Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: mirel on January 01, 2019, 08:18:15 PM

Title: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: mirel on January 01, 2019, 08:18:15 PM
Hi all,

I'm trying to change my computer from an old Pentium 4 running windows XP to a newer one running Windows 10. As newer computers don't have anymore parallel ports and I'm running Mach 3 (Version R3.043.062), I've installed a PCI parallel card. Windows 10 was able to detect my card, after installing the card's driver but Mach 3 does not communicate with the port. The port is listed as LPT3. I've changed the address of the Port#1 in Ports and Pins with the one listed in Properties of the card as suggested here: http://industrialcnc.blogspot.com/2014/12/finding-your-parallel-port-address-for.html.
I have also checked the voltage on the DB25 as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uglCm_qsojk. but no communication between Mach 3 and the parallel port. The card is based on a A351 chip.
Any suggestions?
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 01, 2019, 11:59:52 PM
Hi,
Machs parallel  port requires a 32 bit Windows 7 or earlier operating system. I understand there is a 32 bit Windows 10 OS but I've
not heard of anyone successfully running Machs parallel port on such a machine.

Do yourself a favour an get yourself an external motion controller like a SmoothStepper or a UC300. DO NOT BUY CHINESE RUBBISH!
A couple of hours reading on the form will confirm that those people who buy Chinese made CNC electronics are often disappointed and often
cant get to work at all.

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: TPS on January 02, 2019, 03:24:50 PM
A couple of hours reading on the form will confirm that those people who buy Chinese made CNC electronics are often disappointed and often
cant get to work at all.

Craig

10 minutes of reading are enough to figure out -> Win10 -> parallel Port -> no go
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 02, 2019, 03:49:03 PM
Hi TPS,
does that include Windows 10 32 bit? Certainly any 64 bit Windows is no go for PP.

I've just never heard anyone say 'Yes -I've got Widows 10 32 bit to run a PP', neither have I heard someone say 'I've tried Windows 10 32 bit
and found......'.

I still stand behind my recommendation that a good external motion controller, in the region $100-$200, and many issues experienced
by users of a parallel port disappear. The shame is that while many users think...'hey, I'll do that' .....but then buy cheap, usually Chinese
controllers only to find they are harder to get to work than a parallel port!

I've been using Mach4 for a couple of years now, and while you can run Mach4 on a parallel port it is limited, so I bought a SmoothStepper.
Just the SmoothStepper alone improved my CNC machine and Mach4 improved it yet more.

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: mirel on January 02, 2019, 08:11:22 PM
Hi Craig,

Thank you for your advice. I did some research on this forum and CNC Zone and I could not find anybody that was able to make this work. I have a Geckodrive G540 and I have just finished my control box. It looks like I will have to redo it if I use UC300ETH-5LPT combination but not if I use UC100. I've seen that UC300EHT-5LPT gives you more inputs and outputs plus analog inputs and outputs and you can connected it direct to a PC or via a router or switch. For only $44 extra its worth the money. What I cannot find is if it works only with its own network or you can connected to your home network so you can control it from any PC. Also I could not find the height of the assembly to start planning the box changes before it arrives. If you have any of these information please let me know. Thank you in advance.
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 02, 2019, 08:48:47 PM
Hi,
I personally agree, the extra few dollars now means that you have years worth of expansion ahead of you.

The picture is muddied a little however in that it is highly recommended that you use a breakout board between the UC300 and
your machine. It is meant, among other things, to protect your UC300 from damage or overload from your machine.

Gerry (ger21), a regular on the forum often recommends a UB1 from CNCRoom, in fact they do a combo of the UC300 AND a UB1 for $309.

There are other and much cheaper breakout boards, with a mixture of features however to get the best value from a UC300 then I think the UB1
is highly recommended. According to Gerry you'll never look back....which is a high recommendation from someone of his experience.

Most CNCers with Ethernet connected boards DO NOT recommend running through a router or a network.

Remember that this device controls a machine .....a crash could be costly....dangerous......injurious.

I heard some one say that 'Once your computer is hooked to and controlling a machine it is NO LONGER A PC but a MACHINE CONTROLLER that just
happens to use Windows as an operating system'. It is advice that I have heeded anyway......what you choose to do is your concern.

Probably the single most important advance that a good external motion controller like a UC300 will give you is the greatest choice of PCs. As you
know a lot of PCs never did a parallel port at all well, and some did, without any particular reason. With a UC300 just about any PC will work just fine,
better than any parallel port machine anyway. You can use laptops/desktops/32bit/64bit/new/old.......

I have a wee dual core Atom mini-ITX single board PC on my machine. It doesn't even have a graphics card, or even a box to live in! According to NFS
it shouldn't be good enough to run Mach but it does just fine thanks! I use a Ethernet SmoothStepper, so a different manufacturer but good quality and
support just like CNCDrive and their UC300.

What I really want to try is a LattePanda 4/64 with Window 10 Enterprise, all for $209.....but the bills keep cutting into my CNC budget.
Its a crying shame when real life interferes with your obession CNC!!!

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1585.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI56Ga8r3Q3wIVF6mWCh1Cawt8EAAYASAAEgLmdPD_BwE (https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1585.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI56Ga8r3Q3wIVF6mWCh1Cawt8EAAYASAAEgLmdPD_BwE)

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: TPS on January 03, 2019, 02:11:15 PM
hi Craig,
maybe it is off Topic

Quote
Hi TPS,
does that include Windows 10 32 bit? Certainly any 64 bit Windows is no go for PP.

a short look lool to NFS Homepage -> mach3 -> Software requirements (https://www.machsupport.com/software/mach3/):

Requirements if using the parallel port for machine control:
Desktop PC with at least one parallel port
(Laptops are not supported)
32-bit version of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
(64-bit versions will not work)
1Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM
(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)


there is nothing about Win10 32Bit.
if you only remeber all this Win7 (32bit) PP + Win Update K(i can not remember the number) Trouble,
do you realy think to get a Win10 (32bit) to work with PP porper?

IMHO i do not think so, but this is only my completly insignificant personal meaning.  

i personaly get scared of all this 5V (3.3V) NPN Pull Up/Pull Down/Pull somewhere stuff.

i prefere to use stuff witch has a "touch" of industrial standard (CSMIO), 24V Inputs 24V Outputs an so on.

sorry to be "off Topic".

TPS
 
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 03, 2019, 02:29:22 PM
Hi TPS,
Windows 10 32 bit has been released long after that quote from NFS.

The situation remains.....no one has said definitely that Windows 10 32 bit will or will not work with a PP.

Have you tried it?

The CSMIO certainly has a reputation for industrial quality. Unfortunately CS Labs customer service has taken a big dive in recent times,
may be a personel issue. CS Labs have released a Mach4 plugin but its buggy and CS Labs are very slow to respond to Mach4 plugin
issues, indeed CS Labs are focusing on a competing software solution and have even less interest in Mach4. Given the premium paid
for CSMIO's against the backdrop of a buggy Mach4 plugin and disinterest by CS Labs to fix it I find CSMIO hard to recommend.

For similar money the Hicon Integra by Vital Systems, also 24V and industrial quality, has all the realtime support features that the CSMIO
lacks and the manufacturer has strong  after sales support and development of their Mach4 plugin.

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: TPS on January 04, 2019, 02:09:25 PM
Hi TPS,
Have you tried it?
Craig

no, because i think it is waste of time.

TPS
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 05, 2019, 02:28:01 AM
Hi TPS,

Quote
no, because i think it is waste of time

I rather agree, if you are going to use a parallel port then XP is as good as any.
That means that neither you or I can say definitely that Mach3s PP either does OR does not work on Windows 10 32 bit machine.
My guess is that the code security features would in effect preclude the parallel port from working. We'll just have to wait and see
if some one does try it and report on what happened.

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: mirel on January 05, 2019, 09:20:03 PM
Hi everybody,

Thank you for your input. Before spending the money on a UC300ETH I though its worth to give it one more try. You were mentioning that Win7 32 bit will work with PCI parallel cards and it happen to have a licence from an old laptop that I've upgraded and died few years ago. So I've installed a second hard drive and Windows 7 32bit. After a long struggle with the PCI card that was disappearing from Device manager but was back if I was moving it in a different PCI slot, after installing SP1 things got better. I've measured the directional pin for all axes and was giving me 5V and 0V. I've connected the G540 box and one motor to test it but when I've tried to move the motor I could hear just one "click" no meter what direction I was trying to move. I've connected a different motor and ... same thing. First I though it is something wrong with G540 and I start searching in their forum about motors not moving but making a sound. Nothing! Finally I thought I should check the parallel port again, this time for the motion pin and ... nothing. No matter which way I was trying to move same result: 0V. I'm guessing it is something about the parallel card ECP and EPP mode. I've seen people on the forum solving this problem changing to EPP mode but my BIOS has nothing about the parallel port as the computer did not come with it. I have no idea in which mode is my card and how can I change it. Have you seen anything like this before? I'm keep digging. I'm not done until its done!
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: joeaverage on January 06, 2019, 12:00:47 AM
Hi,
OK, you are making some progress. You might consider Windows 7 32 bit a backward step....but in fact you are moving into the zone where a parallel port will
work...it rather dates the technology.

Lets consider the evidence you have at the moment.

First you have got the direction pins working. Does that not tell you that the parallel port is outputting something? I mean if its producing direction signals
surely it could also produce step signals, they are just outputs after all.

There are a couple of things that you can try. Given that step signals will turn on and off rapidly I would expect to see a voltage of something like 2.5V
(half of 5V) when step signals are being issued. If you do not see that sort of voltage then either the parallel port is faulty, but we have already discounted that
so then it probably means Mach is not producing the signals at all.

When you are testing your motors how are you doing it...by jogging or by MDI? I would recommend MDI.

The other thing you need to check is to make sure the G540 is being enabled, I'm not sure whether it has a constant Enable signal or whether it relies on
a charge pump. Either way make sure that the 540 is enabled.

One other thing you should do is hook up an Estop switch. Not only do you need it for safety purposes but it would also prove whether the switch/540 and
parallel port can signal back to Mach. It would give you more (hard) evidence that the port is working or conversely that it is not.

Craig
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: ger21 on January 06, 2019, 06:54:15 AM
Quote
The situation remains.....no one has said definitely that Windows 10 32 bit will or will not work with a PP.

My understanding has been that you can't use the parallel port in Windows 8 or Windows 10. I believe this info came directly from Art.
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: ger21 on January 06, 2019, 07:00:07 AM
Quote
I have a Geckodrive G540 and I have just finished my control box. It looks like I will have to redo it if I use UC300ETH-5LPT combination but not if I use UC100. I've seen that UC300EHT-5LPT gives you more inputs and outputs plus analog inputs and outputs and you can connected it direct to a PC or via a router or switch. For only $44 extra its worth the money. What I cannot find is if it works only with its own network or you can connected to your home network so you can control it from any PC.

You should be able to plug the G540 directly into a UC300ETH with a ribbon cable. (Port 2 or port 3 on the UC300ETH.)

I believe that you can run the UC300ETH on a network, but it's more complicated, and you need to know what you are doing. I recommend running it direct, with it's own network connection. I use a $15 PCI network card to connect it.

And I agree that it's well worth the extra money over the UC100, as it gives you a lot more options for more features.

Since the UC300ETH will work with both Mach3 and Mach4, as well as UCCNC from CNC Drive, I'd recommend trying all 3 to see which you like best (and which works best for you).
Title: Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10
Post by: mirel on January 06, 2019, 12:19:35 PM
Hi ger21,

Thank you for your input. You have helped me before, without knowing, when I was building my first CNC, a JoeCNC, back in 2008-2009. Now, I'm trying an upgrade to all aluminum with ball bearing screws and linear bearings and of course, a better computer. Before finishing the wiring of the motors and limit switches I've tried my old setup on the new computer when I've run into these problems. I've learned a lot in this process. One of them is that ECP and EPP are both using pins 2 to 9 for data output and this is what I am using for the motors. I don't know how changing to EPP helped somebody to solve a similar problem, but it shouldn't. I've checked again the 2 to 9 pins, one by one, with Patrick Hood-Daniel method, and everything was fine. I've just push the SHIFT button when I was jogging and the motors are spinning. Windows 7 32bit with PCI parallel cards works. I will eventually upgrade to UC300ETH with 5LPT, but now I am at the end of a long journey and hobby money are almost gone. I just want to see the machine working for now.