Quote Originally Posted by JAZZCNC View Post
Don't know if this as been asked but did you install Mach3 and the parallel port driver or just copy across your old Mach3 folder.?
Wow. Jazz may have just jumped back in from obscurity to save the day.

OP/Mitch. For information. I was playing this morning with an old XP machine that I'd been previously using with Mach3 and an ethernet motion controller. I was having exactly the behaviour that you described during my diatribe yesterday - no response from Mach3 to any of the parallel port settings. Using both a DMM and oscilloscope I could get no joy from the parallel port, even though Mach3 was configured for parallel port interface.

I've now re-installed Mach3, ensuring that I included the parallel port driver. Immediately there's life in the system. I can measure the X-DIR signal alternating between 0 and 3.3V (note, not 5V.... I'd turned the printer port from Bi-Directional to EPP mode in the computer BIOS, in doing so the signal level on the parallel port changed from 5V logic to 3.3V logic).

Ignoring the e-stop (as OP described - it can't be obviously disabled - but you can set the port# to 0 which looks to effectively disable it) - I can short pin 17 to pin 11 (configure that for e.g. X-Home) and confirm on diagnostic page that I can toggle this with left/right control.

To summarise - even though the parallel port may be selected within Mach3, unless you install the parallel port driver - my experience is that you're on a hiding to nothing.