Need help connecting an Omron Driver to a Parport

Please be patient with me since I have no experience with any electronic systems.
I am more than willing to learn, but due to y inexperience, I need soeone to guide me with this,

I have a servo and it's driver (Omron make, the driver has a model number of R88D-GT08H) lying around at work.
I want to learn how Linux CNC works, and I feel the components I have lying around could help me achieve my purpose.
Now, I don't understand how to connect the input cable from the driver to the PC. I know that this is to be done through a parallel port or a PCI slot.
I have found the manual of the driver, I think it has the schematics of the cable img.motortong.com/upload/resource/201609...3267e75.pdf#page=232
But, how do I connect the cable and the port?
I am attaching the photo of the cable from the driver.
Currently we were using some kind of board(Green coloured board in the photos) to attach it to the PLC, but can I use a similar setup to connect it to the PC?
Can someone please provide me with directions to proceed further?

Thank you!

Looks like pins 3 and 4 are one step input, and pins 5 and 6 are the other. The internal resistor is set up for 24 V supply, so you won't use those. So, connect +5 V from the computer to pins 3 and 5. Connect the parport outputs to pins 4 and 6. Apply 24 V + to pin 7 and ground to pin 29 to enable the drive. You will almost certainly need a breakout board to deliver enough current to pins 4 and 6, the plain parallel port won't handle what this unit draws,
which will be around 12 mA. This likely will want the step pulse outputs to be normally high, and pulse low for the step pulse (but maybe it won't mind the opposite polarity.)

The final problem is that this probably presents a really high step resolution, so you may be limited on the speed that can be developed by software-generated steps. You may end up needing a hardware step generator (like Mesa or Pico Systems) to get reasonable performance. it may be possible to set a lower step/rev resolution in the drive configuration to help with this.

Jon

Could you please tell me how you figured that out? I need a starting point to learn these sort of things, so that I don't have to come here asking the same question when I do my next project.
And, I'm just setting this Servo to just tread the waters initially, I don't need any accurate output from this project. I just need to get the Servo running.
I'll do a more comprehensive project once I figure these basic stuff out.

BTW I'm a machine tool design engineer, and I've had enough training and little experience designing the mechanical components of a machine, but when it comes to the electronics, I'm entirely blank. I don't understand where to start with this.

My guess is that he Googled up a manual for the drive, and looked up the pinout for its control wiring. Something like what is on pg57 of this document.
www.mouser.com/ds/2/307/r88m-g_r88d-gt_i...1_csm2686-594570.pdf

harishmshenoy wrote:

Could you please tell me how you figured that out?.

You gave the link to the drive manual. Yes, it is HUGE, and takes a while to find what you need. See page 3-9, it gives all the info on CN1, which is whaere the CNC control connects. Right at the top, there are opto-coupled inputs for forward and reverse step pulses. Right below that are non-isolated high-speed differential inputs for the same thing. Just below that is the RUN command input, which probably enables the drive. Possibly the reverse and forward drive prohibit inputs need a closed connection to enable movement in both directions.

Jon

Thank you very much. That helped clear a few things.
And thank you for being very patient too!
I'll see what I can do over the weekend and let you know.

Jon is correct,

You can change the type of pulse and direction command the servo is looking for section 5-1 of the manual (Pn 40 - 42) I recommend the Line Driver type input as its less susceptible to noise and can handle faster pulse train inputs. to solve the speed issue, set the electronic gearing (Pn48 - 4B) this will tell the amplifier to move x encoder pulses for every pulse it recieves from the controller.
Typically this would be set to account for gearing and travel. This allows for it to be easier to calculate move. i.e. x input pulses = x mm or inches although with a servo we typically get into the um per pulse. You will also want to set the encoder output pulses per rev if you want to close the loop all the way back to the pc.

Another common way to control a servo is with an analog, put the servo in speed mode and let the motion controller adjust the speed in its control loop to handle positioning, this is how most PC based motion controller cards used to control servos.

KR2Inc wrote:

Jon is correct,

I recommend the Line Driver type input as its less susceptible to noise and can handle faster pulse train inputs.

Well, from a parallel port with breakout board, he will not run into the speed limit. And, the line driver inputs need a differential drive. The opto inputs can handle single-ended drive.

Jon

What is the maximum frequency of a parallel port?