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Testing port with voltmeter
« on: December 09, 2013, 02:09:46 PM »
I had Mach3 running just fine and dandy on an old 1.8 gig PC running Windows 2000, but I picked up a younger 3 gig machine running Windows 98 then took the old machine to the local thrift store. I figured I could just transfer the parallel cable over to the newer machine and pick up from there, but it hasn't been that easy.

It ain't working...ports and pins settings seem fine. I figure the parallel port on the new machine is ok because it had a working printer on it last week. If I still had the old machine I'd hook it back up to get back to square one but that's not an option now. Not sure now if something has happened to the breakout board...maybe...

Can I use a voltmeter to check for step and direction signals at the parallel port connection right at the back of the PC? I figure that way I could verify that I indeed have my config correct before looking at and possibly blaming my hardware.

I'm not sure if I can "see" the signals so I don't want to assume before asking.


Offline ger21

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Re: Testing port with voltmeter
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2013, 02:32:18 PM »
Mach3 doesn't work in Windows 98.
Gerry

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Re: Testing port with voltmeter
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2013, 03:02:16 PM »
Maybe that explains it then.  I do have windows XP, maybe ill load that up and give it a try.