Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Martin Griffith on April 05, 2016, 04:05:27 PM

Title: Mach3 suddenly stopped talking to the serial port.Help please
Post by: Martin Griffith on April 05, 2016, 04:05:27 PM
Ancient Asus PC with LPT1 on the Mobo, been working fine for 2+ years, suddenly re-booted, and my Mach3 no longer works. There are no signals getting to my BoB, checked with a scope, but the port(0x378) tests ok with a test utility from http://lpt-port-test-utility.software.informer.com/download/. No signals can be seen on the  diiagnostic menu (Estop etc)

Can I re-install Mach3 without loosing my liicence?

I've got a new parallel/serial PCI board on order, but I cant quite decide if it's a software or hardware problem


Help

Martin

Title: Re: Mach3 suddenly stopped talking to the serial port.Help please
Post by: beefy on April 05, 2016, 05:47:17 PM
The fact you asked about losing your license if you re-install Mach3 tells me you probably haven't got your license file backed up somewhere safe. Your license file is in the main Mach3 directory. I'd copy and paste it to some other locations (including places other than that PC).

Likewise back up your profiles and any custom macros you have.

Then if re-installing Mach3 ever does cause a loss you just paste them back in.

Regarding the card you have coming. It sounds like it's a combined parallel/serial card. I'm sure I heard it recommended somewhere to used a dedicated parallel port card for Mach3, not a mixed one. I repeat though, that's just something I heard.