Half complete Triac conversion needing some advice.

[routercnc]

Ive just skim read this so might have missed something but I had that exact same bob several years ago and couldn’t get any pulses out at all. Given that I have made quite a few machines I should know how to wire them up and how to configure Mach and what to expect. Only cost me £8 so not much lost other than time. I tried lots of things but that was my conclusion in the end. Did a straight swap for my current (even cheaper!) board and everything worked. These boards are made to Kit’s strap line.

To answer one of your earlier questions a multimeter on the direction pin of the bob and on the ground pin of the bob (the terminal blocks that go to the driver) will read 5V or 0V depending on direction. If that is not happening no amount of downstream circuits with get it going.

Another thought is to get the pin out diagram for the parallel port connector, unplug from Bob (but still in at PC end) and check direction pin vs ground in the cable end. Then toggle direction of that axis in Mach3 using the cursor keys (should see DRO move accordingly) and read 5V or 0V on the cable pin according to the direction. If this works then Mach3 is working and bob is under suspicion.

Also the parallel cable needs to be the right type, one is crossed over and one is straight through. Can’t remember which you need but a quick search should find it.