How to assign 5th & 6th Axis to Slave when Pin 2-9 already used in 4 Axis for Mach3

[guy2b1]

Im planning to attach 5th & 6th Stepper Motors for assigning B & C Axis to slave but Pin 2-9 in printer port is already used for my 4 axis stepper motors. What other Pin number in printer port should I assign my 5th & 6th stepper motors to Slave B & C Axis using Mach3? I dont use BOB as all my setup is connected directly to printer port pins.

[jpgdesigns]

a second printer port...

[vger]

guy2b1,

jpgdesigns is right, add a second printer port to the machine. That will give you the additional axis' to work with.

steve

[guy2b1]

How about the pin assignments if I add the second printer port, is it the same as the original first printer port or in any pin assignments from 1 to 25 I can connect my stepper motors for my 5th & 6th axis, homing limit switches, estop, spindle, etc.? Are there any limitations if I add more say homing, limit switches, relay to automatically turn on/off my spindle? Im not using a BOB as all my setup is connecting directly to pins of printer port

[guy2b1]

bump

[vger]

See the mach3 manual sections 4 and 5. The second will be the same as the first as far as pin assignment is concerned. Each port will have 12 output pins and 5 input pins, unless you configure Mach3 so that the second port will use pins 2-9 as inputs. The determination of which pin does what is up to you in the configuration of Mach3.

I'm not using a BOB either. I am just very careful with my connections and keep the wires short between the computer and controller cards.

As for the spindle relay, you will need either a Solid State Relay (SSR) that will work with the parallel port directly, or some type of circuit to drive the coil of a magnetic relay. I use SSR's for spindle and dust collector.

Here is a link to the installation and configuration of Mach3
http://www.machsupport.com/docs/Mach...all_Config.pdf

You have very good English. Is English a second language for you?

Steve

[guy2b1]

Thank you Steve, yes english is my second language. If im going to use a PCI card printer port as my second printer port, then the pin assignments are the same as the original printer port attached in motherboard, is pin 18 to 25 will also be assigned as ground even if its a PCI printer port card?

[vger]

Yes they should be the same as the first port. If you were connecting it to a printer, the printer would expect these to be ground. I think the original idea for all the grounds was to provide extra shielding for printer cables, especially if it was a ribbon cable.

Steve

[guy2b1]

Noted, thank you very much Steve