Please help, I need some addvise

Here is what I know so far.

I have the same voltage on a different port cable now (separate from the integrated port on the Mboard),
Voltage is 4.6v on pins 2-9.
I changed ptestx.hal to- loadrt halparport cfg"0x8800 X" to get these results.

I haven't been able to identify the address for the last working port though.
Tried a number of things, all that changed was the pin colours on the tester for input side, from green to red,
different addresses changed different pins, but the cable/meter didn't respond.

What should I type and where should I type it now?

I will look at Todds sugestion now.

The answers you need are already in this thread.

Forget ptestx.hal, you are not trying to test if the ports work in X mode, you don't know which address the ports are at.
You can test if they work in X mode later

Download the port tester at the link given several times and use that.

I have the same voltage on a different port cable now (separate from the integrated port on the Mboard),
Voltage is 4.6v on pins 2-9.

You will have those voltages whether it is the right port or not, did you get them after loading the tester, when you pressed the corresponding button for that pin and did it go to zero when you released it?

I changed ptestx.hal to- loadrt halparport cfg"0x8800 X" to get these results.

If that is what you entered I don't know if it worked properly, should be loadrt halparport cfg="0x8800 X"

If it is correct, likelihood is that second card has parport at 0xa000

Tried a number of things,....

I don't know what this means.

Start from the beginning, change the port address being tested by editing the
loadrt halparport cfg="0x378 out" line
and methodically work through each address on the card, testing the out pins for voltage when the button is pressed and none when released

Sorry for the lack of detail and inaccurate mature of the last post.
I made a typo: loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0x378 X ” , I had the (=) sign in the command line.

I was going to try to and clear some of this up with the results I have here, however.
I did the testing you can see below, I had to stop all this and take care of some things before I wrote this post. When I returned I thought I would do the entire test over just confirm my findings.
For whatever reason when I tried this again I get no voltage reading on any pin from either meter.
I screwed something up here I just haven't been able to figure out what yet!

The port addresses were tested and responded as follows:


ptest.hal
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0x0378 out” Out put pins 1-9, 14, 16, 17 meter shows 4.9v.
Input pins 10,11,12,13,15 steady green on port tester.
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0x8800 out” Same pin and meter response as above.
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0xa000 out” Same pin and meter response as above.

No voltage when releasing the out put button on the meter.
__________________________________________________________________________________

ptestx.hal
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0x0378 X” Out put pins 2-9 meter showed 4.9v.
Input pins 1, 10-17 steady green on port tester.
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”0x8800 X” Same pin and meter response as above.
loadrt hal_parport cfg=”oxa000 X” Same pin and meter response as above.

No voltage when releasing the out put button on the meter.

I will be doing what I can to get these result again while waiting to hear back from you.

Thanks again

OK, I found the problem, a test lead pulled out of it's socket just far enough it wasn't making contact.
What else can go wrong? ( I suppose plenty, I shouldn't bitch)

One other thing to add:
The voltage on the ptest.hal out put pins is not 4.9v, it's 4.6v.
Another oversight.

I think we have “addresses” and “xmod” if I’m not mistaken.
We have voltage at a pin location specified, on a port that we call out, this is success isn't it?

What's next?

........this is success isn't it?

Indeed, you are never going to forget how to test a parallel port after this.

You appear to have established the port addresses are 0x378, 0x8800 and 0xa000

Back to Todd, he has experience with these drives, in fact he has a machine which uses them up for sale at the moment.

Fare well

The problem with these old machines that were configured to use that old Dos, Indexer LPT software and the old ISA LPT cards, they were set up with the limit inputs on pins that are only usable as inputs in X-mode. The drives step and direction ouputs should work in either X-mode or the regular Out setting. In fact even if your port is incompatible with x-mode the drives step and direction signals should still work, just the limits won't, that is why I suggested moving the limit input wires to the more "normal" pins which should be easy to do with your setup. The machines I have have the breakout board build into the drive, and do not even have circuit traces to the pins I would need to use for the regular out setting. So for me I would have had to cut traces on the board and then solder jumper wires to the new pins, hence why I wanted to use X-mode. Since your machine uses a simple screw terminal breakout, switching pins is as simple and painless as could be. Anaheim Automation still makes an equivalent of those drives.
www.anaheimautomation.com/products/stepp...1&pt=i&tID=86&cID=20
The drive timings will be the same as for this drive.

Todd,
I agree, why not move those limit wires making use of the "natural" pin function.
This is how I will proceed as soon as I am certain I have confirmed Andy's point.

Andy,
Hmm, I see what you mean, we have port locations, pin functions via test meters and voltage meter, but is Linuxcnc able to drive the bus?

My meter has only AC/DCv and resistance on it, I don't have an amp hammer to test “current”.
I brought up ptest, to see what I do have, the ptest(er) has no “buttons” for inputs, only the lights, so I just grounded an input pin (15 to 25) and watched the ptest meter, the light stayed green, and the voltage meter read 4.6v.
I then (quite by accident) crossed the test probes, the voltage went to 0v and the light turned red for that pin (15).
Is this information helpful to us, yes, no, maybe!
Please, you tell me.

I get the same input results on all three ports.
All inputs and outputs work as described under there respective command lines for port designations.
Yea, I can't be-leave it either.

Now there is one thing here I should mention, voltage on the output pins is 0v until I push the button on the meter, they then go to 4.6v.
They go back to 0v when the button is released.

Arseye is right I'll never forget this adventure.