Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] RE: BDI : Parallel Port Setup

Deon Styger wrote:

> Paul Corner wrote:
>
> > The PCI parallel cards will not work with EMC - The software
> > expects to find
> > three registers at specific offsets from the base address.
> > For standard
> > ports, this is usually 278 or 378 Hex. PCI cards all have IO
> > addresses
> > starting at 400.
> > With EMC, and I suspect, with virtually all other step/dir
> > software, these
> > PCI cards will not work.
>
> Ah, that explains a lot. I was expecting an answer along these lines.
>
> > I have one of these PCi parallel port cards to play with, and
> > when time
> > allows, I will be attemping to get EMC to work with it. This is a low
> > priority task at the moment, o don't hold your breath.
>
> You will definately be doing us all a big favour. The only reason why I was
> trying to use this card is to save my onboard port from damage in the event
> of me doing something stupid (not impossible at all). I do however
> understand your problem with available time and priorities.

The port used for the auxilliary functions (limit and home switches, and
spindle, coolant, motor enable, estop) uses a lot of the functions of the
plain parallel port, so it may be more sensitive to port implementation.

The port used for stepper outputs just uses the data lines for output,
so it should be able to be made to work with any configuration, by just
supplying the right value to EMC, so that the address comes out
correct. At least with the versions I am working with, EMC does not
care about the addresses specified, they are just numbers to be taken
literally and used as a base address. In other words, if you give it 378,
it takes that as the data port, 379 as the status port and 37A as the
control port.

Jon