I found some documentation that came with the board. Do you think I could hook it directly to an arduino and put values in like it was a serial out? I'm not really sure how serial communication works.
Quote
Russell Laidman
Interface Information
A PC Parallel port has 4 bytes associated with it. The first byte is located at the Parallel Port Base Address. (For example 3BC) The exact address varies from machine to machine. You can find your parallel port address from Windows - Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager Tab -> Ports -> Printer Port -> Resources -> Input/Output Range. (For example 3BC thru 3BF)
The first byte, called D, located at the base address (3BC for example) contains 8 data bits.
The second byte, called S, located at base address + 1 (3BD for example) contains various inputs
The third byte, called C, located at base address + 2 (3BE for example) contains additional outputs
(Note that the data bits ( C1 and C3 ) are inverted by hardware)
SP-3/FET-3 Stepper Parallel Port Pin Assignments (DB25 Connector)
Pin [Bit] addr I/O Function
2- [D0] bs OUTPUT X axis direction
3- [D1] bs OUTPUT X axis step
4- [D2] bs OUTPUT Y axis direction
5- [D3] bs OUTPUT Y axis step
6- [D4] bs OUTPUT Z axis direction
7- [D5] bs OUTPUT Z axis step
8- [D6] bs OUTPUT Aux Out (d6)
9- [D7] bs OUTPUT Aux Out (d7)
10- [S6] bs+1 INPUT Z switch detect
12- [S5] bs+1 INPUT Y switch detect
13- [S4] bs+1 INPUT X switch detect
14- [C1] bs+2 OUTPUT X axis *Enable (active LO)
16- [C2] bs+2 OUTPUT Y axis *Enable (active LO)
17- [C3] bs+2 OUTPUT Z axis *Enable (active LO)
18- Gnd
25- Gnd