Just noticed your other pics Not sure how the Ribbon type connections work on the back of a DB25 but I would imagine its correct, so if Pin 1 wire which I presume is the brown on the end goes to pin 1 on the IDC socket then check the next pin and see if 2 goes to 2, if it does then it should all be correct.
If that is correct then have you put the correct address in Mach for that port?

Oh and to answer the earlier question about the axis travels you should always think of the cutter in relation to the material, moving positive on a mill would mean table moving left as that would make the cutter move positive in  relation to the work piece.
You can if you wish set up the arrow keys to what suits you most by going to Config menu Then System Hotkeys but personally I would stick to convention.
Hood

Hi Hood
Ok, I have tested both the db25 plug that fits to the drive and yes, now that you mention it, I can see the pin no's.
Don't know if it makes a difference but for this test I set mach3 to port 378, kept mach 3 running with the reset button pressed to clear e stop message.
First I tested the db25 that plugs into the drive, then disconnected the ribbon cable (computer still running), then tested the pins on the mother board.

Mixed results

On the db25 results are.

Pins 1 to 16 have 5v
Pins 17 to 25 ov

On the mother board
All Odd no's 5v + pins 2,4 & 6 5v
Remaining even no pins 8 to24 0v


Cheers
Nigel

Hi Hood
OK I will check pins 1 and 2 as you suggest and let you know, probably tomorrow.

Cheers
Nigel

Hi Nigel,

I don't know if this helps but the usual motherboard pinout connection between the header and D25 is as shown here.

Tweakie.

Tweakie, I would say the IDC in your pic is wrong, pin 14 would normally be pin 2,  so top row would be 1, 3, 5.......25  and bottom row 2, 4 ,6 ..... 26

Hood

Hi Hood,

I understand what you mean ("pin 14 would normally be pin 2") it is in fact the second cable in the line but it does connect to pin 14 at the D25 end so it is cunningly called pin 14 at the IDC end. It is probably all done to confuse us all 
The attached SS documentation shows the male socket and some pin locations.

Tweakie.

Tweakie, the SS is a different beast, Greg deliberately set it up that way so that it looked right for the DB, look at the description he put there. If you look at the pic of the port on the mobo that Nigel posted you will see that it conforms to the standard setup for IDC, ie one row is odd pins the other even.
Hood

Hi Hood,

If you obtain one of these headers, which are designed to connect a Motherboard IDC to a parallel port printer and check the pin connections with a meter you will find that they agree with my earlier diagram.

Tweakie.

Well I would be surprised at that as it would mean numbering on mobo is wrong or is of no relevance but it could well be the case. I do know I have just set up serial on the onboard header for my PLC and pin numbering was as printed on mobo, ie one row 1, 3 5 7, 9 and the other 2, 4, 6, 8 but serail may be different.

Hood.

Well I just looked at all my mobos to see if there are headers on for the parallel port but afraid not so I cant test. It would however be easy for Nigel to test, just set up pins in Mach such as set up coolant for pin 2 and switch coolant on/off and measure directly at the header, either it will be the second pin in the row or the first pin in the other.
Hood