Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: birdbrain on June 13, 2008, 08:55:21 AM
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Hope someone can help... I've read other relevant threads but problem not solved.
Here's what I'm trying to do: Connect 7 inputs from the Mill to Mach3. 5 of them are on LPT1 and the other 2 will have to go on LPT2. I've fitted the second LPT port and tested it with a printer. When I switch the port addresses around in Mach3 the motors seem to work but not homing properly. So at least Mach3 can see the 2nd port. Put ports back to their original order and all homing works fine.
Testing port2 pin10: Enabled OK. Set to active high or active low, watch diagnostics screen and... nothing happens if I short the pin to Ground or to 5V.
What am I doing wrong??
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Asign an input to the pin you are wanting and see if the Input LED lights when you ground it.
Hood
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Asign an input to the pin you are wanting and see if the Input LED lights when you ground it.
Hood
Just tried this. No joy. Input LED does not light up.
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Can you attach your xml and maybe something can be found, but it may be that you have a faulty card as you said the outputs were working but not the inputs.
Hood
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Thanks Hood. I'm also wondering about the pci card, so I've ordered a new one, but it'll take a few days to arrive.
When I set the (mach3) port 2 to ec00 mach3 changes this to 0xec00. Is this correct?
I'm using winXP oem, no service packs.
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Bird,
Got a printer, see if the port works. Aw, Gee too simple of a test.
Kristin
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Yes thats fine for the address. Just another thought, have you checked the cable you were using just in case it doesnt have all of the ground pins connected or even that its not a crossover and has some pins going to other pins at the opposite end.
Hood
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Bird,
Got a printer, see if the port works. Aw, Gee too simple of a test.
Kristin
Think he said he already tried a printer on it.
Hood
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I've swapped the cable with the one on the 1st port. It's OK. The pci card was tested with a printer quite a long time ago and I don't still have a parallel port printer. So I cannot say for sure if the card is working right.
Thanks, Hood, for confirming the address. It just looked a bit strange.
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UPDATE:
I've fitted a new PCI parallel port card and reinstalled the driver. Also a new cable. Still no joy. Mach 3 does not see the input (the address is correctly setup for port 2 pin 10).
Would it be possible to use an ncPod to provide the extra 2 inputs that I need? It seems that it's a lot of trouble to setup an extra LPT port :(
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A few silly questions for you of my own.
1). Does you Card show an Error under device manager? If so, what is the error?
2). Some of the newer PP cards dont directly show the address, you have to go under Device and look it up there, sometimes it
may give you 1-3 address Ranges, ususally the 1st one is the best, but, if your already using that one, pick the start range address
of the next range, and retry.
3). Stupid thing to check, but, you DID check the Enable box for the inputs you want to use correct??, and if you PP port is Bi-Directional, and you checked use inputs 2-9 make sure your inputs are in legal acceptable ranges depending on that selection.
4). The PCI slot it self may be bad, Try you new card in the slot you already have your known working card in, once you plug
it into where the working card was, relook up the address, it may have changed, on your port 1, change the address if neccessary, to what the new card address is. If you swap the new card into the old cards slot rechange the address (if necc.), and it doesnt work, then try another Brand "Lava Soft" has know working PP cards.
5). If the above doesnt work, and you have tried other PCI PP cards to no avail, then a more realistic choice may be to buy a Mod Bus board from: Peter Holman, or Aurturo Duncan, and bring in or out a crap load of I/O.
NOTE: If you goto a NC Pod then everything goes to the NC pod.............
Scott
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Thanks poppabear, this looks helpful. I'll only get a chance to run the Mach3 computer again later on, so I can't try anything just now.
The point about checking "use inputs 1-9"... I don't have that checked but I only need 2 more inputs, so I was planning to use 10 and 11. Do I still need to check the "use inputs 1-9"...?
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No you only need that enabled if you are planning on using 2-9 as inputs. Another thing you might want to consider is the SmoothStepper.
Hood