[roli_bark]

My computer does not have a parallel port, neither a legacy [old] PCI slot.
It only has PCI-Express slots.

For CNC Controlling SW via a Parralel-Port, will a 'PCI-Express Parallel Port Adaptor' card - work ?

Thanks

[SirSmash]

Yes that should work fine.

[roli_bark]

Yes that should work fine.

Thanks, but do you have an actual good working experience controlling CNC with a PCI-Express Parallel card ?

I'm looking for a real practical experience from someone who actually have a good working experience with a "PCI-Express Parallel Card", before I buy one.

[SirSmash]

I'm looking for a real practical experience from someone who actually have a good working experience with a "PCI-Express Parallel Card", before I buy one.

Probably should have specified that. I have a small business, only 3 people at the moment, but we started making CNC machines and have tried PCI-Express cards to answer if the machines would work or not; internally we use old point of sale systems as they are cheap as dirt, have on-board parallel ports, and touch screens. Personally I'd recommend that route as the touch screens are rather nice and an entire system can be bought for under $100.

We also tried other things like PCMCIA to Parallel which doesn't work very well though there are issues with using laptops and CNC's. You may want to check eBay, buy-it-now the PCI-Express cards are under $10 with free shipping.

[roli_bark]

Probably should have specified that. I have a small business, only 3 people at the moment, but we started making CNC machines and have tried PCI-Express cards to answer if the machines would work or not; internally we use old point of sale systems as they are cheap as dirt, have on-board parallel ports, and touch screens. Personally I'd recommend that route as the touch screens are rather nice and an entire system can be bought for under $100.

We also tried other things like PCMCIA to Parallel which doesn't work very well though there are issues with using laptops and CNC's. You may want to check eBay, buy-it-now the PCI-Express cards are under $10 with free shipping.

Appreciate your detailed practical experience response. Thank you !
Yes, I found some under $10 PCI-Express Parallel Port adaptor cards on eBay.
Will defintely buy 1 or 2.
Again, thank you.

[Larken]

For CNC Controlling SW via a Parralel-Port, will a 'PCI-Express Parallel Port Adaptor' card - work ?

It will only work if the control software can talk to the PCI bus. Not all can.

[roli_bark]

It will only work if the control software can talk to the PCI bus. Not all can.

The control SW is either Mach3 or EMC2.
Will they work with a PCI-E Parallel adapter card ?

[neilw20]

The card installation program should make install as a standard parallel port.
Then look at the properties, find the port address and enter that into the Mach3 settings - Ports and Pins.
I have a standard PAR 0200 netmos PCI card that works.

[ROB C]

I personally had no luck with a parallel pci card. couldn't seem to find any settings like they provide in the bios. Had no problem with a computer with a built in port. Though i may give it another try with neilw20's suggestions.

[andypugh]

The control SW is either Mach3 or EMC2.
Will they work with a PCI-E Parallel adapter card ?

They ought to work with EMC2 if they work with Linux. I would say that the chances were very good, but have no personal experience.

[roli_bark]

Thanks everybody, and of course, neilw20's tips are much appreciated !
When I get the PCI-E card (ordered from eBay), I'll try and let you'all know of my experience.

[neilw20]

I personally had no luck with a parallel pci card. couldn't seem to find any settings like they provide in the bios. Had no problem with a computer with a built in port. Though i may give it another try with neilw20's suggestions.

These cards are plug and play, and may appear in the BIOS.
In Windows, go to device manager, ports, and properties, resources or details tab of the device and you will find the address there if the port exists in the system. It will more than likely be LPT, and in the same place as the COM ports.

Plug and Play in the BIOS needs to be enabled for automatic identification by windows, but some installation programs that come with the cards can still find them.
Some cards need the installation software that came with the card to be installed. One way or the other, you should be able to make it work.
Under win98, win2000 or XP it should be no problem. As for vista and W7, that may take a bit more searching.

[ericwbusby]

i am having the same problem with communicating between cnc and my netmos pci parallel. i have contacted them to see if they could be any help but they were useless.

i have just upgraded to a new computer (bosses hand me down) and it does not have a parallel port on it so i got a pci to parallel port and it will not work with my venture vpe-61. i need the card to stay in ecp mode but there are no settings anywhere in the bios (like with a built in LPT port) and there is no software that works with it. i am not using mach 3 and the software that runs the machine only lets you select the port (lpt1,lpt2,lpt3) but nothing works.

i currently have got 2 computers on my desk (new one and the old P3 to run the machine) and they are taking up to much room.

i am using windows xp and was wondering if anyone has had success with the pci or pci-e 2 parallel and what brand it was?

thanks
Eric

[neilw20]

The netmos card appears to store settings on it so you need to run some installation software, I believe.


drivers: many and varied... You need to choose what you need for the chip set you have.

http://list.driverguide.com/list/company2322/

Attached details of the setup required, usually done by the PNP, or the driver, Can't remember, but all this stuff is how I made mine go.

[ericwbusby]

neilw20,

thanks for the response.

i have done some more searching on the moschip site and the FAQ on there web site for my chipset (mcs9805 or nm9805cv) states:

"Only our DOS and Windows-NT Drivers have a mechanism to manually select the desired Mode for the Port. The other versions of Windows are supposed to be able to change Modes automatically when needed. Unfortunately, this automatic switching does not work very well with PCI based Ports. The way the PCI system allocates resources often interferes with the automatic switching mechanism."

also it states:

"We can support SPP and PS/2 Modes without any problems. EPP & ECP Mode
support varies from machine to machine, and depends on the Operating System being used. Both Modes require two banks of registers to control the chip. The IEEE-1284 specification requires these be separated by an offset of +400h Bytes. The PCI specification does not make any guarantees that two resource requests will have any specific relationship to each other. We request the two banks with the desired offset, but the system does not always honor those requests, and often returns the extended register bank at some entirely different address than what we requested. When this occurs, neither EPP nor ECP Mode will be usable."

so i guess unless i go back to dos then this card is useless to me

eric

[neilw20]

I have programmed the card from a DOS prompt (under windows), then accessed the port from within windows.

Try the 2 attached programs. They will run from a DOS prompt, even on any version of windows, so you can see where the port is.
I remember using the DOS netmos utility, and mapping the port wherever I wanted it.

Then these utilities will let you see if the port is visible.

COMTST /? for options, or just COMTST to scan.
LPTST /? for options, or just LPTST to scan.

[roli_bark]

They will run from a DOS prompt, even on any version of windows, so you can see where the port is.
I remember using the DOS netmos utility, and mapping the port wherever I wanted it.

Then these utilities will let you see if the port is visible.

COMTST /? for options, or just COMTST to scan.
LPTST /? for options, or just LPTST to scan.

Thanks a lot.
Just got the PCI-E Parallel Adaptor card from eBay. Came with an installment CD. But no User's Guide. Not tested yet.
Do I need to 'map' the port permanently in XP/Win7 [in my case - it is a 'Moschip MCS9901'] ?
Or, it is done automatically by the BIOS Plug-&-Play / OS built-in driver / CD installation ?

[neilw20]

You will have to try it.
CD installation should make it work.

In the bios, with the card plugged in, see if it is there.
If so, make sure it is enabled.
If not there ensure PNP is turned on.

Use my LPTST from a command prompt, from within XP and you will know if it there, as far as that is concerned. No guarantees there.

Main thing is to find the correct address.
In XP device manager should see it, and you can find the address there.

Good luck...

[roli_bark]

You will have to try it.
CD installation should make it work.

In the bios, with the card plugged in, see if it is there.
If so, make sure it is enabled.
If not there ensure PNP is turned on.

Use my LPTST from a command prompt, from within XP and you will know if it there, as far as that is concerned. No guarantees there.

Main thing is to find the correct address.
In XP device manager should see it, and you can find the address there.

Good luck...

Thanks for the info !
BTW - Under Win7-64 [my case] your LPTST doesn't work [incompatible error message]. But, I'll try the BIOS pnp.
Thanks again

[neilw20]

It is no good double-clicking the EXE file. Where would it display it's results? It id DOS stuff from yesteryear.
You need to run it from a command prompt from within Win7/XP

Start button,
type: command <enter>
Change to folder where the file is. CD\..pathname\
Run the program.
LPTST or COMTST
Any Windows messages, select ignore button.

Works on my Win7 (32 bit) but should work in 64 too.