Raghunathan R wrote:
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OK all the above WERE buffered through a 74244 and the cable had the +5V sourced from the target board.


Well if you look at the circuit diagram i posted earlier you notice that signals were buffered using 74HC244 which is CMOS buffer.
CMOS gates are made of MOSFETS so they can be paralleled to give higher drive currents while TTL gates are made with bipolars so they cant be paralleled.
If you used 74LS244 and it didn't work thats probably why.
regards
Mahmood