Advanced Search

PCW wrote:

Wrong firmware, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin is for a 7I76EU +7I88 (P1) + 7I89 (P2)

I'll take a look at making a config for a 7I76 (P1) and 7I89 (P2), but probably tommorow...
 

Would it be 7I76U (with sink/source I/O option and spindle/encoder interface) on P1 and 7I89 on P2?
Also, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin has 7I89 on P2. Should 7I89 on P2 work even if 7I76 on P1 doesn't? Or P1 and P2 handling is interdependent?

Wrong firmware, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin is for a 7I76EU +7I88 (P1) + 7I89 (P2)

I'll take a look at making a config for a 7I76 (P1) and 7I89 (P2), but probably tommorow...
 

That may be, but I have 7I76U and its manual says (www.mesanet.com/pdf/parallel/7i76uman.pdf page 5) that sserial should be on DB25 pins 7-10 (two of them in fact), while 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin file has just one sserial on pins 11-13 and no spindle encoder. It instead has 2 additional stepgens which my 7I76U doesn't have.

Might want to wait for confirmation from PCW, but to me it seems all good, and yes sserial's must be there as 7i76 has a sserial port and uses another sserial channel for IO.

Here it is. 
As I see it, pinout for P1 connector (where 7I76U is connected) is wrong for pins 7-13 (Sserial and spindle encoder)
 

koch777 wrote:

That one has all the right pinouts, but seem to be for older generation of 7I76 (Spartan FPGA?), not sure it will work for my 7I76EU (Efinix FPGA)

It does not work and might brick the card, well i am sure it will brick it, but being Mesa there might be ways to save it, so do not flash that.
Post the result of mesaflash readhmid here se we can have a look.

Hello everyone,

So, I have this configuration:

• Main board is Mesa 7I76EU
• 7I76U connected to main board expansion header P1
• 7I89 connected to main board expansion header P2

Main board's +5V is connected to P5; +24V field power - to TB1.
Actually, never mind, main 7I76EU is not a problem, it works, everything's detected, steppers are moving, spindle/spindle encoder are working, MPG is working.

Now, expansion 7I76U (on P1 header) is indicating communication failure (red led in the middle of te board). It doesn't show up in halconfig (should it?). Field power is there, cable power from main board is there.

For 7I89 I see all 8 encoders, but encoder inputs do not react to signals from encoders. None of the encoder input-a/input-b/rawcounts change despite the fact that physical signals from encoders are. Encoders are TTL and so 7I89 is jumpered accordingly.
+5V power to 7I89 is connected to its P1 and cable power from 7I76EU is activated as well (per 7I89 manual). Encoders are powered and working just fine (checked with oscilloscope).

Firmware I load is from mesa website: 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin
It is somewhat strange as its 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin file has stepgens 10/11 where 7I76U (P1) should have Sserial and it also has Sserial where should be MuxedQCount (spindle encoder). Basically I/O for DB25 pins 7-13 is all wrong for 7I76U.
Probably that's why my 7I76 doesn't work.

I'm afraid to load firmware from post www.forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/...7i89-firmware#240149
That one has all the right pinouts, but seem to be for older generation of 7I76 (Spartan FPGA?), not sure it will work for my 7I76EU (Efinix FPGA)
It also has clock high frequency set at 200MHz, while 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin shows 160MHz.

How can I get out of this predicaments?
Can anybody help?

For basic step/dir servos, a 7I76EU should do (by itself)

The 7I76EU has:

5 axis of step/dir outputs
32 digital inputs (5 to 24V)
16 digital outputs (5 to 24V)
Isolated analog 0..10V output for VFD spindle speed control
encoder input for spindle synchronized motion
2 parallel expansion ports (for additional step/dir or encoder channels)
1 serial expansion port (for more digital I/O

 

i asked ChatGPT about the boards, and it said I should use the 7i76e for axis control, the 7i85 for secondary axes, and the 7i89 for encoders.
Is this configuration correct?I also want to add some information about the servo motors I'm planning to buy.
I don't fully understand all the technical details, but if there is anything wrong or incompatible, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know.
Thank you!  

drive.google.com/file/d/1As0Eivp9ck6G0jz.../view?usp=drive_link
 

PCW wrote:

Yes, a fairly ancient version of mesaflash (3.4.9)  is included with the
LinuxCNC 2.9.4 ISO, this is supposedly fixed for later releases.

I don't think mesaflash is included in V 2.9.4 in our ISOs because it is seperate to Linuxcnc and has its own Deb file.
If that is the case, 2.9.4 will just get the very early version in the Bookworm repo.
Perhaps Our Debian build system should be modified to  make mesaflash so it gets stored in our repos

Yes, in most cases, mesaflash is not needed as the installed firmware is sufficient.
 

Yes. Current stable version 2.9.4 ISO
I think that mesa and linuxcnc card experts may not have even noticed this. because they either knew where and how to download the updates without a problem. or they skipped this step altogether and did the configuration right away.

Yes, a fairly ancient version of mesaflash (3.4.9)  is included with the
LinuxCNC 2.9.4 ISO, this is supposedly fixed for later releases.

Was this with the version included in the 2.9.4 ISO?
Djakuju bardzo.

ProblemAs a newbie to Mesa cards, I spent a whole night trying to connect to a 7I76EU card (IP 10.10.10.10, jumpers W2=OFF, W3=OFF). mesaflash kept throwing errors: „Unsupported ethernet device 7I76EU” or „No 7I76EU board found”, even though ping to 10.10.10.10 worked and LEDs CR4 (FIELD POWER) and CR14 (LOGIC POWER) were on. CR11 (FIELD I/O FAULT) was lit, and CR13 (FPGA /DONE) sometimes lit up, hinting at a firmware issue. I wasn’t sure whether to use 7I76EU or 7I76E in commands, as 7I76EU is less common.What I checked

• Power: Connected 24V DC to TB1 (VIN) and TB2 (FIELD POWER), following: YouTube: Mesa 7I76E Power . Jumper W1=ON. Did not use P4/P5 (5V) as the card has built-in regulators.
• Network: Used a standard Ethernet cable (non-crossover), connected directly to PC. Initially tried IP 192.168.1.121 (W2=ON, W3=OFF), but switched to 10.10.10.10 (W2=OFF, W3=OFF), setting up the network per: Forum: Mesa Ethernet Setup . PC IP was 10.10.10.11/24, firewall disabled (sudo ufw disable).
• mesaflash attempts: Commands like sudo mesaflash --device 7i76eu --addr 10.10.10.10 --readhmid failed. I noticed the error mentioned „7I76EU” even when I used ETHER or 7i76e, suggesting the card was detected but not supported by mesaflash.
• LinuxCNC: Using Pncconf, I configured for 7I76E (IP 10.10.10.10). Changing INI to BOARD=7I76EU caused LinuxCNC to fail, but BOARD=7I76E worked, and CR11 turned off. On TB2, a multimeter showed DIR+5V signals changing with axis movement, and shorting IN17 to +24V activated the input in HAL. The card was working!

SolutionThe issue was an outdated mesaflash version that didn’t support 7I76EU. Updating from GitHub fixed it. Steps:

1. Check version:
   bash
   Copy

   mesaflash --version

   My version was too old.
2. Install dependencies (Debian Bookworm):
   bash
   Copy

   sudo apt update sudo apt install libpci-dev libmd-dev pkg-config build-essential git

3. Download and compile mesaflash:
   bash
   Copy

   git clone https://github.com/LinuxCNC/mesaflash.git cd mesaflash make sudo make install

4. Verify version:
   bash
   Copy

   mesaflash --version

   Showed: 3.5.13.
5. Test communication:
   bash
   Copy

   mesaflash --addr 10.10.10.10 --device ETHER --readhmid

   After fixing a cable mix-up, it returned card details: BoardName: MESA7I76, HostMot2 firmware, 5 StepGen, 3 I/O ports.

Notes

• Ensure the PC is in the 10.10.10.x/24 subnet and firewall is disabled.
• Jumpers W2=OFF, W3=OFF set IP 10.10.10.10; W2=ON, W3=OFF sets 192.168.1.121.
• LinuxCNC with BOARD=7I76E works because 7I76EU is compatible with 7I76E in older versions.
• CR13 (FPGA /DONE) stopped lighting up after LinuxCNC started correctly, but updating mesaflash was key for proper diagnostics.

ThanksThanks to advice from LinuxCNC.org , YouTube videos, and Grok’s guidance, I solved the issue. Hope this helps other beginners!
Show in sidebar