Just being stupid on my part. Nothing would work. Mach couldn't see the breakout board for some reason. Lo and behold, I had grabbed a data transfer cable out of my tangle, er...parts bin.  Really had me stumped.
Finally just as I was falling asleep one night it dawned on me that I might have a wrong cable, (they all look the same to me.)
I believe they are called Switch Box cables and are wired straight-one to one.
Problem solved. Pretty basic stuff, but tends to be what gets me in trouble.
They are getting more and more scarce with all the usb stuff and home networking. Found a bunch in the Staples bargain bin $4.97 each. Should have grabbed a mit full.

So, I'm a little confused here now. Which parallel cable is it that works with MachX and a breakout board? The very old regular cable, a biddirectional cable, a data transfer cable, or...? Never heard of a switch box cable before..

Parallel cables have 25 pin connectors on both ends. Depending on the type of cable, the pins you need may not  be wired through.  A printer cable is best since it will give you access to all the input and output pins you currently need with Mach.