Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: shootrock on January 15, 2009, 11:43:15 AM
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My control which I am trying to replace with MACH3 only uses 3 pins on the printer port 2,3,and7. Will MACH3 work with this setup?
Thanks,
Dave
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Not unless it is a single motor setup. Any info about the control and machine its operating?
Hood
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It is a 3 motor mill,Trionics Handyman. It is a 1988 era mill with Centroid electronics and MAE hybrid stepper motors?
My Centroid electronics contain 1 board labeled CPU3 REV 870830, one labeled HE 512C00604-001 Rev A, and three labeled Flux Capacitor Drive Rev 870312.
The motors are MAE HY 200-3450-700, which they appear to make something similar still today.
All of this is controlled with the input controls next to the display via 3 wires.
Thanks,
Dave
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Afraid there is no way that Mach can control that from 3 wires. With it being steppers there is a good chance that you could interface it to Mach relatively easily but may need a fair bit of rewiring.
Hood
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shootrock,
Whats wrong with the Centroid control? It usually runs on Linux.
Ed
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The CRT is out and they don't make a replacement,it is powered by Centroid ,but adapted to Trionics panel. It also uses a DRO from scales to check its movement.
Thanks,
Dave
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I'm beating a dead subject here, but I thought I'd clarify this post for posterity and other folks... that 25-pin port with 3,5&7 is a serial port, not a parallel port. The centroid control is a CNC3... 1200 7E1 I believe... the Tri-onics DRO and control up top is just a "user-friendly" interface for conversational programming that literally screen scrapes the centroid below. The centroid speaks G-code natively.
You cannot interface Mach to the centroid (the centroid is a cnc controller itself), but you can drip feed it using other software if necessary... Mach CAN interface with the stepper drives inside, though they are the noisiest full-step drivers on the planet and you may as well throw them out and get geckos.