# Mach3 Motor Parallel Port Pin Mapping



## chiques (10 mo ago)

Hello CNC Community,

I believe I’ve been successful in getting my parallel port communication working. I can go to the Diagnostics section in Mach3 and depress each of the switches and Mach3 shows which one is being detected.

Problem: I am unable to get any of the servo motors to move. I’ve tried the jog application and although I can see the software jogging, the servos have no movement. This leads me to believe I might have a pin mapping problem. The manufacturer for this unit does not publish any pin mapping documentation on their support site. Can anyone give me any hints on how to identify what pins control my X,Y,Z steppers?


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## BalloonEngineer (Mar 27, 2009)

Your second picture shows how you have configured which pins to which function. But there needs to be a physical wire that connects that pin to the corresponding pin of your servo drivers. How are the drivers actually wired? Does it match the way you configured mach?


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## TimPa (Jan 4, 2011)

i don't think pin 5 can have 2 assignments...


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## BalloonEngineer (Mar 27, 2009)

Correct, I missed that. Y-axis “step” pin should probably be pin 6.
Again, the wiring must match the assignments for everything to work.


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## chiques (10 mo ago)

What is the difference between “Step Pin#” and “Dir Pin #”?
Is one the physical pin on the parallel port? If so what is the other for?
Is this the correct pinout for the port? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_port#Pinouts


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## BalloonEngineer (Mar 27, 2009)

The “step” pin pulses once for each step. The “dir” pin determines direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) the stepper turns. You need both for each axis. These are the input signals to the stepper drivers. The signals get amplified by the drivers which turn the steppers.


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## chiques (10 mo ago)

BalloonEngineer said:


> The “step” pin pulses once for each step. The “dir” pin determines direction (clockwise or counterclockwise) the stepper turns. You need both for each axis. These are the input signals to the stepper drivers. The signals get amplified by the drivers which turn the steppers.


Inside the box where the controller is I see there are 4 drivers: X, Y, Z and A. I used a DMM in continuity mode to find the mapping to 2 pins on the parallel port. I'm not sure what they both do(I'm guessing one is 'pulse' and the other is for the 'direction'.









Should it look like this assuming pin 1 on the driver is the pulse and pin 2 on the driver is the direction?


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