Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: patface on July 19, 2014, 07:18:22 PM

Title: Problems communicating with CNC
Post by: patface on July 19, 2014, 07:18:22 PM
First things first I am a newb but not clueless and have tried a number of things to solve my issues but now I come to you for help.

So I bought a homebuilt CNC from a yard sale and everything seemed to work well.  I declined to purchase the computer they had hooked up to it because I already have several "beater" systems at home.  I get it home and find I have to use a parallel port, no biggie I go to newegg and purchase one.  Few days later it comes in I install it and hook everything up.  Now I can't get mach3 to communicate with the motors or the computer to communicate with the breakout board.  To be honest I'm not sure which.

Did some reading and figured out I need to assign the port and pins inside mach3 and I do so, after I search and search for info on my breakout board which had no markings of any kind.  I eventually find what I think it is, photo attached, and assign pins as directed by it's documentation, no dice.  I triple check my newly installed pci parallel card to confirm the port and it seems to check out.  I checked the bios and could not find any options there.  So now I am clueless and coming to you guys.

I will note I did watch the machine run at the yard sale so Im fairly confident that nothing is broken but who knows.

Windows 7 64bit
mach3, was given to me on a flash drive.  I am not confident it was not a pirated copy so after I hit post here I am going to uninstall and reinstall the demo version from this site and give it one more go.  I fully intend to purchase the full version once I get up and running.

Ask any questions you need

Photo I took of the actual Breakout board
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee347/cowchipbingo/20140712_183855_zps99264e32.jpg) (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/cowchipbingo/media/20140712_183855_zps99264e32.jpg.html)

Documention I found for the breakout board after exhaustive googling.
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee347/cowchipbingo/breakoutboard_zps275d5932.png) (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/cowchipbingo/media/breakoutboard_zps275d5932.png.html)

Parallel Info my Device Manager
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee347/cowchipbingo/parallelportinfo_zps791c9fa6.png) (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/cowchipbingo/media/parallelportinfo_zps791c9fa6.png.html)

Basic settings
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee347/cowchipbingo/parallelportinfo2_zpsccc9c55e.png) (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/cowchipbingo/media/parallelportinfo2_zpsccc9c55e.png.html)

Port and pins settings
(http://i534.photobucket.com/albums/ee347/cowchipbingo/motoroutputs_zps1c6f3693.png) (http://s534.photobucket.com/user/cowchipbingo/media/motoroutputs_zps1c6f3693.png.html)


Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Title: Re: Problems communicating with CNC
Post by: ozymax on July 19, 2014, 07:44:41 PM
Mach3 is a 32 bit system.
This http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,27428.msg193654.html#msg193654 (http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,27428.msg193654.html#msg193654) might help.
Title: Re: Problems communicating with CNC
Post by: Tweakie.CNC on July 20, 2014, 05:53:22 AM
As Ozymax mentioned you will not be able to use the parallel port with a 64 bit OS.

Not that it will help but I also notice that you entered the address 0x800 as your Port#1 in Mach - it should be 0xC800.

Tweakie.