Hi, I built a Joes 4x4 about five months ago using kellinginc 425 motors and drivers along with the c10 bob that all came as a kit. I spent a week or more trying everything anyone would suggest and anything I could see to change to solve the issue I was having then finally plugged the machine into a laptop and it worked so I left it at that figuring the parallel port was bad in the desktop.
My problem sounds just like
this thread I found in machsupport unfortunately it looks like the thread ended without resolution. As the machine runs error accumulates in one direction on each axis, always the same direction and more depending on the amount of moves made so a 3d cut adds up fast on the Z.
Well a couple of weeks ago the laptop died, I had purchased a lava pci lpt card so I went to install it in the desktop and found the motherboard dead... so I purchased and installed a new motherboard (skyhawk in a hp d325 athlon 2800+ with 1 GB ram) trying the lpt port on the new motherboard gave the same problem so I installed the pci lpt card and still the same issue.
So now I know it worked fine on the laptop, it had problems with the lpt on two desktop motherboards and with the lava adding card which makes me think it is not an issue with the computer at all. Could this be electrical noise somewhere that did not show with the laptop because of lower voltages or something? I am lost with electronics so I wouldnt know where to start but it just baffles me that the problem only appears when driving the machine with a desktop computer. I have another desktop coming that I will be trying next week though my confidence is hitting a new low as far it working.
w3