UMI 772 Digital Out

[SeanJ]

Hi,

I had intended on using the UMI 7772 to provide some control signals for pneumatic valves and also monitor some return values.  There are 16 Digital I/O lines available on the UMI 7772.  The manual states on 3-27:

"These signals are configurable as inputs and/or outputs on the National Instrument motion controller."

I want to configure the UMI so that I have 10 Digital Out Signal and 6 Digital In Signals.  However no matter what I do it seems as if the hardware in the UMI will only allow inputs on port 1 and outputs on port 2.

Can anyone confirm whether or not it would be possible to set the UMI with 10 Digital Out and 6 Digital In elements?

Thanks,

Sean

[Buechsenschuetz · Accepted solution]

Why don't you read a bit further?

The phrase following the one you cited states:

"Use MAX or NI-Motion software to configure the bits on port 1 as inputs and the bits on port 2 as outputs."

Also, in general, it is not possible (or quite difficult) to build circuitry for input/output configurable lines with optical isolation in either direction.

[SeanJ]

The continuation wording doesn't necessarily imlpy that the ports can't be configured as bidirectional, rather it would imply that to obtain a similar configuration to that in the manual, do the following...

"Also, in general, it is not possible (or quite difficult) to build circuitry for input/output configurable lines with optical isolation in either direction."

Thanks Buechsenschuetz.  I guess that means no.

[Buechsenschuetz]

Well, I agree that it would have been possible to state more clearly that the ports cannot be configured bit-wise as inputs/outputs.

Anyhow, setting the direction of a digital line implies that you need a control signal. Probably the NI motion controllers have such an internal control line, but no control line for the digital lines is fed through to the UMI box which makes it unlikely that you can configure something inside the UMI box using the control software for the NI motion controller.