up, so I should be in SETUP mode.

Actually the manual does state:

"W8 must be in the "operate" mode for normal operation."

I just wish it explained the difference between "normal operation" and "setup" a little more clearly. I feel like with just a few test pieces and a jumble of wires laid out on my desk I'm far from "normal operation."

Anyway, thanks for all of your help. I've got the first homing switch working (still gonna test all 8). My next test will be to control the digital outs with M62/M63 commands.

Soon we're going to tackle the problem of running linuxcnc over the network. If we can lick that problem then we'll be ready to update the robot to the new system. I'm definitely looking forward to that!