Troubles with Mesa 7I76EU + 7I76U(P1) + 7I89(P2)

Hello everyone,

So, I have this configuration:

• Main board is Mesa 7I76EU
• 7I76U connected to main board expansion header P1
• 7I89 connected to main board expansion header P2

Main board's +5V is connected to P5; +24V field power - to TB1.
Actually, never mind, main 7I76EU is not a problem, it works, everything's detected, steppers are moving, spindle/spindle encoder are working, MPG is working.

Now, expansion 7I76U (on P1 header) is indicating communication failure (red led in the middle of te board). It doesn't show up in halconfig (should it?). Field power is there, cable power from main board is there.

For 7I89 I see all 8 encoders, but encoder inputs do not react to signals from encoders. None of the encoder input-a/input-b/rawcounts change despite the fact that physical signals from encoders are. Encoders are TTL and so 7I89 is jumpered accordingly.
+5V power to 7I89 is connected to its P1 and cable power from 7I76EU is activated as well (per 7I89 manual). Encoders are powered and working just fine (checked with oscilloscope).

Firmware I load is from mesa website: 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin
It is somewhat strange as its 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin file has stepgens 10/11 where 7I76U (P1) should have Sserial and it also has Sserial where should be MuxedQCount (spindle encoder). Basically I/O for DB25 pins 7-13 is all wrong for 7I76U.
Probably that's why my 7I76 doesn't work.

I'm afraid to load firmware from post www.forum.linuxcnc.org/27-driver-boards/...7i89-firmware#240149
That one has all the right pinouts, but seem to be for older generation of 7I76 (Spartan FPGA?), not sure it will work for my 7I76EU (Efinix FPGA)
It also has clock high frequency set at 200MHz, while 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin shows 160MHz.

How can I get out of this predicaments?
Can anybody help?

koch777 wrote:

That one has all the right pinouts, but seem to be for older generation of 7I76 (Spartan FPGA?), not sure it will work for my 7I76EU (Efinix FPGA)

It does not work and might brick the card, well i am sure it will brick it, but being Mesa there might be ways to save it, so do not flash that.
Post the result of mesaflash readhmid here se we can have a look.

Here it is. 
As I see it, pinout for P1 connector (where 7I76U is connected) is wrong for pins 7-13 (Sserial and spindle encoder)
 

Might want to wait for confirmation from PCW, but to me it seems all good, and yes sserial's must be there as 7i76 has a sserial port and uses another sserial channel for IO.

That may be, but I have 7I76U and its manual says ( www.mesanet.com/pdf/parallel/7i76uman.pdf page 5) that sserial should be on DB25 pins 7-10 (two of them in fact), while 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.pin file has just one sserial on pins 11-13 and no spindle encoder. It instead has 2 additional stepgens which my 7I76U doesn't have.

Wrong firmware, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin is for a 7I76EU +7I88 (P1) + 7I89 (P2)

I'll take a look at making a config for a 7I76 (P1) and 7I89 (P2), but probably tommorow...
 

PCW wrote:

Wrong firmware, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin is for a 7I76EU +7I88 (P1) + 7I89 (P2)

I'll take a look at making a config for a 7I76 (P1) and 7I89 (P2), but probably tommorow...
 

Would it be 7I76U (with sink/source I/O option and spindle/encoder interface) on P1 and 7I89 on P2?
Also, 7i76eu_7i76x1_7i88_7i89d.bin has 7I89 on P2. Should 7I89 on P2 work even if 7I76 on P1 doesn't? Or P1 and P2 handling is interdependent?

7I76EU firmware with 7I76 on P1 and 7I89 on P2

 

Each connector is independent, though module channels may differ between firmwares
Note on the 7I89, you may need to turn on Encoder power (depending on jumpering) and it
also requires  both cable  _and_ external 5V supply to P1.

Working like a charm.
Thank you very much Peter!

P.S.
Damn self-made DB25 cables. Firmware initially didn't make any difference. Apparently cables on P1 and P2 were backward. Reversed both DB25 connectors and now I see both 7I76 and 7I89 and encoders are working. These Mesa cards seem to be very robust, even all wrong signals on all the wrong pins didn't make them go dead.