Wires detached from parallel plug

TY for the pinout guide. I found a picture in the linuxcnc.org archive but it looked way different. I've attached the original file if it helps.

It looks like there are no limits enabled.
I would suggest that the intention might have been for the limit to be a debounced version of the home (this makes some sense, as nusciance tripping is annoying, and 10mS delay on hitting the limit is unlikely to matter that much)

There is already a debounce.0.1 available, you could use that. (though it has the same 100mS debounce time as the probe. Which seems a bit long for a probe, too)

It looks like the debounce is addf-ed to the base-thread so the time
will be quite a bit shorter than 100 ms

Ah, right.

That probably makes some sense, debouncing in the fast thread and servicing in the slow one.

I noticed that the limit switches are, for the most part, daisy chained together ie: COM leg from one switch connected to NC leg from another switch behind the parallel plug.

Yeah shared switches because of likely running out of pins for
limit/home inputs.

Since there are no limit switch connections in the hal file you are free to connect
the common limit/home signal to any free parallel port input (say pin 11 or 13...)

So one side of the chain to ground and the other side to one of the input pins?

Yes.

Very good, that should help me understand what's going on a little better as I assumed each limit switch was isolated.

I found this image in a manual for a gecko drive a friend sent me that shows the pinout for that system and I wondered if the parallel plug is always going to be the same no matter what other than changing the axis labels? I've also got my VFD connected via USB directly to the computer, not the parallel plug. I've attached the image.

[strike]If it's a Gecko with a DB25 then it must be a G540?

Yes, the pinout of the G540 is entirely standard for a G540, but may not match anything else.

It might be worth knowing that there is a firmware for the 5i25 / 6i25 PCI cards for the G540 if you find that you run out of step rate with the parallel port.

You might also find that the charge-pump input can't be driven by your parport except in EPP mode (BIOS setting) and possibly not even then. The charge pump can be disabled, but obviously it would be better not to.[/strike]

I now see that you were showing the Gecko pinout purely as an example. No, there is no standard for how a paralel port is wired to drives, you can do it any way that is convenient.