Any updates on card availablity from Mesa? 7i96 or 7i98?

  Hello everyone,

   I know we have a supply chain shortage and I was happy to get my last 7i96 from BigJohnT. Any updates on cards coming in?

We may have 7I96S's by the end of May

The 7I96S is a 7I96 with a different (and actually available) FPGA
It also has some changes:

1 Ethernet ESD protection to make it a bit more rugged in plasma applications
2. 2 of the SSR outputs are high isolation
3. Larger FPGA (more complex configurations possible)
4. Analog spindle output

PCW, may I play devils advocate and ask about how the last 2 years have affected your supply chain/final product? like chip shortage or discrete components or design revisions or anything like that?

I apologize if this is an inappropriate question, it just appeared like your supply was well managed so I was just wondering is all.

Not really any major issues until the end of 2021
Then the SHTF with 50-70 week leadtimes on

Power supply chips
Ethernet chips
MOSFETS
FPGA chips
Microcontrollers
Optocouplers/SSRs

PCW wrote:

...... with 50-70 week leadtimes ....
 

wow!!!

is this ever going to end!

we seemed to have returned to some normality in the UK now 

robertspark wrote:

is this ever going to end!

In about 4 to 6 years, then there will be to much of them for a while.

robertspark wrote:

is this ever going to end!

My employer have created a whole new director-level job just to handle chip supply issues. And this is a company with 180,000 employees so "Director" pays big money. 

You work for Siemens?

Hi, I’m new to mesa cards and have a question re the 7i96s that is still available. Do I need any other card to run 5 axis which are currently controlled with gecko g540 and gecko 203v via 2 parallel port cards and a b.o.b. Just want to check I have this right to avoid paying 2 lots of freight.
Thanks Ant

No, but you will need to cut a DB25 cable to wire the G540 to it.
Or make new firmware that puts the first 4 stepgens and charge pump on the IDC header, and stepgen 5 will be on the normal 7i96S step/dir outputs for the G203.