New to LinuxCNC - Trying to add a PPort card and get LinuxCNC to start

Hi,

Ok so this is where we are at then...

Clive - Green wires are going to ground. Tommy was giving me a hand with the wiring. I had it wired up initially as per the video and nothing was working. We rewired it differently and had some movement on the x axis but its all stopped now.

Tommy - Yes, its a PCIe one. This one specifically. I went through some of the reviews on amazon and people had said that they brought this specific unit to get working with linuxcnc and it worked great.

www.maplin.co.uk/startech-1-port-pci-exp...-pex1p-0065030824170

Oh well, you will have to try all of those, but before you do, find a way to measure the voltage on the printer outputs, namely between pin 2 and gnd of parallel port, so at least you know when you get the right address.
Also keep in mind that to be sure the port is accessible, you will have to reboot the PC after any address change as it may hang and subsequent tries will not work.

Is that just a case of me putting a wire into pin2 and into the gnd pin and measuring the voltage. Will this be the same as the voltage change we looked at?

Just to take some time up, I tried the wiring in that video again but didnt connect the ENA - wire and I removed the jumper between Dir + and ENA + and we have movement in one direction on the X axis...

Anyone know why it would go in one direction and not the other? Ive swapped the Pul and Dir - leads over and we still only get movement in one direction.

TnW wrote:

Just to take some time up, I tried the wiring in that video again but didnt connect the ENA - wire and I removed the jumper between Dir + and ENA + and we have movement in one direction on the X axis...

Anyone know why it would go in one direction and not the other? Ive swapped the Pul and Dir - leads over and we still only get movement in one direction.

With the green wires they might be to ground but not the ground on the BOB.

Now when you say only go in one direction are you saying that you can jog with the keyboard x,y and Z BUT only one direction

Hi Clive, I removed all of the wiring and started again so now there are no wires going to the gnd on the BOB. All is connected as per the video except the wire to the enable pin and the corresponding pin on the BOB.

're the direction that is correct. I currently only have the X wired up however it will only move to the right when I press the left direction button in axis. None of the others give any response from the machine.

So you have 5V going to pulse and dir +ve and pulse -ve going to pin 2 & dir -ve to pin 3 on the bob

what voltage do you get between pin 3 and ground when you press right arrow then left arrow on the keyboard

Ok so there seem to be some gremlins in the machine. Now we dont get any movement. There is a slight knock when I press the right button, like when the motors are energized but thats it, nothing more.

I have checked the voltage between Pin 3 and the PCGND on the BOB, the normal GND pin near to Pin2 gives me no reading. There is 0.1v change. It reads 0.1v goes to 0.2v when a key is pressed and stops when the key isn't pressed.

TnW wrote:

Ok so there seem to be some gremlins in the machine. Now we dont get any movement. There is a slight knock when I press the right button, like when the motors are energized but thats it, nothing more.

I have checked the voltage between Pin 3 and the PCGND on the BOB, the normal GND pin near to Pin2 gives me no reading. There is 0.1v change. It reads 0.1v goes to 0.2v when a key is pressed and stops when the key isn't pressed.

What do you mean by this " the normal GND" the GND where the limit switches go is not the ground to use. The correct one is on the same row of pins as the pins for the axis ie pins 2,3,4,5,6 etc

now if it worked 1 hour ago and you have not changed any connections then you must have a bad connection. I said in an earlier post that getting 5V from the USB connect is bad, do you have another 5v supply to wire into the 5v+ and ground terminals on the BOB
If you have don't use the usb cable

Edit: Also check that you actually have 5v between the 5v input and ground on the bob. ie at the opposite end from pin 2 on the bob

Edit; If you want to use that BOB for the inputs ie. home switches then you will need to power the BOB with 12-24V to the terminal block next to the blue relay middle two terminals. other wise it won't work (this is just for the inputs and spindle speed)

Also check the continuity of the 25 pin pp cable ie checking all the pins from one end to the other, Are you sure it is a straight through 25pin cable.