Hello,

I'm helping out a friend of mine to try to figure out what is wrong with his CNC machine.

It worked perfectly on a very old outdated machine and we decided that he should  upgrade to a faster machine in which he could do some CAD work to then use the CNC.

But we ran in to a issue straight away. At the diagnostics page we can't see any reaction on the ports. And if i recall correctly then there should always be a signal on at least one port.
And when we press keys nothing happens in the diagnostics or with the motors.

Then i downloaded a program that let us send signals through the COM port and to the machine straight away. To start the spindle works perfectly but when I try to send a signal to make the motors move they just do a small jump (Not enough to move anything but they make a sound that they activate then stop right away)

We can see currents moving through the board (Measured up)

The pc is a windows 10 machine with a add on com port in a PCI slot.
The old pc were a windows XP with a integrated COM port.


Has anyone experienced anything like this before?
Do you have any idea on what it could be?
Do you have any suggestions or things we could try? (We are both new to CNC)

Do you need more information regarding this? Then please do tell and we will provide with anything you require to further help us out !

Looking forward for someone that could help us out.
/Jerry

The jump is probably correct - you are sending a single pulse or just flipping the pin on or off - to move a stepper you need to send a series of on/off pulses at a minimum, the speed of which will determine the speed of the motor.

The spindle will work because that only needs a single on/off output.

Sounds like the port is talking to the machine but Mach is not seeing the port.

Check the devices page of windows and get the address for the parallel port, then check that the correct port is set in Mach setup. Not all pc's use the same address.

Thank you Davek for the reply.

And that makes lots of sense actually!

Is there any way to externally check if it can move? (Some way to send signals at a specific pace just to see if the motors will move)

And yes i changed the port in the settings.  And the port were a bit different then the other as it is a LTP (Or something like that)
And i believe it was something like 0D050.

Is there anything you could take a look at to check if it was me that failed somewhere?
I will happily provide you with any kind of screens you would require for this.

And yet again, thanks thus far !

Yes but not easily, you can buy stepper pulsers or make one with a few components but the fact it jumps i think means it likely will work once the front end is sorted.

LPT port?

Best thing i can suggest is to upload your XML file and a far more knowledgeable person will likely dive in

Make sure it's the XML file for the profile you are running

Alright, this is the XML file for the profile that he is using.

I will be more than willing to answer any questions regarding it.

I will be going to his place tomorrow and would love to try anything suggested to get things working!

I can see the Estop is enabled and active low but has no port assigned?
Looks like pin10 port 1 is already in use.

In general config, "Use Watchdogs" is checked, no idea what it does but have read bad things about having it checked

Not much else i can see as long as the 0xd address really is the correct one for the parallel port.

Did you do a full install of Mach or just copy the folder over??
It really needs a proper install, the port test running and then you can dump the old folder on top.

Ooh i didn't know about that dump the old folder on top part.

But i did install it and try to do the settings. (Bringing over the xml and license)

And I also tries only using the folder but nothing of those worked.

But i didn't dump the whole thing. And also now that i think about it it was installed before we added the new port hardware.


And in the first part you mentioned the Estop, what kind of issues could it provide in this case? So i know what to look for and change

(Now i at least have something to try so that is amazing !)

Ah so you changed the port hardware after the install?
That can do things, try running the port speed test program.

The estop with port 0 set simply will do nothing, there is no port zero so its ignored, if it has an estop button it won't function, not in Mach any way.

I have dumped the whole folder on a few times, its pretty tolerant as far as software goes but does always need a full install first and testing.

Yeah, I will re-install it.

And yes i changed the port to what windows say is the correct one.

If there are anything else i could try then please tell me

So i can go through as much as possible tomorrow!

Can you confirm your setup again please?

Mach3 + windows 10 + parallel port

As far I was aware the problem is the parallel port, and the way windows 8 / 10 (64 bit operating system) deals with it is your problem, you need a motion controller now as your upgrade is above the requirements for parallel port usage

Mach3 requirements copied from the artsoft website
Software Requirements
Mach3 Minimum Recommended Requirements:

Requirements if using the parallel port for machine control:
Desktop PC (Laptops are not supported) with at least one parallel port
32-bit version of Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (64-bit versions will not work)
1Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
Non-integrated Video Card with 32MB RAM(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)
Requirements if using an external motion device for machine control:
An appropriate external motion controller (options can be found on the Plugins page)
Desktop or Laptop with Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8
1Ghz CPU
512MB RAM
Video Card with 32MB RAM(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)