I have been able to bring up my new system with Windows 10 on Intel NUC i7 Computer. I'm going to document this migration in case others may find something in there of use.
OLD SYSTEM: Made in 2012, from Chinese hardware and US based electronics by a friend of mine.
Gecko 540, Huanyang HY02D223B (2.2 kw) coupled to 1.5 kw spindle, Matty Zee VFD plugin for VFD control, Dell XP Pentium 4 using parallel port and serial to RS-485 for VFD control, iMACH3 Pendant
Dell Pentium and ELO touch display.
NEW SYSTEM: Re uses the Gecko and Huanyang, and all motors and mechanics and iMACH3 Pendant. New computer is Intel NUC i7, with 250 GB of SSD, 8 GB of RAM, and is running Windows PRO (bought on
thumb drive). An ASUS VT207N touch display was added to replace the old ELO display.
Additional parts:
1. Warp9 Ethernet Smooth Stepper (ESS) integrated into a box by CNC4PC, along with their C69 PWM board (not used; I didn't order this). Use Port 1 (Ports 2 and 3 have additional
capability not needed).
2. USB to RS-485 converter JBtek converter ($6.99 on Amazon)
3. A USB hub, with 4 additional outlets. I plug all the user I/O into this hub: Mouse/Keyboard USB, Pendant, Touch Screen, and any USB for file transfer.
Both systems are wired 240V. All the wall transformers, etc, work 100-240VAC.
I documented all of my steps, which is in the attached TEXT file. The Warp9 site is very useful in terms of it's detail I basically had the whole set up ready for MACH3 by the time the ESS arrived. Most parts were gotten on Amazon, and they arrive
quickly.
I used the old system to make a wooden shelf, that had features to hold the NUC computer, USB Hub, and the ESS on the old system. The machine had a set of rails to slide the Dell computer in. This
wooden shelf could slide in on the same rails, and then the power, USB to RS-485 and parallel cable to Gecko simply plug in.
WHAT WENT WRONG - actually not much. Here were the sticking points.
1. I had trouble getting the Matty Zee plugin to load with MACH3 on the NUC Windows 10 at first. Simply because I neglected to load .NET FRamework 3.5 onto the computer first. Loading .NET Framework 3.5 was sticky only because I had disabled
windows update service. I found a way (see my earlier post) to do this with Windows Update shut down. Easiest way is to load .NET 3.5 before you shut down Windows Update. Minor problem in hind sight. I've been told that Windows Update
perhaps can't be shutdown with the Home Edition - - I chose Windows 10 Pro, so I can't comment accurately on that.
2. The ESS in a box is pretty cool, but you have to take covers off to see the LED status when first getting it to talk to MACH3. Take covers off, get communications going, and screw them back on.
3. This was the most difficult, though not bad. When I got everything installed, I could not get ESTOP to reset and motors were not powered. I had set up the ESS to deliver a charge pump signal to the Gecko 540. However, apparently the 540 was
not getting a signal. SO, in reading the Warp9 documentation, I decided to switch off the charge pump option on the 540 (a small switch for this). PRESTO ! all is good.
4. It seems to be running really good, but I don't have many "miles" on it yet. I used defaults for some of the dynamic settings, so some tuning might be possible, but not sure how much better it would get.
See the attached file for my step by step path. In some cases there is a bit of detail. In others, it is more of a summary of that step.