[muuse]

Apologies if this is a repost. I have built the CNC router described in the "Build your Own CNC Machine" (ISBN:9781430224891). The issue that I am experiencing is that the board that I ordered is a parallel connection. I bought a USB to parallel adapter but have come up with some issues as I cant get the motors to spin when I access Mach 3. Im thinking my issue may be the port that the USB is in isnt communication with the board. What should I do? It asks for a port number (in Hexadecimal) but I cant seem to find it. I am running a lenovo with Windows 8. Mach 3 also says that the drivers arent installed but the site doesnt have them to be downloaded. Any help that you can give would be awesome

~M

[ger21]

A USB to parallel port adapter will not work with Mach3.
If you're running a 64bit version of Windows 8, then you can't use the parallel port as the driver will not run in Win 8 x64. This is probably why you're seeing the "Driver not installed" message.

On a 64bit OS, your only option is to use an external motion controller, like a Smoothstepper or UC100, or one of the many others available.