Index homing Mesa 7i96s

PCW wrote:

If by daughtercard you mean the 7I84U, any firmware with a sserial port will do.

(basically and 7I96S firmware that does not use the serial expansion for modbus etc)

Yep, the 7I84U would be the daughtercard to the 7I96s. 
OK, I will try making it work with the FW you linked above.
As an aside, I have it downloaded already but have a bit of an issue making it show up in MesaCT even though I think it's in the right folder, but that's probably just me still overseeing something - will read some more posts and/or try mesaflash in the terminal. 

PCW wrote:

If by daughtercard you mean the 7I84U, any firmware with a sserial port will do.

(basically and 7I96S firmware that does not use the serial expansion for modbus etc)

Sorry for being daft, but I reflashed the board with the FW you uploaded here. So far so good, but just checking - does this FW have the serial port feature, so I can connect to the 7I84U without having do download anything else for any of the two boards?

Hi again Peter,
I didn't get far last time we talked about this - but the machine is finally coming apart next week for your cards and LCNC upgrade.

But I read this whole thread again and early on, I think you mentioned that the encoder input on the 7I96s can also be split up to work for Z-index homing?
I don't need a spindle encoder and the MPG can go on normal pins too, right?

So, does this mean I can get three index pulses onto a 7I96s in a faster, more proper encoder way and not have to use the isolated IOs?

Ideally, I would need four as I also have a rotary incoming. But if four true encoder inputs is not possible, there's an easy workaround: I can use Delta B3 on the rotary and they can home to index internally in the drive with just a single normal DI and DO.

So, does this mean I can get three index pulses onto a 7I96s in a faster, more proper encoder way and not have to use the isolated IOs?

Yes, it's possible to have 7I96S firmware that wires the 3 encoder inputs as step/dir index signals.

I should note that existing firmware 7i96sd_esdid.bin has that setup:

Encoder A = Stepgen 0 Index
Encoder B = Stepgen 1 Index
Encoder I =  Stepgen 2 Index

Thanks so much Peter,
I will make a note to grab 7i96sd_esdid.bin.

If anyone else comes across this in the future and wants to do index homing and have Delta servos I am now almost sure the Delta B3 drivers can home internally. (B2s can not).
You would wire the switch/sensor to the drive, not to the Mesa and then set up speed parameters and such in the drive. For homing, you'd then send a command to the drive to home (one DO) and once homing was done, the drive would report back to the Mesa (one DI) that the homing was done. 

However, I have B2 drives for XYZ and one B3 coming in for a rotary build hence why I needed to do index homing via the Mesa.