Re: question for potential Gecko 320/340 users - updated

Steve,

Pin 10 (ACK) is often used. It ties to the interrupt, tho' the p-port
design has some flaws and this interrupt circuit is one, IMO.

You could (if board real estate is not too dear) simply use a 10 pin
dual inline 2x5 pins header, and tie all of one side together, making
the other side available to select any one of the 5 status byte pins
with the use of the ubiquitous jumper...

Hope this helps,

Ballendo

P.S. Although Pin 10 is often used, there "may" be a better one... CK
to see what the initial use (as a printer port) of the 5 STATUS
inputs was. Then also ck what their "normal" state is during usage
with a printer (Both with a printer connected AND disconnected!).
Then maybe you can choose one which not only has a suitable "meaning"
(like paper out, for example), but which also will default to
some "failsafe" state in the event the controller s/w is not loaded
and the machine is left on. Simple tests like this will lead to safe,
effective solutions.

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "Steve Stallings" <stevesng@n...> wrote:
>
> OK, lets try this again from the top.... what I need
> to know is which pin of the parallel port the users
> of various software would prefer to have the Gecko
> step-servo drive's fault signal presented. Different
> software may expect different things and I wanted to
> make life easier for all concerned.
>
> What is already determined:
>
> 1) The circuit is set up to work with the current version
> of the 320/340 which provides for paralleling the fault
> outputs.
>
> 2) This is not an emergency stop system. That is properly
> done in hardware outside the PC. As a matter of fact
> the Gecko drives will stop (all of them if the fault
> signals are wired in parallel) without any aid from
> the computer. All that is going on here is that the
> PC is being told what happened.
>
> 3) It will be possible to also present a signal from a
> contact closure (think hardware emergency stop relay)
> on the same pin of the PC's printer port. This is
> because the board will logically 'OR' the special input
> for the Gecko fault input with the corresponding regular
> contact closure input.
>
> It would be useful to hear from users of EMC, Master5,
> TurboCNC, CNCPro, MaxNC, and any other systems. If
> you prefer, or if you have trouble posting to Yahoo,
> you can reply to stevesng (at) newsguy (dot) com.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve Stallings
>
>
> > Jon wrote:
> >
> >Steve Stallings wrote:
> >
> >> Oops... reading my own post, it was confusing....
> >> The feedback that I am referring to is the FAULT
> >> signal, not encoder feedback signals.
> >
> >Ah. You might look at my current scheme, see the first
> >schematic on http://pico-systems.com/EMC.html for the
> >entire emergency circuit.