diy parallel printer cable question

[muzzlitebeer]

I can't find a male/male printer cable anywhere other than online. Trouble is, all my bits have arrived today and I want to get my Gecko up and running this weekend.

I was lucky enough to be donated an old printer cable and bought a male DB25 assembly from Jaycar electronics. I've now successfully rewired the female end and checked continuity with a DMM.

Here's my question; The Gecko manual describes pins 18-25 as "GND" but, although this printer cable has a jumper across pins 19 to 25, they're not actually 'grounded', just joined to each other. There is a conductor that connects the shell at one end to the shell at the other. Should pins 18-25 be grounded to the shell or am I right to go?

Could someone please check their cable to see if there's continuity between these pins and the shell?

Cheers in advance.

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[CitizenOfDreams]

If the cable is shielded, solder the shield wire to the shell. If not, just leave the shell unconnected.

[ger21]

I believe that in an actual printer port, the pins and shell are tired to the same ground.

[john-100]

on a PC motherboard the printerport socket

the metal shell & pins 18 to 25 are all connected together and
via the ATX power supply black 0V wires to the mains supply earth / ground

if you can only find a printer extension cable (f/m)

you could of use a gender changer like this:-


https://cpc.farnell.com/multicomp/sp...xoCx1YQAvD_BwE

to save changing the connector on your cable !


some cheap printer cables don't have 25 wires inside
so they connect terninals 18 to 25 together to use 1 wire instead of 8 !

this is not a problem with the Gecko G540 or most breakout boards

as long as a printerport ground pin (18 to 25) is connected to a G540 ground pin (18 to 25 )
it will work


as far as I remember
the CNC4PC C10 breakout board is unusual

pins 19 to 25 are all ground as expected
but pin 18 is used to detect when the board connected to the PC printer port
(or motion controller like the smooth stepper )


John

[muzzlitebeer]

Thanks for the help guys.

Cheers