Can the stepgen LPT work in conjunction with the mesa card?

I want to make a configuration where three stepdir are in 7i92, one stepdir on the LPT port. I have assembled hal and ini, linux cnc starts with them, step generators work in 7i92, and only dir works on LPT (the level changes when the direction changes), step is constantly zero (I look at the oscilloscope). If I use the LPT-only configuration, then everything works. Does this mean that the real-time core cannot run the LPT and mesa step generators at the same time?

I'm guessing you would need to add a base thread for the parallel port and addf the necessary functions for the LPT port to the base thread.

Is there a reason you can't use 4 stepgens on the Mesa 7i92 ?

For someone that's smarter than myself to answer, and is usually the case, when dealing with config issues it pays to upload your config & hal files.

Yes, You can do that. I have my old LPT machine were two steppers are still on the old "as is" Chinese beakout board. (z-Axis stepper driver died recently, so I moved that to Mesa as well)
One stepper (now two) , the Spindle, the Spindle Encoder and the MPG (handwheel are handled with the Mesa Card)

Greetings Timo

p.s. the simple reason for the "Frankenstein" was that I was too lazy to re-wire all the steppers and had no documentation for the stepper driver interface, so I kept the running 3 axis config and only added the "new functions, (damaged functions) to to the Mesa card.

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timo wrote:

Yes, You can do that. I have my old LPT machine were two steppers are still on the old "as is" Chinese beakout board. (z-Axis stepper driver died recently, so I moved that to Mesa as well)
One stepper (now two) , the Spindle, the Spindle Encoder and the MPG (handwheel are handled with the Mesa Card)

Greetings Timo

p.s. the simple reason for the "Frankenstein" was that I was too lazy to re-wire all the steppers and had no documentation for the stepper driver interface, so I kept the running 3 axis config and only added the "new functions, (damaged functions) to to the Mesa card.
 

Was it PCI or ethernet mesa, and what version of linux cnc?

And what does it matter?
if you still have a problem, upload the configuration files. Most likely something wrong with them.

Files

It is a PCIe Mesa 6i25 with 7i76 plug and go kit. I do not know when I updated Linux CNC last time on that device. Must be a two or three year old installation.

I do not think it will make a difference, besides the naming conventions in the hal files.

How I did it:
a) create a Machine configuration with stepconf
b) create similar Machine configuration with pncconf

Then I deleted the axis information from the pnconf generated file, for the motors that will run on the parallel port. I deleted all the axis information from the stepconf gnerated file, that will belong to the Mesa card.

Then I merged the two configs step by step by copying the "Mesa stuff" into the LPT configuration. (ended up with a convoluted hal and ini file that works and contains snippets of "both worlds")

Greetings Timo

p.s. I did not have mentionable prior experience, so it took a while to get it "free of startup errors", but no involved adjustments. Mainly removing double entries and correcting my own typos.