Recent Posts

71

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / Win10 and UC100

« Last post by Sage on March 28, 2026, 06:33:28 AM »

Thanks
It's a jungle out there. Do you have a recommended link?

I have a followup. I have a license for Mach4 as well and apparently I paid for and have the parallel port driver for it. I ran it but didn't care much for it so I stuck with Mach3. Would Mach4 happen to run on a Win10 machine that has a parallel port installed?

72

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 / Win10 and UC100

« Last post by Tweakie.CNC on March 28, 2026, 01:43:37 AM »

The UC100 will work just fine.
Make sure you purchase a genuine UC100 and not one of the Chinese copies.

Tweakie.

73

General Mach Discussion / Mach3 / Win10 and UC100

« Last post by Sage on March 27, 2026, 06:10:26 PM »

I've been working along fine for years with my old WinXP machine and Mach3 using the parallel port but it's finally time to retire the machine.
I know Mach3 runs fine on Win10 (64 bit) because I've used it for years just as code proving ground - no parallel port driver installed. Just to watch the code run looking for obvious issues.
My question is: Is is the UC100 usb to parallel controller / adapter a viable way to get Mach3 up and running on my Win10 machine? Opinions / pros / cons / pitfalls or other suggestions.
I don't want to change my stepper motor drivers and control box (Gecko and PMDX) etc. I want a solution where I can just plug my parallel cable into my computer just like it is.
Thanks for suggestions

74

HiCON Motion Controller / Legacy Syil X5 with Hicon 7754 controller

« Last post by peu on March 26, 2026, 12:56:18 PM »

Hi, I would like to know if the last release of the drivers for this Hicon 7754 controller are available somewhere, I have to do a full reinstall and dont have the provided drivers from 10 years ago.

I had this link but it no longer works: http://www.vitalsystem.com/portal/motion/hicon/hicon_integra/Mill3Axis-Integra.zip

Thanks a lot in advance

75

General Mach Discussion / Re: How often do you change the battery in the motherboard for your mach 3 PC?

« Last post by Jackal on March 25, 2026, 07:17:05 AM »

Thanks for that info. I will change it in the next few days

76

General Mach Discussion / Re: How often do you change the battery in the motherboard for your mach 3 PC?

« Last post by JG on March 25, 2026, 04:24:19 AM »

The 'Coin' battery has a nominal life of 10 years but I've known some to last well beyond that.
There is no specific issue with simply unclipping the old one and inserting a new one - though do make sure that the replacement is CR2032 rather than CR 2016 or CR 2020 -  and of course don't even contemplate replacement with the PC power still applied !!
The sign that the battery power is depleated is that the date/time functions are erratic but even that isn't entirely definitive.

77

General Mach Discussion / How often do you change the battery in the motherboard for your mach 3 PC?

« Last post by Jackal on March 24, 2026, 11:05:42 PM »

I'm using a PC with Windows XP. I'm sure the computer is at least 16 years old.
I'm thinking I should change the battery on the motherboard.
It there anything that needs to be done before removing it and replacing it?
It seems like it's Cr2032 battery.

Thanks for the info

78

Mach4 General Discussion / Spindle speed variation in Mach4 Lathe?

« Last post by Azalin on March 23, 2026, 05:36:25 AM »

I'm using one of the few years older version of Mach4 Hobby and there is no such feature in it (spindle speed variation). I don't know if the latest has. But is it possible to add this feature with some LUA scripting?

My goal is to reduce chatter.

79

MachPro General Discussion / Re: "Upgrading" from Mach4 to MachPro

« Last post by paul.stephens on March 20, 2026, 11:52:32 AM »

Currently no. I have reached out to the company with little to no response.

80

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Out of Band Axis Setup

« Last post by ecapstone on March 20, 2026, 01:45:59 AM »

Is it possible that I'm overcomplicating things here? Does Mach "just know" that the THC should move the Z axis, and the out-of-band axis is for bookkeeping?