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Thanks for the quick response, I am always surprised at how quick you are.
Unfourtunatly I had to leave the shop and go home. In the morning I will see how well I can figure out how to get a man mesaflash to see what I have.

No worries, we do need correct info to be able to give any help, 7i76 and 7i76E are the same thing but NOT the exact same thing.
Mesa can do step/dir and analog at the same time and so can LinuxCNC, so that is easy, just use mesaflash to check what firmware is already in the 7i76E, then we can decide if a flash is needed.
see in a terminal
man mesaflash
for how to use it.

7i76E is connected to the computer through ethernet, the 7i77 connects to the 7i76e with a ribbon cable and the 7i64 connects to the 7i77 with a modified ethernet cable.
The boards have 5v and 24v field power.
It has been a while since I wired and had time to do the cards but I remember that I did flash one for some reason or another. Does it need different flashing for step direction than for analog?
And sorry again, as I said it has been a while since I had time to get into this again and don't remember where to type readhmid

This worked:  Installing ethercat repositories - Page 2 - LinuxCNC

I was able to edit the file by using:Then it all worked.  Thanks for the notes.

No need to install anything, you can do all the testing in Live mode, just have the configs on another USB, or start them from the existing hard drives.
I/O errors are usually from failing hard drives, sometimes from failing memory or memory controller, but over network might be bad connection usually manisefested by very long waits for read/write.

Thanks Tommy for your quick reply.
I did not change the servo period, only the Base Period, but i did that after i got some error message at linuxcnc startup (latency... 25000..task 0..) - i did not change anything besides the parport addresses for the other pc i setup first with debian 12.

I will now look for Wheezy ISO and install it on the PC where i first installed Debian 12, but i will connect it to the cnc router on tomorrow and then i will post the result.

PS: On the original PC from the cnc router (that had the ondrive input output error and that was so slow), i had Wheezy and Linux 2.8.4-76 and i copied those original files to the new Debian 12 pc, without converting the files with the auto-converting pop up function, because as i remember correctly, this is not necessary if my config was working with Linux 2.8? (i remember i had to do it when i updated from 2.7 i believe - i had to change some command etc.)

It would be much better to give us correct info about your setup, like what is attached to 7i76 and 7i77?
Or is it a 7i76E with 7i77?
Did you flash the correct firmware for whatever is in use?
What does readhmid return?
Do the boards have 5V and Field (12-24V) power?

I've been testing these days and finally I have both probes working via OR2 (I don't know if it's the best option), each one in a different input, I can have both connected at the same time without problems. I've decided to do without the estop input and connect the z probe there. The spindle of the machine works through its original board and has its emergency stop and I use the linuxcnc emergency stop with a mini wireless keyboard if necessary...
I want to buy a 7i96s board soon, but I'm a bit scared of all the configuration it has...

1. No.
2. Yes bit to complicated, and do not buy those ebay stuff at over 80$ as that is Mesa price and Mesa is much, much better.
3. 2.9.3 but i would stick with Wheezy and 2.7 for parallel port.
4. Yes, rarely might need editing. Granted no special comps/features were in use.

Do not change the servo period. Ever. Except in some strange cases, never.
Download the Wheezy ISO, boot the PC from it, copy the existing (non converted to 2.8 or 2.9) config, open the folder, right click on the .ini file, select "open with other ..." on the next window near the bottom type linuxcnc and press OK.
Does everything work?

LinuxCNC IS the motion controller, so EtherCAT should work without any additional controllers.

It all should be possible to configure using the included wizards, did you try them?
Use StepConf for parallel port or PncConf for Mesa boards.
Also, pin 17 is output, so what input are you reffering to?

Hi Guys, I am having trouble getting my lathe to work.
It is an Old Superslant Hardinge.  It has 4 axis, 2 turrets each with an x and z and each with 8 tool changer.
The problem I have is that I have a working hal that connects to the boards, and all the io's are working.  But the drives both axis and spindle don't do anything.  The axis I know the problem is that im wired for step and direction and the configurator doesn't give a setup for that, and using the step configurator and blending the file is giving me a major headache.as its difficult to see what parts of one I need and what parts I can't have.
I am running 7i76-7i77 and 7i64.
Any suggestions as to how I can make or blend a hal file that will do what I want would be appreciated.   

Perhaps the old PSU is broken.