Mesa 7i96 system planning-How Supported is Supported?

After reading a few other threads here on the 7i96, I am unclear on what is and is not supported with this card-it seems to be *the* bargain card out of all the Mesa hardware cards listed as "Linuxcnc Compatible" on the Mesanet website.

After reading the 7i96's specifications, this is what I had in mind when I chose to work with this card:

5 step/dir outputs-> I plan to run XYZ axes, plus a "sometimes used" rotary 4th axis for dividing head/splining.
1 High speed encoder interface-> Spindle encoder, quadrature but still need to work out a "home" input
11 isolated input-> Limit switches on XYZ axes, E-stop input, spindle coolant interlock, touchplate for tool height, spindle "home" input, enclosure not closed, etc.
6 isolated output-> Coolant on/off, E-stop activated (light up a light) tool changed requested (light up a light), program active (light up a light)
RS422/485 interface-> Spindle control via RS485 to the VFD, on/off/speed

Can anyone here update us all on what of the above list is supported, and to what level it is currently "working"? I don't mind working out new hardware...but I am not good enough with coding to re-write an unfamiliar firmware. Last one I did was a year-long effort at General Motor's version of Motorola 68HC11 Assembly...I still have nightmares...

The 7I96 is supported by LinuxCNC master, though there is no current way to do Modbus
for VFD control via the RS-422/485 port

After talking to the gentleman at Mesa today, I think I can bash together some existing HAL and modbus stuff to get RS485 working with this card. I'll know fairly soon, as I am moving along with the construction of the frame, it'll be time to order the first batch of parts this month.

PCW wrote: there is no current way to do Modbus
for VFD control via the RS-422/485 port

I wonder how hard that would be?

I dont think its _too_ hard, maybe just grafting the hal/modbus part of mb2hal or one of the
specific VFD drivers to a different lower level serial driver.
Unfortunately the existing packet UART driver is pretty awkward to use.
I think If i did it I would make a real time driver that polls the UART at the servo thread rate
(1 ms granularity should be OK for Modbus)
I'm willing to help with any needed firmware mods

I certainly would be interested in such a feature if someone ever figures it out.

So, I have waited for a while to see if support for the 7i96 would improve, and it seems it has somewhat. I have changed jobs and now work in a CNC job shop, so this project can move forward a bit at a time now.

It seems that we still don't have support for using the RS-232 port for anything outside of other Mesa cards, but I don't think anyone else has looked for it yet either.

this is going to make me ill...buying a bunch of spendy parts without a clear-cut plan. But, it's the way it goes, I'll make it work.

Using the RS482 port for something else is just a case of flashing a different firmware.
I used a custom firmware for a while which put a UART on one channel.
In fact it made it in to the firmwares repository:
github.com/LinuxCNC/hostmot2-firmware/bl...src/PIN_Andy1_72.vhd
It's not likely to be useful to you, but does demonstrate that you can add a UART.
(In this case I was using an Arduino to read resolver positiona and send them over serial, but it never really worked properly and I switched so a 7i49)

So the 7i96 now has a firmware UART that can speak standard RS485, which means we may be able to send modbus commands over it...this is exactly what I had been waiting for.

Too bad I didn't go ahead and buy the spindle and VFD that needed Modbus, back when I could obtain them inexpensively. Now I've got a 1200W DC permanant magnet motor that I need to build a controller for, I figured it would be easiest to simulate a X3-ish style controller, since many people have those working.

We don't currently have a Modbus driver for the Mesa UART. But one would be a very welcome addition.

It would need to look a bit like this

(Which, as you can see, other than pin definitions and documentation is just 3 simple functions)