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Review on GODSHARK Parallel Expansion Converter Controller by Cody Mckechnie

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Works great once you figure out how to load drivers. Too bad there is no direction.

After reading the reviews I expected that installing drivers on my old XP machine that controls my CNC via parallel ports with Mach3 would be difficult. You have an inkling that you have a parallel card and you know the name of the driver's chipset, but I imagine this will make a lot of people give up. I got lucky though and was able to complete the installation after about 3 tries and 15 minutes of fiddling. The I/O address is not "default" and I had to change the assigned port from LPT3 to LPT2 (this is the second parallel card in the box) and after changing the assigned I/O address (non default) in the Mach3 setup it recognized the card and earned my suspension DIY MPG. I can confirm that this card works as a second parallel port on an XP box running XP SP3. I looked at the name of the installed driver (Device Manager) but it's just parport.sys so nothing to do here. All you have to do is run the installer on the CD and start guessing. Notice that (I think) TWO drivers are installed: the parallel driver and the multifunction I/O driver. After installation, look in Device Manager and make sure you have all '!' instances.

Pros
  • Good product for the price
Cons
  • Poor