I have a 1934 Index Mill running on SolidWorks/FeatureCam/ Mach3/smoothstepper/keling c11 board/gecko servo drives/ Community gate opener 12v dc motors modified  with US Digital E5 200 count rotary encoders attached to their back ends for the last year and a half with beautifully results and no problems. How I maneged this is a big question?  But now I would like to add the same US Digital  Rotary E5 encoders to my mill table,   (not to the back of the motors ) and have the smooth stepper board read them on port 3 / Mach3 /settings display for manual operation.   Ive played with this for four days now and Iam lost.  Iam lost on the settings for the port and pins/encoder/Mpg on Mach3.   The smooth stepper manual on page 20  says     1A = pin 1,    1B = pin 2,   1I = pin 3,       2a = pin 4,   2B = pin 5,   2I = pin 6   While the board itself has 11 pins and 2 are 5v and grnd. that leaves 9 pins,  3 are direct and the last six are differential.   Here's where Iam lost. Can anyone decipher this for me. On the port and pins /encoder,what should the setting be?     
                                                                                                                                         Thank You
                                                                                                                                          Ticoe@aol.com

Is your encoder single ended or differential? which pins do you have the encoder connected to?

Hood

They are US Digitall E5 Encoders and I believe they are differential encoders, they have four connections ,a 5v ,grand, Phase A and Phase B.  The Smooth Stepper board is the one that is confusing me, it has 11 pins and are labled as follows A1, B1, I1, 5V, Grnd, 2A+, 2A-, 2B+, 2B-, 2I+, 2I-.   the first 3 pins are labled single ended and last six pins are labled differential .   I have my encoder now connected the 5v,grnd and Phase A to connection 2A+ and Phase B connected to 2a- ? any Ideas?  Thanks

Ok well if you only have 5 pins they are single ended, differential would have 8.

You should either use the first two pins, ie Channel A of of Encoder to A1 and Channel B to B1, in Mach you would then set up the encoder to be Port 3  and Pins 1 and 2. If for some reason you want/need to use the other pins on the SmoothStepper then you would connect A of encoder to 2A+ on SS and B to 2B+ and in Mach you would set the port to 3 as before but this time use pins 4 and 5.

Hood

Actually to add to the above you could connect to any pins on Port 3 of the SS except 2A- 2B- and 2I- as they are only used if using differential inputs from your encoder, ie your encode has A+ A- B+  B- I+ I-

And also better mention  you will not need to connect the Index pulse (I) of your encoder as its not needed in your situation,  I never mentioned it in the previous post.

Hood

Tomarow I will try and wire up the encoder as follows, Wait would you not think that the smooth stepper board would come prepared to handle three encoders X,Y and Z having 6 pins labled diferential encoders? Or is it only prepared for two encoders X and Y.  going back to the begining i will try my 4 wires from the encoder to 5V,grnd,Phase A to SS board 1A and Phase B from my encoder to SS 2A+ .  Hood is that what you mean?

Yes that will work and in Mach set the encoder to Port 3 pin 1 and 2

You could input 3 encoders on Port 3 if you just had single ended encoders and were just using the A and B channels of each. The labeling on the SS is slightly misleading as you dont have to have channel A to one of the A pins, you could put it on the I pin if you wished as you would just tell Mach that channel A is connected to pin 3.
Also worth noting is you can use Port 3 pins as normal Inputs, they are not just encoder inputs.
Hood

Oh no hang on
Just looked at SS manual and it is labeled 1A, 1B 1I 2A+ 2A- 2B+ 2B- 2I+ 2I-

So if you have A to 1 A and B to 2A+ you will need to set Mach  to pin 1 for A and Pin4 for B

Hood