Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: old_man on January 02, 2011, 03:23:15 PM
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I'm a EE/CS and a machinist. I've been interfacing stuff via the parallel port since the DOS days. I installed the software about a year ago and got it running on an old machine to test it out, but now I am ready to set up a new machine running XP (fully updated) and hooked to a mill and get nothing out the parallel ports.
I removed all the mill software and rebooted. I then install and reboot. I load a simple G file to give me some output. It appears to run as the DRO's change and the view shows a circle being plotted. I look at the port with a scope and see nothing happening. I go to the diagnostic screen and see nothing changing on the port representation. At the moment I am running the DEMO software but will purchase as soon as I can get this thing talking.
Is there a diagnostic mode where the program can toggle the port pins? I even went to the effort of purchasing a PCI card with another parallel port card and installing it. I set it to LPT1 and still no output.
Any ideas anybody? Is there an inhibit button or the like somewhere I haven't seen? I went to the Setup page and the LPT1 is checked with the correct address. I also went to the screen and enable the motor outputs for port1 and pins 2-3 for 5 and 4-5 for Y.
For the troubleshooting, I don't have anything hooked up to the port but I will be running Parker Automation Zeta Drives. I picked up a dozen of them for a song.
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If the address is correct then it should work fine, you could try Parmon to see if you can toggle outputs, should find it with Google.
Hood
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As it turns out I needed to change the printer port configuration from an ECP/EPP to a Normal config.
Now I have to build a buffer between the port to the controllers. The controllers use a optocoupled input and the port can't drive the LEDs unaided.