Group I am setting up an HP dx2400 to control an RC FoamCutter 4 axis hot wire cutter.  I have had the FoamCutter working on an older computer but the X and the Z axis would not stay in sync and we suspected the problem to be caused by a much older, slower computer so I upgraded to the newer dx2400. 

The HPdx2400 us running the latest BIOS of Rev 5.37 however the BIOS does not support control of the parallel driver to control the modes like the old PC did (EPP etc).  The parallel board is an Oxford PCI-2S1P GP / OX12PCI840.  The documentation for the board indicates that it does support various modes but control of the modes appears to be limited by the driver.  I have found two drivers for the parallel board.  One dated in 2003 that allows control of the mode but Mach3 does not respond even after changing the respective port address on the parallel port.  So I updated to a parallel driver dated 2007 however this driver does not support the ability to change the the communications type (EPP etc.)

So with this known, is there a driver available to support this parallel board in EPP mode?  If so, can someone please post it or a link to it here?

Thank you.

Bret C

Hi BretC,

Perhaps purchase another PCI parallel port card (with 5 volt TTL outputs) which is known to work with Mach3. These are generally available from the various CNC suppliers (such as CNC4you etc.).

Tweakie.

Hello Tweakie:

Thank you for the suggestion to find a different parallel board.  I checked CNC4you but did not find one on their web site.  Is there another reputable site you would suggest?  Thanks!  Bret C

I found a parallel port on Amazon. 

A customer reported that it works well with Mach3 and CNC machine.

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Port-Parallel-Adapter-PCI1PECP/dp/B00006B8BS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

After I install it I will report back here on its functionality.

Bret C

Hi BretC,
some while ago another member who been doing this a while said

This is probably an old problem sadly known to many of us. Some history will explain it.

The original LPT chip was designed as a general purpose IO chip. It was adopted by IBM to drive a parallel port printer. But the chip had many other features, including a bidirectional archirtecture. This was used by more than just Mach, to do many things.

The chip was discontinued, so the LPT was lost. Some IO card mfrs saw an opportuntiy here, and made some PCI boards to drive a printer. But read my lips: to drive a printer. These PCI cards do not have the full bi-directional features as used by Mach and other specialist 'things'.

Sad, but I do not know of any PCI cards for LPT which will work properly. Hence we go to the Ethernet and an external engine.

Cheers
Roger

The upshot is that some cards work and some don't and its not clear from their advertising.

I bought a card, I'll try and find a link, but it has a Moschip IC on it and it does have the same capabilities as the original ICs as described by
Roger. It turns out that there are several cards, different manufacturers, but all use the same Moschip IC and with the right driver all work with Mach3.

Craig

Hi BretC,
not sure that this is the indentical card but it has the same IC. I seem to recall having to go to the Moschip website and trying a few drivers
until I got it to work. I used it for three years as a second port on my Mach3 machine on an Atom miniITX PC. Have updated to Mach4 and
a SmoothStepper since.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/One-Port-Parallel-IEEE-1284-PCI-Host-Controller-Card-Chipset-MCS9865-for-Moschip-/142065138484?hash=item2113bdfb34

Craig