Laptop requirements with Mach 3

[Marwellca]

      I have looked over the forum and have found numerous posts that mention being able to use or not use a laptop with Mach 3. I am in the process of setting up a CNC Router and would like to run it with a laptop. I can use the laptop when I travel.

     What are the requirements. I have found one with a parallel port but someone mentioned it has to be bi directional, an EEP or EPP port. The one I found has a IEEE 1284 parallel port and is running Windows XP. Will this work, and are there any other requirements? 

[Tweakie.CNC]

Hi Marwellca,

I have seen others use laptops without any problem but in my case all sorts of troubles were caused when I tried using a Dell Inspiron laptop. I tried an old PC and it all was cured. So, I think you will have to try it for yourself and see the results (obviously the make of laptop has something to do with it also the type of power supply used for the CNC).

Regards, Tweakie

[rustyolddog]

I've been running an HP and a Compaq EVO 610  laptop without issue.

[spanky]

I am planning to use an IBM Lenovo with a PCMCIA to Parallel adaptor.
I hope it works?
I am told I might need the file "memoryoverride.reg"
Is this just for Vista??

[pminmo]

I'm in the process of trying to get a Dell C610 to work with no success.  Timing out off the driver tests are all over the place.  I killed all unecessary processes with no change in results.

[rglindholm]

I have an IBM Thinkpad with a parallel port, but I can't get it to work..I think it might be in ports and pins, but can't find documentation for the setup.

[Dave C]

I'm using a Dell Latitude D800 laptop and the timing is all over the place as well. I looked at the pulses on a scope and found them to be very erratic. I have a desktop machine running Mach3 and that works fine.

Has anyone had any luck with other laptop interfaces like PCMCIA or USB?

[rglindholm]

I have given up with my laptop and waiting for IS to get me a recent desktop.  I am sure t have better luck.  Will be posting photos when the motors are moving and I am carving.

[Tweakie.CNC]

Since my post in February I have been wondering just why my Dell Inspiron (cheap but good spec) Laptop did not work well with Mach3 whereas an old (low spec) desktop worked so well. The answer has been found in the posting by 'DaveC' at :-   http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,3378.0.html.

An extract from his post is as follows :-

The secret is .... disable the ACPI driver!
Open the device manager and find the 'Computer' icon.
Click on the plus next to that and you will see something like Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) computer.  Chose the 'update driver' option and select 'Standard PC' as a replacement.
Windows demands a reboot after this, and a lot of the hardware had to be 'rediscovered' and reinstalled (all used drivers it knew about already, so was painless), another reboot for good measure and now it works flawlessly.

Thanks to DaveC my Dell Inspiron now works beautifully with Mach3 and I have every confidence it will solve all the issues mentioned by others (unfortunately not Dave's latitude D800 it would seem) in the above posts.

Tweakie.

[budman68]

Actually it works for my Dell D600, wonder what's different about our setups?

Glad to hear you got it sorted out. I learned this through the Mach 3 optimization document.