Red China Board

New so please be kind.

I had mach 3 and i did not know you can import so i did not save anything. Although i dont know if would have helped. I had a small setup for a centerless grinder running and i switch to emc to start to improve on that limited setup by recommendation.

My problem
The attached image is the board i started with. I was able to get two axis going but my problem is that i need to start a hydraulic pump and a check pressure switches at different locations. I need to create a plc program as well to control other functions.
I cannot use the relay outputs for some reason i dont know if i sis the setup wrong or something like that.
I there a way to view input high/lows as well as measure outputs and make sure they are working on the board. Like a diagnostic bit?

Thanks
Art

There are several ways to look at the current state of inputs and outputs, in software, a couple are Hal Meter and Hal Scope. Did you have all these things working before with Mach3? (to eliminate hardware issues)
I'm pretty sure that boards like that usually need to have an external power source connected to activate the relays, and may also need to have an enable signal connected.

Might want to look at the parallel port tester...
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Parallel_Port_Tester

Depending on the version of linuxcnc it may be already be installed in the sample configurations.
sample configurations
apps
parport


Rick G

Thanks for the very fast replies. I am looking and the board and i seem to have a multiplexer i think. The board has 17 pins, 5 input pins, 5 relay out and the analog output pin. The port tester one has the 17 and 5 Im missing the other 6 pins to be able to test. I am going to go one by one with the port tester and report back.

Okay totally disappointed .... no multiplexer . What it does it uses pins 17,16,14 and relays them out and the 24v regulator circuit then energizes the coil. So that leaves me with less to work with which is ok guess ill run a external plc that will just emergency off this board.

Havent even started and im all out of pins. Its a start.

By any chance do you have a port tester for testing anolog signals? Maybe modding the XML from what it looks its a language controlled software. I need to read a bit more just picked this up yesterday so i think i got alot of catching up to do.

what configuration are you using , did you add the switching etc ?
why do you need a plc ? , linuxcnc has one built in , but nothing i see makes me think it's needed .

perhaps post your config as an archive , and then work through the problems you have , the information you post is very vague
have you details of the breakout board in pdf you can post etc ?

in some cases it is nothing more than inverting the sense of the inputs/outputs if they are correctly set up
the port tester will tell you nothing , use the hal configuration screens in axis , and you can trace each pin and the correct sense
both inputs and outputs . ( use the watch window and toggle the inputs for example .)

If you need more I/O than the 17 pins on a parallel port can provide. You can always add another one (or more). What is the list of things you need? Many things can often share inputs.