The BoB I have uses the USB for power ONLY. So the PP is for communication but the USB is power and there's another place to connect power from a PC that's not in the USB cable but, apparently, the power is the same circuit.

So, no power is coming from the PP. Not that I'm aware of. When I had the PP hooked up but no USB there was no power in the onboard LED.

As for being an electronics engineer... let's say I hold my ground. Pun intended.

USB -powered MB-02 ... It is so long since I had to even look at mine at had forgotten!

I power my ESS from the BoBs through the DB25, and the BoBs from a separate PS.

Cheers
Roger

Quote from: TPS on March 25, 2018, 04:43:49 AM

this profile is completly empty.

I'm guessing that means the profile doesn't actually save til you exit the program? Or am I supposed to do something I didn't do to not have a blank profile?

The two profiles I've used were the standard Mill one that comes with the download and the New one that appears to be empty. The only thing I did with the new profile was set the motor outputs as that's all I need to focus on until I have them working.

thats was i your "new" Profile:

<?xml version="1.0"?>

-<profile>


-<Preferences>

<Syskey1>0</Syskey1>

<DefDir>C:\Mach3</DefDir>

<Profile>TheNew</Profile>

<NewPath>0</NewPath>

<BR>0.0</BR>

<BG>0.0</BG>

<BB>0.0</BB>

<FR>0.0</FR>

<FG>0.0</FG>

<FB>1.0</FB>

<RR>1.0</RR>

<RG>0.0</RG>

<RB>0.0</RB>

<AR>0.7</AR>

<AG>0.2</AG>

<AB>0.7</AB>

<ER>1.0</ER>

<EG>1.0</EG>

<EB>0.0</EB>

<MatRed>0.0</MatRed>

<MatGreen>0.1</MatGreen>

<MatBlue>0.1</MatBlue>

<Running>1</Running>

<FirstRun>1</FirstRun>

</Preferences>

</profile>

and as i said, there is nothing (what is witch mach related)

--->The only thing I did with the new profile was set the motor outputs as that's all I need to focus on until I have them working.

and set step' per vel and acc for every axis in motortunig

Scrap the 'new' profile and go back to the distributed one.
Get the output pins working (changing state) when you change the Active Hi/Lo settings in Ports&Pins/Motor Outputs.
Then set up speed& accelerations & try jogging back and forth.

Cheers
Roger

Scrap the 'new' profile and go back to the distributed one.
Get the output pins working (changing state) when you change the Active Hi/Lo settings in Ports&Pins/Motor Outputs.
Then set up speed& accelerations & try jogging back and forth.

Cheers
Roger

None of that worked. Set high, set low, toggle,  etc.
Nothing changed that the x axis was the only one firing.

Oh.
May I interpret that as meaning that you could not get any signals from the Parallel port connector itself, except from the X axis pins?
If so, then I make the following deductions:
Mach3 and the parallel port driver are correctly installed and able to drive the X axis.
The other parallel port pins are not working, although you could check this further by trying to move the X axis onto some other pins.

All of which means, to me at least, that the parallel port chip on the computer motherboard may be damaged. If so, this is not recoverable (unless you replace the MOSTEK chip on the motherboard).
 If correct, then your next choice is to buy an external pulse engine. I strongly recommend against a USB version as they are very prone to noise interference. Buy an ethernet one.

Cheers
Roger

Oh.
May I interpret that as meaning that you could not get any signals from the Parallel port connector itself, except from the X axis pins?
If so, then I make the following deductions:
Mach3 and the parallel port driver are correctly installed and able to drive the X axis.
The other parallel port pins are not working, although you could check this further by trying to move the X axis onto some other pins.

All of which means, to me at least, that the parallel port chip on the computer motherboard may be damaged. If so, this is not recoverable (unless you replace the MOSTEK chip on the motherboard).
 If correct, then your next choice is to buy an external pulse engine. I strongly recommend against a USB version as they are very prone to noise interference. Buy an ethernet one.

Cheers
Roger

I don't have the tools necessary to check the parallel port pins. I suppose I could monkey rig something but I'm too lazy today.
What pin in the parallel port provides a +5 signal and which one provides ground?

OK, here's what I did, knowing I'm not sure of what I'm doing.

I disconnected my printer port.
I took a blue LED (I can switch a red one in if needed) and added in a 680 ohm resistor in series.

Using this image as a reference



I connected the cathode to pin 25 on my printer port.
Then connected the resistored anode to pin 2.

Using Mach3, I tried to cycle the X-axis. The LED didn't change.

I reset the X-axis pin2 to low and nothing changed on the LED.

Bottom line is that I don't know how to check the data output on the pins on the Parallel port with success.

Hi,
blue LEDs have a forward voltage drop of about 3.3V and so with a what may be a 3.3V port the LED
would not light reliably. A red LED has a forward drop of around 1.2V and is suitable.

Craig

Hi,
blue LEDs have a forward voltage drop of about 3.3V and so with a what may be a 3.3V port the LED
would not light reliably. A red LED has a forward drop of around 1.2V and is suitable.

Craig

Red LED made no difference in the diagnostics.