Mesa Electronics 7i92M Anything I/O Ethernet Controller

The Mesa 7i92M is a low cost, general purpose, FPGA based programmable I/O card with 100 BaseT Ethernet host connection.

The 7i92M uses standard parallel port pinouts and connectors for compatibility with most parallel port interfaced motion control cards and multi-axis step motor drives, allowing a motion control performance boost while retaining a reliable real-time Ethernet interface.

Unlike the parallel port that the 7i92 replaces, each I/O bit has individually programmable direction and function. The 7i92M has a simplified UDP host data transfer system that allows operation in real time if required and compatibility with standard networks for non-real time applications.

The 7i92M provides 34 I/O bits (17 per connector). All I/O bits are 5V tolerant and have pullup resistors. A power source option allows the 7i92M to supply 5V power to breakout boards if desired.

Firmware modules are provided for hardware step generation, quadrature encoder counting, PWM generation, digital I/O, Smart Serial remote I/O, BISS, SSI, SPI, UART interfaces and more.

Configurations are available that are compatible with common breakout cards and multi axis step motor drives like the Gecko G540 and Leadshine MX3660. All motion control firmware is open source and easily modified to support new functions or different mixes of functions. I/O connectors are a one male DB25 and one latching 26 pin header.

The following 7i92M-compatible breakout cards are available from Mesa:

• 7i76: STEP/DIR oriented breakout with 5 axis of buffered step/dir outputs, one spindle encoder input, one isolated 0-10V analog spindle speed plus isolated direction and enable outputs, one RS-422 expansion port, 32 isolated 5-32V inputs and 16 isolated 5-32V/300 mA outputs.
• 7i77: Analog servo interface with 6 encoder inputs, 6 analog +-10V outputs, one RS-422 expansion port, 32 isolated 5-32V inputs, and 16 isolated 5-32V 300 mA outputs. The 7i92 supports two breakout cards so for example a 10-axis STEP/DIR configuration or 12-axis analog servo configuration is possible with a single 7i92M and two Mesa breakout cards.
• 7i85: Expansion card with 4 encoder inputs and 5 RS-422 interfaces
• 7i85S: Expansion card with 4 encoder inputs, 8 differential outputs and RS-422 interface