[ronncat]

I am using a G540 hooked up to my Dell Dimension E510. The Dell did not come with a parallel port and so after buying and installing a couple of different PCI parallel ports, I found one seems to work and gives excellent pulse ratings on the Driver Test. Hooked up my controller box and was greeted by the fault light. Downloaded 540B.xml... still a fault light. Disabled the charge pump..GREEN LIGHT! The e-stop also functions properly.

Now my question. I have read in several posts that the parallel port needs to be configured to EPP in the BIOS or some functions of Mach3 won't work properly. Since there is no parallel port on the motherboard of my dell, the pci parallel port doesn't show in the Bios, and I can't change anything (I even downloaded the latest Bios)

Since everything so far seems to be working, should I continue on the project or should I find an old computer with a mother board parallel port? I would like to use the charge pump. Is there some way in the device manager that I can verify the correct settings? What would I look for? Thanks...

[Jrs_Farm]

Curious about this myself, as I'm in the same boat.

I did point Mach3 to the PCI port address too, but get the same results listed above.

[madtownrob]

I had a lava PCIcard on my machine. I had to change the mode in the Control Panel, System, hardware tab, Device Manager button - give that a try- R

[Jrs_Farm]

I had a lava PCIcard on my machine. I had to change the mode in the Control Panel, System, hardware tab, Device Manager button - give that a try- R

You actually had an option to choose EPP with your Lava card?
Did that fix your Charge Pump fault?

If so, what is the part # of your Lava card?

Thanks,
Frank

[phomann]

Hi,

Have a look at this reply;

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75142

Cheers,

Peter.

[ronncat]

Looks like Jr and I have a similar problem. I currently have a Startech PCI parallel card installed in my XP computer. The driver test gives excellent results... However, the charge pump does not work.

THIS IS WHERE I GIVE MY SINCEREST THANKS TO MARRIS AT GECKO!!!
I called tech support at Gecko with several questions and concerns about my G540. Eventually I was treated to an extended conversation with Marris. He broke down all of my questions and answered them in a way that a non-electronics whiz could understand. Marris also gave me an incredible amount of other info that I will definitely be able to use during my install.

In short, this is what I learned...If the parallel port is not set to EPP or ECP, the drive motors will still work, but the other features of the G540 will not work with any consistency. VFD, and outputs 1 and 2 will not be functional, nor will the charge pump. These "extras" of the G540 may work from time to time, but without the extra boost in output that EPP affords to the parallel port the voltage may be too close to the cutoff for active high or low.

Marris also instructed me to wire a 1 amp diode (1N4004) with the cathode side connected to the + DC side of the power supply in parallel to the solenoids I was using to control spindle and coolant for outputs 1 & 2. This was so when the coil deenergizes, you won't blow up the power supply.

I contacted Startech re: setting the PCI parallel port to EPP. They were unable to help and suggested I contact the chipmaker MosChip to see if there was anyway to modify the drivers. So......Anyone know how to switch a MosChip NM9805 to EPP. This is a PCI port and does not show in the Bios. Also no options in device manager to do so. (At least that I could surmise)

Guess my next step is to call MosCip...

[ronncat]

Did my research on the Moschip PCI parallel port and this is what I found on Moschips site....



Guess the combo of that parallel port and my computer means I'm out of luck. Anyone know of a PCI parallel port that can be configured in XP?

Oops. sorry the attachment is upside down

[CarveOne]

Corrected ronncat's attachment.

CarveOne

[madtownrob]

Did my research on the Moschip PCI parallel port and this is what I found on Moschips site....



Guess the combo of that parallel port and my computer means I'm out of luck. Anyone know of a PCI parallel port that can be configured in XP?

Oops. sorry the attachment is upside down

http://www.candcnc.com/

has one - look under the ubob and expansion area - it's about 1/4 of the way down that frame - it the PP-1S1P

[ronncat]

Great!

Thanks for the info. If my latest PCI parallel port from Lava doesn't work, I'll give that one a try.

Geez...with all the money I'm spending on these cards, I could have bought a used CPU with and existing parallel port!!

[Jrs_Farm]

http://www.candcnc.com/

has one - look under the ubob and expansion area - it's about 1/4 of the way down that frame - it the PP-1S1P

It appears that card is also using a Moschip. It does mention that it has been tested with Mach3 but not the G540. While my Moschip cards, 2 so far, have worked with both, they didn't provide 100% functionality.

Still looking for a solution. I'm thinking that I may have to scrap my new motherboard and find one with an on-board parallel. Yay

Frank

[ronncat]

Frank,
The lava card was a dud also. Tried it on two different CPU's, then threw in the towel. Sourced myself another computer with a built in parallel port. That one wouldn't load the driver

Finally realized that the computer I'm typing this on had a parallel port...and it works:banana: I will re forced to relegate this one to garage duty unless I find a way to make one of the others function.

Oh well...Happy New Years!

[Crevice Reamer]

I have purchased several of these in the past 2 years with never a problem. They are refurbished and come with 1 YR warranty:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...+lease+desktop

This one, with 1 GB memory looks good if you have a copy of XP:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...073&CatId=1888

CR.

[Jrs_Farm]

What really sucks is that I built a new computer from scratch just for my CNC project. Had I known that PCI cards weren't 100% compatible I would have got a different motherboard with a built in parallel port. Now I have to find a board that will take the same CPU and memory. What a waste.

[ronncat]

CR

Happy new Years! Thanks for the link

[ronncat]

OK...Found an answer to my problem.

It's called Dell Financial Services. Found a refurbished Dell in an ultra small factor size, P4 processor @ 3gigs with 2gigs RAM AND A MOTHERBOARD PARALLEL PORT!!!! Less than $175 delivered. Should have done this at the beginning as I have spent probably $100 on the pci PP cards to this point, but lost more than $175 in hair trying get it all to work.(nuts)