Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Shaped on November 06, 2011, 04:56:11 AM

Title: Parallel Card
Post by: Shaped on November 06, 2011, 04:56:11 AM

Does anyone know where to buy a PCI Parallel Card that is going to work with mach 3.

I puchased one from Pcworld, but im having no luck with it unless im doing something wrong.

I have mach 3 looking on LPT1 ( 0x378 ) but in device manager the parallel port settings are:

PCI ECP Parallel Port (LPT1)
I/o Range BF00-BF07
I/o Range BE00-BE07
Memory Range FDBFF000-FDBFFFFF
Memory Range FDBFE000-FDBFEFFF

The change settings option is disabled for some reason.

When i purchased this card i think the manual said it shoud automacticlly change from ECP to EPP as it needs to. There is no option for changing it manually.

Thanks.

Title: Re: Parallel Card
Post by: Hood on November 06, 2011, 05:19:12 AM

Change the address in Mach to BF00 for port 1

Hood

Title: Re: Parallel Card
Post by: Shaped on November 06, 2011, 06:32:03 AM

Thanks Hood

Well what can i say, it worked. Only been trying to get it going for a fortnight.

Im so happy this card works now, i can now use a decent PC to run the CNC.

Anthony.

Title: Re: Parallel Card
Post by: budman68 on November 06, 2011, 08:17:59 AM

Hi Anthony,

Glad it's working for you.

Possibly you could give the name and model number of the card and possibly a link to it for others to use?

Thanks,
Dave

Title: Re: Parallel Card
Post by: Shaped on November 06, 2011, 10:47:48 AM

Hi Dave

I will as soon as i know its working 100%, all i did was click the spindle button (Relay clicks over) to see if Mach was talking to the card and it was, i have yet to try this card with the motors.

Title: Re: Parallel Card
Post by: Anothercoilgun on November 06, 2011, 01:12:38 PM

Quote from: Shaped on November 06, 2011, 04:56:11 AM

I/o Range BF00-BF07
I/o Range BE00-BE07

I noticed the commonality between the various PCMCIA to Parallel cards it that the first number of the top line in the I/O range is the port to enter into Mach3.
Here is what I had to do to get smooth operation:
* XP sp2 HP Pavillion 1.7 ghz dual core laptop.
* 3040 typical ebay brand CNC router / engraver.
* Card is ebay cheap brand "Best Connectivity" purple label.
* Mach3 Port & Pins  > Kernel speed = 100khz.
* Mach3 General Config > Input signal debounce set to 1 or more.

Before my motion was very loud, slow, and jittery.  Every once in a few boots the motion would be good.  None of the motor tuning settings helped.  Disabling all non essential services did not helped.  Change powercfg settings did not help.  After 2 days of fiddling around I pushed the kernel speed to 100khz.  CNC moved smooth 50% of the time.  Then I adjusted input signal debounce.  Worked perfect after that.