cOR,
-How do I check the output V, just put a voltmeter in the hole?
Disconnect the PP cable from the computer to the controller.
Put one lead to a step or direction pin and the other lead of the meter to ground. As you jog
the machine you will see the voltage change. You really should look at it with an oscilloscope this way
you see not only the voltage change but also what the pulse signal looks like.
- how do I optimize the computer/windows (xp) for mach3.
look for the file called OPTIMIZE.TXT here is the link:
ftp://ftp.machsupport.com/ in Extra information
I am not sure it will help but worth a try.
--my brother in law came with a solution putting in a new/external parallelport instead of the build one......could that be a solution?
Maybe. If the computer puts out a pulse with a ghost signal / riding on / ringing on the original pulse i doubt
it will do any good. No BOB, filter, etc is going to get rid of it, well not easily anyway.
You may be able to put a different video card in and "maybe" physicaly jumper out the on board video.
I tried different PP cards and that didn't do any good ( you never know ).
You can try fooling with all the computer services but i didn't find anything out of the 50 of or so that had a positive affect.
Again look at your pulse stream as what i / we have may be different. Sorry can't be more specific. Like noted before, you just come a across a pc that puts out a bad pulse and have yet to find some specific cure. I don't want to send you circles.
BTw, my friends old pc puts out 3.3 volts along with a very clean pulse. The new pc puts out a 5 volt signal looked like poop!
One tell tale sign i did find, is that you can run at very slow velocitys like 1 to 4 inches / min, but you can still hear that knocking sound.
Good luck as we will still seek and destroy on our end,!
RICH