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Parallel Port, XP and suspicious activities?

H

Homer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?
 
E

Eeyore

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?

Microsoft are idiots. It'll work fine inder DOS too !

Graham
 
Homer said:
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?


If it works fine in Win98, you probably need parallel port printer
drivers for Windows XP.

icprog.sys *might* work (I haven't tried it yet):

http://www.serasidis.gr/circuits/avrprog/avrprog.htm
 
If it works fine in Win98, you probably need parallel port printer
drivers for Windows XP.

icprog.sys *might* work (I haven't tried it yet):

http://www.serasidis.gr/circuits/avrprog/avrprog.htm


Whoops, meant to say "parallel port drivers", not "parallel port
printer drivers".

Also, what microcontroller are you using? The above might not work for
a PIC, since it's meant for an AVR... any parallel port drivers
available from your microcontroller manufacturer's website?

Michael
 
L

Luhan

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?


I stopped updating at Win98SE for just that reason. I can drop down to
DOS and just about everything works (I have written about 100 DOS
programs).

Even at this level, I have abandon use of parallel ports. I use only
the COM ports and communicate in high speed serial to a PIC and take it
from there. I also do not even use the (com) handshake likes, just
Send, Receive, and Ground. Any protocol is entirely in software. My
PIC programmer works this way doing 115,200 Baud bit-banging to send
and receive data.

Luhan
 
Luhan said:
I stopped updating at Win98SE for just that reason. I can drop down to
DOS and just about everything works (I have written about 100 DOS
programs).

Even at this level, I have abandon use of parallel ports. I use only
the COM ports and communicate in high speed serial to a PIC and take it
from there. I also do not even use the (com) handshake likes, just
Send, Receive, and Ground. Any protocol is entirely in software. My
PIC programmer works this way doing 115,200 Baud bit-banging to send
and receive data.

Luhan


Good idea. I put together a 300Mhz AMD system from spare parts just to
read data on my 5-1/4 and 3.5" floppies. In my teenage years I
formatted a whole bunch of floppies to non-standard sizes (1.4 MB
5-1/4", 1.75MB 3.5") using the DOS tool FDFormat. Needed the
fdread.exe device driver to read the floppies afterwards. Won't work
in Windows 2k, but works just fine in '98.

Michael
 
G

Gunther Mannigel

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).
Anybody has any idea?

XP is looking for a connected printer. There is a trick within the
registry to stop that, but i don't have it at hand.

cheers
Gunther
 
D

DaveM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?

You need a port driver that will work under Windows XP. Download Inpout32.dll
from http://www.logix4u.net/inpout32.htm. Copy it into your Windows/System32
folder and write your software using the functions exposed by that driver. It
can be used by many flavors of C++ and Basic.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Some days you're the dog, some days the hydrant.
 
DaveM said:
You need a port driver that will work under Windows XP. Download Inpout32.dll
from http://www.logix4u.net/inpout32.htm. Copy it into your Windows/System32
folder and write your software using the functions exposed by that driver. It
can be used by many flavors of C++ and Basic.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Some days you're the dog, some days the hydrant.


Is there a similar driver required for working with the serial port on
Win2k?

Thanks,

Michael
 
D

DaveM

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is there a similar driver required for working with the serial port on
Win2k?

Thanks,

Michael


Since you're doing Windows development, you should check out the MSCOMM32.DLL
library. It's supplied with M$ Visual Basic, Visual C++, etc., for development
projects. I've never programmed anything using the MSCOMM control, but just
browsing through the documentation on it, looks like you can control the serial
port easily, including direct control of the DTR and RTS lines.

--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Make it idiot-proof and someone will make a better idiot.
 
S

Si Ballenger

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?

With XP you probably need a driver to allow user level access to
the parallel port hardware. I use an application called userport
(google for userport.zip) to be able to control the parallel port
data and control pins. My page below has some info and simple
parallel port control setups.

http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/status.htm
 
A

Abstract Dissonance

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?

I'm not sure if this is the problem you are having but XP does something
strange with the ports. I'm not sure if its port mapping because of
protected mode or what but from what I have read one needs to use a special
driver to get at them. One has been mentioned here but there are several.
They allow you direct access to the parallel ports(and I suppose serial if
you want) and then its like one is running in dos except for the timming
issues due to multitasking(and by having an optimally configured system you
can get close to the performance of dos(if not better in some respects)).

One thing I have read is that one shouldn't used the ECC mode for parallel
ports. It does something funky in XP or causes some problems with simple
communication.

Also, if you plan on driving large loads you have to use a seperate power
source and driver. The ports cannot source much current and will lock up if
they try, atleast I think ;/ I believe the max current they can source is
about 25mA's or so. I'm not sure if this jives with it working in 98 but not
in XP but it could(as XP might do something else).

Why not try to drive LED's or osmething instead and see if that works? If
its the same problem then maybe its the code? If not then its the hardware.

Oops, you are trying to interface a controller with the parallel port. If
this controller doesn't draw much current then there should be no reason why
it would heat up(hopefully you are not trying to pull the current from the
pp to drive the motors). Maybe a stupid remark but make sure your
connections are correct. Its kinda hard to say what could be wrong without
know exactly what you are doing. It sounds like if it getting hot then its
probably a problem with the hardware because even using the ports wrong
shouldn't cause it to heat up. The only way it can heat up is if its pulling
to much current... but surely the controller doesn't use that much current?
(which means you got something wrong) If you can't figure it out then you
might want to post a schematic or even a photo of what you are doing(as you
might have hooked up something wrong).
 
D

David Brown

Jan 1, 1970
0
Is there a similar driver required for working with the serial port on
Win2k?

Thanks,

Michael

You don't need a driver to be able to control the serial port. The
standard Win32 API has functions for controlling the handshake lines as
well as for sending and receiving serial data.

There are vast numbers of libraries available that wrap this API if you
don't want to use the low-level interface (although that works perfectly
well).
 
D

David Brown

Jan 1, 1970
0
If it works fine in Win98, you probably need parallel port printer
drivers for Windows XP.

icprog.sys *might* work (I haven't tried it yet):

http://www.serasidis.gr/circuits/avrprog/avrprog.htm

By far the most common parallel port access driver for NT, W2K and XP is
"giveio". A substantial proportion of the other drivers are simply
renamed versions of giveio (it's source is freely available).

To use it, a program simply opens a handle to the driver, and then can
access the parallel port (and other hardware) directly, just like in DOS
or toy windows.

If you have an old DOS / Win9x program that you must use under NT, etc,
but can't change the source code, then there is a driver called
"totalio". When started, *all* programs get direct access to *all*
hardware, just like with Win9x.
 
T

The Real Andy

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi All,

I am trying to connect my Three-StepperMotor Controller to my PC via
Parallel port. But whenever I connect it, it heats up and two of those
stepper motors jam (I can't move them by hand).

I found out that if I go to my PC's BIOS and change the LPT1 mode from
EPP to something else, only one stepper will be jammed (if I change it
to Bi-Di system doesn't boot!!:Asus A8N-VM CSM/NBP)

Windows version I am using is XP and no printer is installed.

I have another PC with Win98 installed on it. If I connect my
controller to that PC, everything works fine with no problem.

Anybody has any idea?

A lot of 3rd party printer drivers will hog your parallel port, and
dont forget that most of the drivers shipped with XP are not written
by MS and will do the same thing. What you need to do is disable any
installed printer drivers, printer or no printer.

How are you talking to the port? What language?

There is a few windows api functions that will happily write to the
port, without the need for a driver. If you do some research on
kernal32.dll and its CreateFile and WriteFile methods you can easily
write to the printer port. Most decent programming languages will let
you call into the win api these days.
 
H

Homer

Jan 1, 1970
0
Sorry guys but it seems I didn't explain my problem well enough.

I don't have problem talking to the port (this is next step). I have
UserPort.zip (or something like that) to remove WinXP's protection when
I get to that point.

The problem is before that. My question is Why do I have mixed High and
Low on my DataPins of my WinXP machine.

Here is the example: I connected 8 LEDs to my Win98 machine's parallel
port. And I see them all OFF (or ON depends on how I put them). And
when I send something to them they change (Using Debug/Basic/C,...)

I do the same thing with my WinXP machine (that has a newer motherboard
too). And I see some of those LEDs are ON and some OFF (4 ON and 4 OFF
on EPP in BIOS and 3 ON and 5 OFF in ECP mode). Something is putting
Data on that port and my question is What is that thing and how can I
kill it.


Thanks,

Homer
 
P

petrus bitbyter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Sorry guys but it seems I didn't explain my problem well enough.

I don't have problem talking to the port (this is next step). I have
UserPort.zip (or something like that) to remove WinXP's protection when
I get to that point.

The problem is before that. My question is Why do I have mixed High and
Low on my DataPins of my WinXP machine.

Here is the example: I connected 8 LEDs to my Win98 machine's parallel
port. And I see them all OFF (or ON depends on how I put them). And
when I send something to them they change (Using Debug/Basic/C,...)

I do the same thing with my WinXP machine (that has a newer motherboard
too). And I see some of those LEDs are ON and some OFF (4 ON and 4 OFF
on EPP in BIOS and 3 ON and 5 OFF in ECP mode). Something is putting
Data on that port and my question is What is that thing and how can I
kill it.


Thanks,

Homer

Well, WinXP will initalize the (printer)port at boot time and you see the
last data written do the (data)register. It will stay there until it's
changed by a printer related command or by yourself using giveio or similar
driver. A lot of info regarding ports can be found on:
http://www.beyondlogic.org/

petrus bitbyter
 
S

Si Ballenger

Jan 1, 1970
0
Sorry guys but it seems I didn't explain my problem well enough.

I don't have problem talking to the port (this is next step). I have
UserPort.zip (or something like that) to remove WinXP's protection when
I get to that point.

The problem is before that. My question is Why do I have mixed High and
Low on my DataPins of my WinXP machine.

Here is the example: I connected 8 LEDs to my Win98 machine's parallel
port. And I see them all OFF (or ON depends on how I put them). And
when I send something to them they change (Using Debug/Basic/C,...)

I do the same thing with my WinXP machine (that has a newer motherboard
too). And I see some of those LEDs are ON and some OFF (4 ON and 4 OFF
on EPP in BIOS and 3 ON and 5 OFF in ECP mode). Something is putting
Data on that port and my question is What is that thing and how can I
kill it.

I suggest you use a meter to test the state of the data pins
instead of trying to use LEDs. The LEDs I tinker with draw ~30ma
which may be beyond the capability of some of the data pins on
your MB. Does the reported state of the data pins match what you
see with the LEDs?
 
A

Abstract Dissonance

Jan 1, 1970
0
Homer said:
Sorry guys but it seems I didn't explain my problem well enough.

I don't have problem talking to the port (this is next step). I have
UserPort.zip (or something like that) to remove WinXP's protection when
I get to that point.

The problem is before that. My question is Why do I have mixed High and
Low on my DataPins of my WinXP machine.

Here is the example: I connected 8 LEDs to my Win98 machine's parallel
port. And I see them all OFF (or ON depends on how I put them). And
when I send something to them they change (Using Debug/Basic/C,...)

I do the same thing with my WinXP machine (that has a newer motherboard
too). And I see some of those LEDs are ON and some OFF (4 ON and 4 OFF
on EPP in BIOS and 3 ON and 5 OFF in ECP mode). Something is putting
Data on that port and my question is What is that thing and how can I
kill it.


Thanks,

Because some ports are inverted. You need to check out the internet to get
the full spec of how the printer port works instead of guessing. you have
pins like the strobe, error, data, and ground. (make sure you are grounding
properly too).

Some pins are inverted and some pins are on by default. This might also
change with the different modes of the parallel port. You really should look
more into how the parallel port works before assuming that simple.
 
H

Homer

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am not sure why you got to the point that I am guessing something.

I know about the pins and parallel port (electronic part) pretty good.
And the LED circute I made works prefectly with my other machine with
Win98 (or my laptop with Linux).
My Only question is what WinXP is doing to this port while no driver is
using it and how to disable it. One answer was XP is looking for
Printer on Parallel port and that's why I am getting signals. and it
was a talk of a way to disable it. But I don't know how to do it.
 
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