Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10

« 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.

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10

« 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!

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10

« 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.

4

General Mach Discussion / PCI Parallel port not communicating with Mach 3 in Windows 10

« 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?