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Author Topic: Using USB and Parallel Port together  (Read 2433 times)

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Offline Vogavt

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Using USB and Parallel Port together
« on: August 24, 2017, 09:58:07 PM »
Is it possible?

I recently purchased a 6040 CNC router with an XHC Mach3 motion controller (USB) which seems to be working very well.

I want additional outputs though and was thinking about adding a parallel port to my Windows 10 machine to get them.

Again, just checking on feasibility at this point.

When I installed Mach3, I purposely did not install the parallel port driver so I know I'd have to do a re-installation oh Mach3 and add that.

I'm mainly concerned about conflicts in configurations.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: Using USB and Parallel Port together
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2017, 01:43:56 AM »
Unfortunately you cannot use the parallel port with Win10.
Also, the parallel port cannot be used at the same time as your XHC USB controller.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: Using USB and Parallel Port together
« Reply #2 on: August 25, 2017, 02:28:54 AM »
Hi,
I replied to your question in another thread
Quote
Hi,
it is not possible to have two motion controllers active at once. Given that a parallel port is a motion control device then I suspect its not
possible to have it active at the same time as a USB controller.

Something similar is possible with Mach4. You can still only have one motion controller, say an ESS, but have another board like a PoKeys 57E active with
the 57E behaving as an IO board only. Whether a similar arrangement can be done in Mach3 I don't know.

It certainly is possible for Mach3 to accommodate both serial and/or Modbus data in addition to its regular motion controller.

The other way to achieve more input is to use a board that has it already. An ESS has three 'ports' worth of IO, a PMDX-424 has two 'ports' worth
and a PoKeys 57E or 57U has 55 digital IOs, some of which can be configured as analogue IO, very flexible. Any of these boards would allow you
to control your machine and have maybe a dozen or more inputs left over.

You might look at the ModIO board from Homan Designs
https://www.homanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=54_2&products_id=4&zenid=dplqe4sf2nmjf00c6rh1gdhts7

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'

Offline Vogavt

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Re: Using USB and Parallel Port together
« Reply #3 on: August 25, 2017, 08:02:08 AM »
Thanks for the quick responses.

Oddly, I didn't get notified that the other thread had a response.

I know now what I have to do to move forward.