Don,
It is possible to do but the instructions on how to do it are very vague and it seems like a taboo or something when you ask about it. There are many unanswered posts in cyber world asking the same question. I can try to help you get it working but you will probably end up in the same place as I did. One important thing they don't tell you is you will need to uninstall the Shark panel and drivers (WinUSB) for it to work.
I had it sort of working on my Shark Pro (not plus), unreliably, at one point but gave up on the NCpod and just connected the Xylotex directly to the parallel port. You can use the inputs and outputs (10-13,15 and 14,16,17) though the Xylotex terminal block. That was a big improvement and allowed me to run Mach3 and run the motors at a higher step multiplier (Xylotex is 8x max). When my Xylotex board stopped working (my fault I think) I got a smooth stepper and a Gecko G540. It's worlds apart between the Shark basic setup and Mach3 with a Smooth Stepper! The G540 is also a big improvement over the Xylotex.
I have now rewired everything with shielded cables, added limit/home switches, Zero Plate, spindle speed board and an MPG coming soon. I'm a happy camper now...well worth the upgrades and when it's time to upgrade the machine, the controller should run a 4x4 just fine as it is, or change out the drives and run just about anything.
TJ
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