i added a 2nd port for my 4th axis as far as i can tell mach is not recognizing it. the port checks out to be working but no go.the card address is  ecd8.  the card is rosewill rc-303. any help will be much appreciated!! i have been out of in cnc for about 8 years & have been working on getting this card working for about 6 days.
thanks greg

If Mach3 is not seeing it, then the port address you are using is probably incorrect.

Hi,
I recall also that when I fitted a second port that I had to try several different drivers from
the manufacturers website before I fond one that worked with Machs parallel port.

Craig

Have tried all the drivers I could find and none of them allowed me to change the settings on this card.

Is there a PCI card out there that people are using with good results?

Thanks ahead for the info.

We've tried 2 different PCI parallel port cards.

Rosewill RC-302 and Rosewill RC-303.

Neither one will run the A axis. Not sure what else to try.

Hi,
PCI cards do work as a second port. I recently gave my PCI card to a friend but we couldn't get it to work despite knowing that it had previously
worked for me. I am still of the opinion that we did not have the correct driver for it despite the several promising ones we tried.
I certainly recall some frustration and hair pulling when I first used it myself.

I think the PMDX card will be your most assured means to getting a second port.

The other alternative is an external motion controller like a SmoothStepper or a UC300.

Craig

greg.

I have used both the RC302 and RC304 Rosewill cards and they work for all the axes.
Currently using the RC304 card and XP pro on my computer. It's been years since they were installed, but,
I remember having problems with installing the RC 302 card with the drivers provided on the CD. I believe I went to the Moschip
site and got an appropriate driver there that worked for the rc 302. For the RC 304 ( 2 parallel port card which is better than the single
port card ) the drivers provided on the CD were used. As Graig remarked you must install the correct driver. Also you must configure Mach
correctly for the A axis in pots and pins.

RICH