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2nd parallel port
« on: March 31, 2012, 04:41:22 PM »
I have a dell optiplex with XP and have been using it for a couple of years to control a G540.  I bought 2 different PCI parallel ports with Moschip hardware on them and the C26 buffer board from CNC4PC.  I have searched and read extensively on this forum for a solution to my problem with no success.  I can not get Mach to seem to recognize it.  The board shows up in the hardware list on the PC fine.  I have tried various moschip drivers (although their website no longer seems to support driver download).  I have  swapped the cables between the two G540s and the problem follows the port.  I can't get the charge pump to engage (green LED on G540).  I have tried the board in another PC with windows7 with the same result.

Is there a way to see what Mach sees from this port? 

Any suggestions for how to get it working?

Thanks!

Offline Hood

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Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #1 on: March 31, 2012, 06:00:45 PM »
Have you entered the correct address in Mach for your port?
Hood
Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2012, 07:22:48 PM »
Have you entered the correct address in Mach for your port?
Hood

As far as I know.  When I install the card and drivers, I get 2 new serial ports and a parallel port in my device manager.  The pport has the following under the resources tab:

I/O Range   DF30 - DF37
I/O Range   DF38 - DF3F
Memory Range  FEAFD000 - FEAFDFFF
Memory Range  FEAFE000 - FEAFEFFF

I put DF30 in the Port Address field for Port#2.
Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2012, 09:43:56 PM »
This is from Gecko's site:

"PROBLEM: G540 UNRESPONSIVE (RED LED LIT CONSTANTLY)

SOLUTION: This is the most common fault and can be caused by several problems. First, double check that a jumper wire or normally closed switch is present between PIN 10 and PIN 12 on the 12 POSITION TERMINAL BLOCK. Next, turn the CHARGE PUMP SWITCH to the OFF position; if the green LED comes on then there is a problem with your CNC program not putting out a charge pump signal on PIN 16. If those do not work, check the motor for holding torque; if you do not have holding torque move on to the next section."


My LED is constantly red as well.  When I manually flip the charge pump switch it turns green and I do get holding torque on my motor.  So either my port is not putting out the 10khz signal or mach is not reading it.  I've swapped cables so know it isn't a bad cable.  I've swapped G540s so know it isn't that.  I've tried it on 2 different PCs, one with XP and one with Win7, and 2 different PCI parallel ports.  I can't definitely say any of this hardware isn't bad, without measuring the individual pinouts directly with an oscilloscope I guess.  But it seems unlikely that none of these hardware combinations would work--that they'd all be bad, so it seems more likely I have some wrong setting in Mach3.

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Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2012, 06:16:15 AM »
If you attach your xml I will look through it to see if I can see any issues.
Hood
Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2012, 03:00:34 PM »
xml file attached.  thanks for looking at it.

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Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2012, 04:03:12 PM »
Have sent you a private message.
Hood
Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2012, 05:17:08 PM »
one more try

Offline Hood

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Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2012, 03:26:53 AM »
I tried to reply last night but the site was down as it has been a lot recently ;(
Anyway, what I wanted to ask is when you disable ( via jumper/dipswitch) the need for the Gecko to use the chargepump does your B axis work?
If it does then it is likely that your port is not in the correct mode for the Gecko and the chargepump. I seem to recall it needs to be in EPP. Some ports you can change in the device manager, some you can change with jumpers and some you cant change.
Hood
Re: 2nd parallel port
« Reply #9 on: April 02, 2012, 12:09:24 PM »
When I disable the charge pump switch on the G540, the LED turns green and a holding torque is applied to the motor I have connected to it.  I haven't figured out though how to manually control it to see if it is receiving a signal.

I have read alot on this site and cnczone about the EPP mode.  The only jumper on the board I bought from cnc4pc is for setting the first several pins as inputs or outputs.  I haven't found a way to determine, let alone set, what mode the board is operating in.  There are no options for this in the device manager and it doesn't show up in my BIOS being a PCI add-on.
Thanks.