Ok, very simple setup there with no BOB and just three drives.The fact that your motors lock is good as it means the drives are getting power from your supply and they must also be enabled
 What I would first do is disconnect the parallel cable from the control box and put a voltmeter between pin 3 and a Gnd pin then jog the X axis one way then the next, the voltage should go between 5v and 0v as you jog back and fwd.
 If you get that then it means the dir signal is coming out of the computer, repeat on pin 2 and Gnd and see if you get a voltage, it wont be as high as 5v but as long as you see a voltage when you jog and nothing when you stop its fine.
 Ater you have done that we can troubleshoot further.
Hood

Hood,

It looks like I am not getting the dir switching on the port. I have tried both drivers and no joy. I am blowing away windows and reloading to the original configuration without SP4. I will let you know how this goes. It is the way I originally got it working so it is worth the try and, in my experience, I have seen Windows do some stupid crap in my day.

Hollye

Well, like all other possibilities, this computer died on me. Looks like the power supply. I DO NOT have time to mess with this. I will buy a new computer and go from there

Oh well hopefully things will work out fine with another computer, maybe that one was dying and it was what was causing your problems.
Hood

Thank you for the positive thoughts Hood, however, this computer works fine and it did not drive it. If a new computer does not work, I will try a new swoftware suite. It is a simple LPT1 port that every printer in the world used for decades. Why is it sooooo hard to get signal to it? It is just how Windows treats its OEM vendors. They give them garbage for information on the kernel and expect them to create quality products. Why it is that there are no stand-alone pulse generators that will emulate the software the machine needs? This should be standard fare. Oh well, I am preaching to the choir. At any rate I will tell you how it goes once I get another computer. I did not want to lose another week.

Well, I got my computer and it made no difference. I have an idea though. It is possible that where I lived before, we had a horrendous lightening storm before I left that took out my telephone. I am thinking that this may be a case of EMP taking out some chips in the controller. I have ordered the ones I think it could be and we will see. Thanks Hood for all of your help. Sorry if I have seemed frustrated. LOL I am. But it will work out.

Hollye

I cant see how it can be the chips in the controller if you have confirmed that the Dir signal is not changing on the computers port, it has to be port or config. As its a different computer then its unlikely to be that so has to be config.
Hood

Yes I agree Hood, I will be double checking. At one time I had good signals on the cable and still got no movement. I will be working on it this coming week and will make sure I have my signals first.

Believe me, I have screenshots of the config files that worked the fisrt time I set it up. So I will double check the signals (I have already checked the config) and go from there. I'll keep you posted. I won't be able to work in it until Monday night probably.

Hollye

Hood,

I checked my port. It is working I am getting 3.5 vdc on the dir pins and I can see a change in voltage on the step pins. The controller should recognize anything from 3.5 to 5v as a valid logic level I would think. All outputs pins are correct numberwise.

What are your thoughts?

Hollye

If the Dir signals are changing for 0 to 3.5 then that is good, whether that is enough for your drives I am not sure, some are picky about the lower voltage that some modern ports put out, I would however think you should at least get some movement of some sort. If you dont then it could well be the chips you mentioned are a problem.


Hood