USB I/O card

Wednesday, 07 June 2023

PathPilot USB I/O card

Our USB I/O card is a direct replacement for for the similar item from Tormach. Installation is simple and involves a one time copy of a small text file to your PathPilot controller. If you want to know how to do this installation, follow the instructions here. The USB I/O card is available from our shop. Full documentation on the board and its customisable programming environment are available in the on-line manual.

To download and install the (Windows based) configuration app required to access the customisation functions, click on this link. View the version history of the configuration app here.

Power. Unlike the Tormach I/O board, this one does not rely on power from the host computer via the USB cable. Instead, our I/O card has a separate connector for 24Vdc. Your Tormach mill already has a 24V supply in its wiring cabinet and this is ideal. The maximum total power draw of the I/O board is 1.5A and there is an onboard, self-resetting fuse to limit it even under fault or short circuit conditions.
Outputs. The 4 outputs are opto-isolated, open collector transistor that act as switches to the 24V ground connection. The output connector has 8 pins, with the 24V supply's +ve and the 4 outputs alternating. This makes it neat and simple to wire relay coils or pneumatic solenoid valves as the two wires to the coil connect to adjacent terminals on the USB I/O's output connector.
Inputs The inputs are also opto-isolated and these require ~2.5mA to activate. One end of the isolator input is connected to the +ve side of the 24V power supply, so to activate the input, you simply short it to ground. The input connector has alternating ground and input pins, so any switch type sensor can simply be connected between adjacent pins on the input connector.