Interfacing to Ah-ha control

[jrhines]

I have a mill set up with Ah-ha iron. The motherboard in the computer died and mobos with ISA slots are hard to find (read extinct).  So, I would like to keep using the motor driver box but with Mach3 and an interface card that will fit in a PCI (or PCI-e or X) slot.
Any guidance will be appreciated!

[Hood]

Not possible to do that I am afraid, if you can find the pinouts and your drives can accept Step and Direction signals then you could wire up to the parallel port and run from there.
Hood

[BR549]

New MOBOs with ISA are still available.

(;-) TP

[jrhines]

Where and at what price?  I have seen some but they were pretty pricey.
I do have the pinout/signals for the Ah-ha IFB (step, direction, +/- limits and aux I/O).

[Hood]

Should be straightforward enough then, I would get a breakout board as it makes connections easier and will afford some protection to the parallel port if you wire something wrong.

Hood

Oh I preume the Step/Dir signals are 5v? I have seen some servo drives that require 12 or 15v Step/Dir signals.

[DaOne]

Even if they aren't 5 volt.. that can be solved with a simple opto-isolator. I would recommend using them anyways.

[Richard]

I have a router at work that uses Ah-Ha controls, I have always wanted to convert it to Mach control.
I believe the isa card is a dio card and I think they made pci versions as well.
I have some docs on the Ah-Ha system at work and will share them with you, I will also look
for a spare ISA mobo. I have a lot of machines that need these so I have eveyrone at work
bring me their old computers.
Monday is a "layoff day" for me so I will post here tuesday on what I have.

[jrhines]

Richard - Thanks, I look forward to what ever docs you might have.  I have the Ah-ha user manual V3.1, but nothing beyond that.  It gives the pinouts of the IFB and the Aux DB25.
Standing by...

[are1987]

Hi,

I have helped a few customers interface our controls to the old Ah-ha drive boxes.  All you need to do is make a crossover cable from their (I think DB37) to a DB25.  I just did it with 2 connectors and soldered wires in between.  Attached is a simple doc that I made a few years ago when I set one up.  There are 2 pins that need to be jumper-ed for enable, and they are not on this doc so you will need to look them up.  Or you could just make a cable and connect the DB37 to a BOB.

Andrew

PS. I just realized the PDF only shows the connections I made to the PPort.  So it really doesn't help you.  But I do know it can be done, I just don't have a document on it any more.  From what I remember all the IO is 5V and it uses standard Step and Dir.

[jrhines]

are1987 - I hate to appear thick, but what is "our controls"?  Do you mean the Mach software or is there a specific breakout board?  I think I understand what you mean, that is, use the PP and rewire to the Ah-ha 37 pin Dsub and use Mach as the driving software.  Am I close?

JR