Another EMCO PC55 project

Long story-short. I acquired an EMCO PC55 within the last month and have been scouring the interwebs for conversions to Linux.
The unit was supposedly running but the PC was kept by the previous owner. It appears the smoke was let out of the brake resister for the spindle-simple fix but what caused it to let go? I would like to not molest the hardware at all. It has three phase steppers, I have three phase drivers coming. I'm leaning towards Mesa 5i25/7i76 bob/driver. Someone has a HAL for the 6 position tool changer. Now, I'm lost on the spindle vfd set-up for physical wiring and programming. It sure would be nice to have all this info in one place. So, if anyone knows where to get it that would be great. If not, I'm going to try to compile it here.

if you take a search here in the Forum you find the 7i76 Spindel interface VFD wirering

Linuxcnc loaded, 5i25/7i76 installed. Having trouble configuring the pinouts. I thought the pinouts would auto fill after selecting the card options. Need help please?

In pncconf, after you select "5i25-Internal Data" and "7i76x2-With one 7i76"
and "Accept components Changes", you will be presented with three tabs:

I/O Connector 2
I/O Connector 3
7I76 I/O (SS#0)

You can ignore I/O Connector 2
I/O connector 3 has the step generator pins and encoder pins
You must assign the step generators to your axis and
encoder to your encoder function

You assign the misc field input/outputs on the 7I76 I/O tab

Ok, that sounds simple enough. Now, it seems that each axis has some sort of Hall effect pickup on the screw gear. I assume that is to make the machine a closed loop system. Does that sound right and how might I configure that?

Things are moving forward on this project. I’ve nearly gotten everything firmly mounted and wired. But, I have two sensors per axis that I don’t know with what do. The wiring diagram labels these as “Reference” and “Sync”. Does anyone know what these are and how to encorporate them into my build?

Possibly a two-stage homing switch configuration.
Do they change state when the axes are at one end?
(and is one a much shorter else than the other?)

I’m having trouble getting anything to move. I am trying to figure this out but seriously, I feel like I’m never going to get the answers I need. Double, triple checked the physical wiring. Three phase driver is set to 500 steps/rev, screw is 10/in. Steps 5000/1. I’m using Pcconf and I feel like I’m missing something. Speed and accel are reasonable. Results from the calculator show 60/sec max over .200”. When I try to jog “x” “z”seems to move one step only when I activate “test/tune”.? When I try to jog “z”...same thing. X never moves. Spindle won’t turn. Just getting frustrated. But NOT giving up!
Mesa boards are getting power, drivers are getting power and vfd is getting power. At this point, it has to programming.

What have you set the step length to?

It sounds like it may be that the pin allocation is not what you think it is.

Mesaflash should be able to help you confirm the pin allocation of the installed firmware.

I am using the plug and go 6i35/7i76 boards. Step length defaults to 20000Hz