Greetings all, PCW in particular; Trying to sort a basket of rattlesnakes here. This computer has been driving an HF micromill, thru the parport, using software stepping since the early 2000's, thru a variety of actual motherboards.
It seems that mach3 at least, uses pins on a std parport that somewhat resemble a game of 52 pickup. Scrambled would be the mixed audience description. Whereas all the stuff I've ever used, this being a linux only site, has driven the x axis steppers from the db25 pins 2 and 3. But not mach3, where ack a doc I just found on cnczone: pin1=XStep Pin2=YEnable, Pin3=YDir Pin4=ZDir Pin5=ZStep Pin6=ZEnable Pin7=XDir pin8=YStep pin9=spindle on/off relay on most bobs. Dir and speed apparently not supported by mach3. Shakes head in disbelief. pin10=input1 pin11=input2 pin12=input3 pin13=input4 pin14=XEnable pin15=not used in 3 axis setup, but I've a 4 axis machine. pin16=expand output1 pin17=expand output2 pins18-25 grounded Funny part, from the keyboard Y works both dirs, Z works both dirs although I had to invert the scales in the .ini file. So I am not even 50% sure that is how THIS machine is wired. PCW: Does the 5i25 have a firmware that can drive this mess? Or am I doomed to rewire the electronics box that came with this beast to make it into a std machine? In which case I'll just go get the box I was driving the HF toy with, its already setup to drive 4 axis's. Thats sounding like a better option all the time, but it needs more volts, only 28 for the 2M542's in it. Needs 40+ volts to reach the speeds a 5i25 can drive it at. Uses the same motor connector although I might have to make pins match in the cabling. IIRC that will be a matter of moving wires on the output terminal strip on that box. Since the 2m542's have been totally bulletproof, that might be the best idea. That leaves the spindle control to deal with. Its bob is different from any I've seen before. Even if I expand p3 usage with a 7i76? Thanks everybody. Cheers, Gene Heskett -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene> _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
