Advice on new setup please

jools wrote:
So pardon my bluntness but what's the point in havinig two cards that are for all intense purposes the same? Does the 5i25 add something extra?

It goes inside a computer in a PCI slot, 6i25 goes in a PCI-E slot.
They are the same for all intents and purposes.
I use them all depending on the setup i am working in, compter near electronics = 5i25 or lately 6i25. Computer far from machine
electronics = 7i92.
Take that as informative only, i have plenty of them so i can mix and match whatever i might need.
If you are using stepper motors/drives, go for 7i96 or 7i76E, easier to setup and have plenty of axis/spindle/IO.

PCW wrote: In many cases you may not need all the I/O that a 7I76 provides
For example a 5I25/6I25/7I92/etc can connect directly to a Leadshine MX3660/4660
or Gecko G540, and that may provide all the I/O you need.
You can also use the 25 pin FPGA cards with inexpensive generic
parallel port breakout boards.

The setup I'm looking at will be hybrid steppers on 4 axis with a spindle with encoder and speed control. I also want a few for home, maybe coolant and a spindle changer.
By my reckoning that's 13 inputs, PWM and 2 outputs. Is there a board you can recommend for that?

Would a 7i96 do this with the spindle hooked up to the 5th axis? Or is the 5th axis not capable of this?

If you can spare 200$ , the Mesa 7i76E would fit perfectly plus have room to add another axis and more inputs/outputs.
For 120$ the Mesa 7i96 is top pick, not sure exactly how much IO but a bit less than the above, albeit the outputs are much more powerful.

tommylight wrote: If you can spare 200$ , the Mesa 7i76E would fit perfectly plus have room to add another axis and more inputs/outputs.
For 120$ the Mesa 7i96 is top pick, not sure exactly how much IO but a bit less than the above, albeit the outputs are much more powerful.

It has 11 inputs but also a spindle encoder channel in seperate so technically it has 14 inputs

Just need to know if I can do spindle speed control with it and I'll pull the trigger on it.

Maybe the outputs can be set to output PWM and I can wire it through my simple PWM to 0 - 10v board???? Do you think that is possible?

Jools

Edit
Actually I think I got it wrong on the input and output count.
Inputs: 3 x A+B encoder on axis', A+B+absolute on spindle, limits =10
outputs: PWM, ATC, Coolant = 3

As long as the output can be configured to give a PWM signal happy days

Yes, there is 7I96 firmware that replaces Stepgen 4
(of 0,1,2,3,4) with a PWMgen

You can also use a free 7I96 output to generate
a isolated PWM --> analog output with a
couple resistors and a capacitor.

Yeah, that won't work, they both have a single encoder input for the spindle.
I am sure the 7i76E can do another 2 encoders but for MPG only. There are other cards that can be added to them to add encoders, but i will leave that to PCW or someone else who knows more about them.

Yeah if you need 3 more encoders, you would have to add a 7I85, 7I85S or 7I89.

7I85 4 encoder inputs +5 serial expansion
7I85S 4 Encoder inputs +4 Stepgen outputs+1 serial expansion
7I89 8 encoder inputs or 7 encoder inputs +1 serial expansion

(or I would have to get out from under production issues and finish the 7I95 support)

Balls!
Yeah just read that the inputs are only 5Khz. This would be perfect if my encoders were 500 cpr but the ones I'm looking at are double that.

Isolated 4-24V inputs are not really ideal for encoders anyway
Usually differential encoder signals are preferable for
high resolution encoders

PCW wrote: Yes, there is 7I96 firmware that replaces Stepgen 4
(of 0,1,2,3,4) with a PWMgen

That said, the dedicated digital potentiometer on the 7i76 / 7i76E is probably easier to work with if driving a VFD.