tar xzvf ppmcdiags.tgz
and you should now find a file in the current directory named "ppmcdiags"
You must have root privledges for the ppmcdiags program to connect to the parallel port and run correctly. First, you should run ppmcdiags to check that the PPMC boards show up on the parallel port. The command is :
sudo ./ppmcdiags 378 bus
The 378 is the hex address of the first parallel port, if you are using a PCI plug-in card or other port, enter the hex address in place of the 378. It should report an Encoder rev 1 on address 0, a DAC16 on address 4, and a DIO on address 6 for the standard configuration. Also, it should show nothing on any of the other addresses. Next, you should run it again, with commtest as the parameter, and let it run for a while. If you don't have any encoders connected, it should just report every 1000 tests that there were no errors. If you have encoders connected, any movement sensed from the encoders will disturb the test, and errors will be reported. As long as the difference is just one or two counts, that is normal. All high-resolution encoders have some jitter in the readings, even with no actual motion. Kill this test with Ctrl/C.
If that is satisfactory, connect the safety chain wires to indicate the safety chain is OK. You should now see the green Estop OK LED on the DIO board light up. Run the test again with diocontinuous as the parameter. This will continuously display the state of the digital inputs on the screen, turn on SSR8 (the machine enable relay) and ripple a pattern through the rest of the SSRs. (You don't want the whole machine hooked up for this test!) If you have SSRs in the slots, LED 1 through LED7 will show that pattern. If you don't have the SSRs, you can put 510 Ohm to 1 K Ohm resistors in the two closest together socket pins for each of the SSRs, and then the LEDs will work.
You can ctrl/c out of the diocontinuous test, leaving the DIO in the Out-of-Estop mode (SSR8 on) and then run the DAC test, which allows you to check the various DAC outputs for proper voltage. If you break the safety chain or have not run diocontinuous since the PPMC was powered on, then E-stop will be active, and the DAC test will not work - you should always get zero volts (+/- a few mV) in this case. Also, if the DAC board's watchdog jumper is in the "ON" position, the DAC test will always output zero, as the DAC is not updated fast enough to prevent the watchdog from causing an estop.
Another test is the pos test, which continuously displays the bytes of all of the encoder counters. If you have encoders on the machine, you can manually move the motors and watch the numbers change.