Drive enabling/turning on

[JFettig]

What I am looking to do is have turbocnc turn on my drives when it loads and shut them off when it turns off.

What I would do is hook up a relay that is controlled by my parallel port that controlls the power supply hooked up to my geckos.
So basicly I turn on the computer, as soon as turbocnc loads it switches the pins to high and as soon as it closes it switches it off.

I am not sure if that is the same as drive enable and disable but I doubt it, I want to see it turn on and be ready to go.

This is just one extra switch I dont want to have to put on here, and it would be quite nice.

Let me know soon so I can get on with building my enclosure! I hope Im done drilling and cutting holes in it! just asembling it now!

Pics will be in the gallery when I finish

Jon

[ger21]

I'm not sure if that would work, because once TurboCNC closes, it no longer controls the pins. Why couldn't the drives end up back on again? This is not the same as TurboCNC's enable lines. Some drives have enable lines that need to be on for the drive to work, even if it's powered up. That's what the enable is there for.

I believe you can do this in Mach2 with this breakout board. http://www.campbelldesigns.com/breakout_board_plus.htm

[JFettig]

Thanks ger21, With the axxus technologies breakoutboard it has relay outputs and all kinds of other inputs that you just plug and go, very nice, too bad I havent gotten a responce from them about a second one I would like to order for my lathe. If there was a way to set the pins high when it boots, I would be able to do this.

Jon

[ger21]

According to the link I posted, it says some pins go high when a PC is powered up. Maybe you could use one of those? I have no idea, though. Electronics is not my thing.