setting up 7i92 for directio on steppers

I'm looking at connecting 7i92tm boards to  a couple lathes which have been running through parallel ports . I want to simply connect the 7i92 directly to the current cheap breakout boards . I'm looking at this through vmware just to get a feel for it and I am confused as to how a direction pin is selected in the wizard . I'm seeing stepgen but nothing for direction which has me a bit confused .

At this point I just want to get the steppers running and I will eventually hook up encoders for the spindle

With Mesa cards, the pin selection for things like step and direction are fixed.
That means you typically need firmware that matches your chosen breakout board.
 

bummer I didn't realize I'd need a different firmware . I hoped to just connect from the 7i92 to my bob on my current setup . I'd  have gone with the 5i25 which I've been running on pathpilot . I have 2 on hand for spares but I had to replace them in the past so I'd rather keep them for the mills since they are no longer available . I was hoping the 7i92 would have been as straight forward but obviously not

I saw the stepgen for each axis which I assumed would be step as I would for a parallel port setup (in attachment) . It was trying to figure out how to input the direction in pnccong wiz I was confused about , but really I'm a bit confused on the whole setup at this point . I'll probably keep running off the pp as I have been

 

What firmware did you use on the 5I25?
(That must have been flashed to match your breakout as well)

If your stepconf config picture matches your breakout, a mx4660
configuration should work:  7i92t_mx4660d.bin

the firmware I used with the 5i25 was flashed with pathpilot for mx3660 . I've got tormachs that run on pathpilot . And I had a non tormachs that ran pathpilot and was flashed the same and it was just a matter of modifying the configs . Another which is a novakon I used a bit file and configs from a post on cnczone .

I've been running my lathes with linuxcnc which works great . My compact 5 uses Sam's congigs which removed any need to modify my lathe . The other 2 are small retrofits which I want to get encoders working on . One is connected but the signals haven't been so great , threads sort of work but fail after numerous depth passes . As far as regular cutting they'll hold size all day long , it's just that the encoder signal isn't as consistent as it should be . As it stands I use ipm on those 2 which works but I should be using inch/rev

I understand that tormach has been using 7i92 lately , so I'm not opposed to crossing the 2 lathes over to pathpilot . I'm just unsure as to what tormach has been using for breakout boards
I've got 3 lathes total and the older one will remain linuxcnc and I prefer to keep them all the same if I can .

I searched around last night on how to modify the firmware but I'm still unsure how to go about it . I'm competent enough to figure out how to modify configs and stuff or figure things out as I go but I'm a bit lost when it comes to using and setting up the mesa cards . I know if I chip away at it I'll get it sooner or later , it's just a matter of finding the starting point

After rereading the previous posts , the mx4660 would work . I'm not married to the pinouts I have and swapping wires around is simple enough

A MX4660 or MX3660 (3 axis only) pinout looks like an exact match to the stepconf pinout

I've been flipping back and forth between linuxcnc and pathpilot in vmware . I see for lathe they have a 7i92t bit file and looking at the hal file it looks to be the same basic pinouts that I have .

Am I right in assuming that I can flash my cards with that bit file and set up linuxcnc from there

sometimes it's easier to connect everything and go through the motions rather than looking at other things from a distance . What started the confusion while looking at the hal for pathpilot is that it showed the pinouts . What I didn't notice was that there was a # on each line which means they likely put it there for their own benefit , and thats why the hal I created didn't show that

When looking at the pncconf wiz I hadn't realized that the selected stepgen of x for example gave predetermined pinouts for step and direction for the steppers . I've always been used to deciding on which pins I'd use for an axis , I suppose this is the same just different . It was just a matter of figuring out how to see the pinout for the stepgen and things became clear .

Anyhow , it'll be pretty straight forward for the next machine