USB connection

Do you have a PC with parallel port and a cable for it ?
That should work.

dlw wrote:

According to the seller, a usb to parallel cable is all that is needed to get it to work.
I will find out later.

I think we need more details.

What is the actual connector on the control box? What does it call itself?

Was it supplied with any software?

LinuxCNC does not communicate over USB. It connects through the Parallelport or the ethernet/lan port. You seem to have a parallel port, not sure what you mean with a "printer port" for somebody of my generation "printer port" and "parallel port" are the same.



So the idea is to connect your controller and the computer with a parallel cable. (Parallelport <-> Parallelport) There must be no USB involved.

There are PCI cards that can provide a parallel port to a pc if yours does not have one:



Maybe you could upload a picture of the connectors?

I think what you have is a JP382
www.aliexpress.com/item/32821517490.html

This is a parallel-port stepper driver.

What it seems is also provided (sometimes) is a USB to "CNC" cable, which is actually a DB25 connector with a CNC controller inside the DB25 connector.

So, you shoud be able to use your machine with LinuxCNC by:

- Connecting a motherboard parallel port to the machine with a fully-wired Parallel cable.

- If you don't have a Parallel port, but do have a PCI slot, then you can add a PCI parallel port (they are quite cheap, but be careful which one you buy as some only work with a windows driver. We can advise on ones that wil work if you go that route.

- For more money you can get a Mesa 5i25 PCI card. This looks a lot like a parallel port card, but costs more ($80) and can do more (like step 1000x faster)

- If you do not have a PCI port then another option, to use LinuxCNC, is to use a Mesa 7i92M, which is like the 5i25 but connected via an ethernet cable rather than PCI. That costs $90

The control box probably needs a USB connection too, but that is porely to supply a 5V logic power.

If I understand your meaning, I need a cable with parallel ports on both ends.
I have already ordered a USB to parallel port cable as advised by the seller and others.

Exactly you need a cable with parallel port on both ends. The USB to parallel port cable is useless for LinuxCNC.
The question now is: Do you have a pin out for the parallel port on the controller board? You will need to know which pin of the connector is connected to what signal on the board.