6i25 - 7i76/7i74 Pncconf and general questions

Good Morning to everyone.
I'm new in the world of CNC, (appologies in advance my ignorance and mistakes.)
Being a bit bored with my commercial 3D printer, I have decided to build a CNC ! I'm currently a the prototyping/understanding phase (see the pic of the little ugly monster).
I have started with only a 6i25 + a 7i76 with pncconf: everything went well; then I wanted to use an additional 7i74 (with 7i70 + 7i71)
- I "mesaflashed" my 6i25 as a 5i25 (bit file for 7i76 + 7i74)
- I power the boards prior to the PC
- 6i25 power output is disabled, 7i76 & 7i74 are powered with 5V : continuous yellow leds ok:
- 7i76 & 7i70 & 7i71 are powered with +12V (waiting for a +24V power supply) : Continuous yellow leds ok
- 7i70 & 7i71 also have the red led continuously on (I understood that is is expected until communication is established ?)

But now I don't see anything new in pncconf and if I understand correctly my mesaflash readhmid, I don't see neither the extra port of the new cards nor even the additional serials.

I read several topics on config files to be updated, but I feel a bit lost: is it mandatory in my case or something should be visible in pncconf ? and if I have to modify hal file(s), does any one have the ref of a complet tutorial ?

Thank you very much to anyone who could help.

Have a great end-of-the-year and be safe.

EGr

pncconf will not show anything new, it doesn't actually
probe hardware except for motion tests.

If you start the hostmot2 driver either with a test hal file
or by hand, it will probe the new sserial cards.

Here is how to do this by hand:

halcmd -kf
halcmd: loadrt hostmot2
halcmd loadrt hm2_pci config="sserial_port_0=00 sserial_port_1=00000000"

You can add the 7i70/7i71 manually on the mesa page - look for the combobox 'unused channel' and select the right board.

If you select advanced setting, pncconf adds a 'discovery option' on the mesa page. It can find some board details by calling mesaflash (so you must have mesaflash installed) and then you can select that discovered board(s) to adjust the mesa page.
(but if you have boards pncconf know nothing about you are out of luck.)
The 7i70 and 7i71 are supported so it should work too.

Chris

Thanks A LOT for your answers, not certain to have understood yet everything I have done, but it works !

Happy new year.