Hi Malcolm,

For an axis to drive in either direction it requires the Direction signal to change state between High and Low.
As was mentioned in an earlier posting some CNC controllers require an LPT output with 5 volt TTL signals and they will not work reliably with 3.3 volt TTL signals.

Because they are cheap to buy, perhaps consider the purchase of a PCI Parallel Port card which has 5 volt TTL outputs (these may be purchased from a CNC supplier such as CNC4PC, etc.) and use that LPT port to drive your CNC controller).

If you attach your <profile>.xml file from your Mach3 folder (copy and rename it to Malcolm.xml befor attaching) I will check your Ports and Pins setup etc. and see if I can find any obvious problems.

Tweakie.

Tweakie, thanks for you sticking with me. I will post my xml file tomorrow when I go into the shop. I have changed the pin settings so often I cannot remember where I started.
Today I checked the P/port output pin voltages  again while pressing the axis direction keys on the jogging 'fly-out'.

Pin 2 - Pressing X- gave 2.37v,    X+ gave 3.32v
Pin 4 -   "          Y-    "   3.07v     Y+    "   3.32v
Pin 6 -    "         Z-    "   3.06v     Z+    "   3.32v
These readings reversed if motor output set to Dir low Inactive but the voltages remained the same.
Two things strike me; very little change in the voltages and how did it work before under W2000.
Could I have an electrical problem on the mother board. By the way at start-up it states the driver is initialised.

Malcolm  

Hi Malcolm,

That does not look like good news 

I suspect that either your port an pin assignments are incorrect or the parallel port on your PC is defective.

Check that your X axis does in fact have port 1 pin 2 for the Direction signal and that you are measuring the voltage between pin 2 and pin 18-25. That being the case perhaps invest in a new parallel port card ?

Tweakie.

Yes tweakie I cannot make any sense of the voltages either and I am sure the pin allocation is correct. Incidentally pin 1 gave 4.1v, the highest reading on the port.
I think it is time to take the lid off and have a look. Oddly my spare XP machine gives similar readings; any chance of the port driver being corrupt.
I have now got a copy of W2000 and may try that on my spare M/c.
I am attaching my xml as requested.

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

Something strange here...
Can you attach the .xml file that you are currently using (<profile>.xml) - the one you have attached has no ports and pins configuration.

Tweakie.

I have just copied this file from the computer having first verified that it does drive the three
axis's in one direction only.
I have named the file Thomas.xml after posting problems

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

Assuming you are indeed using the parallel port to drive your CNC machine then you will need to configure the Ports and Pins in Motor Outputs and insure there are no pin number conflicts in Output Signals etc.

This is a screen shot from the last .xml file you posted.

Tweakie.

Well Tweakie I cannot understand this.
If I look at ports and pins on the computer that is not what I see. The entries under step and direction are 3,5,7 and 2,4,6 and pin 17 for the spindle???

Malcolm

Hi Malcolm,

You need to post the .xml file that you are using. It is in your Mach3 folder and it is called <your profile>.xml

Tweakie.

Tweakie,
Things not quite as easy as expected. I have two profiles and hence two 'xml' files in Mach3 directory. However I found by checking dates that the newest files had no extension
 which threw me somewhat, the old ones had the xml extension. On copying the new files to a USB stick they acquired the missing extension?!.
Checked mill action using the new file and it was just as before; X,Y,Z axes moving in one direction only.