quadrature output in stepconf

I've had success...of sorts. Got the x axis running but other two only wiggle. I pulled the control pins off x and applied to y and z but it changed nothing. Also tried switching polarity, although I reconnected to each stepper driver exactly like it was on x. The x axis motor works correctly when run from the y and z quadrature pins. The only unique thing to x (that I've thought of yet) is that it has a very short set of leads from the drivers to the motor. I now intend to mount each driver beside it's respective motor and see if that helps..
The y and z power lines were all contained in one long cable and I suspect inductance may be restricting power flow to those motors. I'm hoping twisted pair phone line for the signals to the drivers will work without the inductance being a big factor on that side of the drivers and if I make the driver to motor wires as short as those for x, then it'll be time to get down to learning the real animal...LinuxCNC..
As I typed, it also occured to me that both y and z might just be bad motors so I think I'll test for that first.
I appreciate the help and advice. It's been a great help and I'm fairly sure, at least for this module of development, that my stepconf problems are solved. Lol, at least until I start monitoring the amperage on my dremel, put in multiplexed stop switches, and generally learn how to use those input pins on the paraport. <grin>

amongst what you have thought , check for voltage drop or at least a good voltage swing or a marginal level etc , you may be loosing some ...

if one axis works then so long as the ini settings are the same then it could be safely assumed the other outputs would be the same .
so long as you have not picked some obscure parallel port pin of course .

When I started building the paraport break out box, I'm pretty sure all 8 pins were at 5 volts but after I built the opto-isolator bob, I remember it being only about 3v. I just checked it from winxp using Port Viewer and a high signal is about 3.34...all pins, while low is around .35. I'd guess that is pretty marginal. My machine is a p4 266mhz. I wonder if it's pp has a reduced voltage "green" mode that I can crank back up to 5 volts in a different mode.
The opto's turned out to be too slow so I decided to double buffer using two hex inverters, getting each opposite signal from the outputs of each chip...to clean up that marginal 3 volts. Tho I haven't checked the output to the driver's pins, I suspect it's marginal as well, even though the supply to the inverters is 5v. Think some pullup resistors to the outputs from the first hex inverter would work, if that's what it is?

Anyway, here's my working hal file. I haven't had time to study some of the commands that I think I don't need, especially the last several. The parallel port reset and another related one near it, I had to comment out before it would work at all.. The original hal was actually sending the quad signal via 4 pins per motor rather than 2 so I deleted the c and d pin code. Without the inverters, I would have needed them except I don't have that many pins.

Last update for this thread, prolly. I tested the other two motors using short leads and they worked fine. So I guess I'll mount the drivers at the motors with short wires between and let the digital leads back to the inverters be long.
Many thinks for all the help.

Just finished rebuild, upgrading to 1.5kw water cooled spindle and new dual core computer. Accidentally formated the drive so came looking for my old hal file. I noticed I was vague discussing the inverters in a previous post so for future reference thought I'd elaborate.
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The L298N stepper driver has 4 logic control pins, 2 for each half of the bridge. I always keep both windings energized, no half-stepping. Each pin per half will ALWAYS be the opposite state of the other pin on that half...i.e. 0v on one pin while the other is at 5 volts. I took a single parport signal and ran it through an inverter whose output goes to one of those two pins. The original signal goes to the other pin, thus guaranteeing both pins are opposite each other yet only needing one signal to control two pins. On my 3 axis machine, that leaves me two more pins to control something else in the future, using only the parallel port.