Fischertechnik Interface with XY Plotter

Flo1K wrote:

The problem is, the interface that cames with it isn't working as usual. It has an 8 bit shift register for I/O which is controlled by the parport. Now I question if it is possible to get a configuration that works with it.

Possibly.

I can't really read German. Is the data sent digitally, or as step and direction signals with a clock and/or multiplexer?

Skunkworks recently managed to get an Emco lathe working with LinuxCNC which uses direct phase drive + a clock signal.
www.linuxcnc.org/index.php/english/forum...uxcnc-painless#36812

If it is a digital communication protocol, then Mesa, Pico and Pluto interfaces work this way, so it is entirely possible to do it, but a driver would need to be written. This might not be anything like as difficult as it sounds. Typically you use the "comp" hal function generator to create input pins for the XY commands, then assemble them into bytes in the required format, and send them to the port with an outb() command.

Flo1K wrote:

So the parport has to write a sequence of the signals for the phases with an 8 Bit latch cycle.
It isn't really a digital protocol rather raw serial data.

This sounds quite a lot like the Emco interface that Skunkworks got working, have you read that thread?

Flo1K wrote:

I'm not sure if I understood this right. Did he rip off the shift register and wired up the parport pins to the driver or not?

No, I think he persuaded LinuxCNC to drive the shift register.

Flo1K wrote:

Do you want to see pictures of the contruction as well?

Of course