June 21, 2012 - The MESA 6I25 is a low cost general purpose programmable industrial I/O card with a one lane PCIE host interface. The 6I25 is a low profile PCIE card that uses standard parallel port pinouts and connectors for compatibility with most parallel port interfaced motion control / CNC breakout cards/ multi axis step motor drives, allowing a motion control performance boost while retaining a reliable real time PCIE interface. Unlike the parallel port that the 6I25 replaces, each I/O bit has individually programmable direction and function.
Open source FPGA firmware configurations are provided for hardware step/dir generation, PWM generation, analog servo control, absolute (SSI and BISS) and incremental encoder counting, real time remote I/O, timing, event counting, and high speed serial communication. New configurations can per downloaded over the PCIE interface. All 6I25 I/O bits are 5V tolerant. The 6I25 has a 25 pin DB25F back panel connector and a 26 pin header for the second I/O port. A jumper selectable power option allows 1A of 5V power to be suppled the external daughtercards.
Four layer construction is used to minimize radiated EMI and provide optimum ground and power integrity. A series of daughtercards are available for industrial motion control, CNC retrofit, high speed real time I/O, RS-422 interfaces, encoder counting, and other applications. Price of the 6I25 is $79 in 100s.
