Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Shaped on October 29, 2010, 12:59:51 PM
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Hi, First of all sorry if this post is in the wrong place.
My question:
The Mach1Lic.dat file, is it a 1 use only? 1 install and 1 pc..
The reason i ask is, i have mach 3 currently installed on a friends pc, and he will want this pc back at some point in the near future, forcing me to get a diffrent pc to run mach 3 on.
I dont want to use the Mach1Lic.dat file and have Mach3 locked to his computer.
Could anyone let me know where i stand on this.
Thanks
Anthony.
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The way the licence system works is you can use it on as many computers as you like as long as they are not running a machine, in other words used for simulation.
If you do not make any money from the CNC machines that you have running from Mach then you can have as many as you like using the one licence.
If you are making money from the CNC machines, even if just selling the occasional part or using these parts in something you sell then it is asked that you have a licence for each CNC machine running Mach.
Hood
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I'm pretty sure you'll need to remove the license from your friends PC when you return it. Just copy it to your new PC, and delete it from the old one. You can use the license on as many PC's as YOU own, but you can't share it with your friends.
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Thanks for the reply.
Im not going to make any money from milling. the reason i purchased the cnc machine was to cut out parts for remote control planes that i want to make.
Would make life a lot easier if i could run everything from my main PC, its going to be a pain switching between them, but i do understand that its best to give the CNC a dedicated pc.
Just going off topic..
This PC has no parallel port on it, its the only reason im not using it to control the CNC. I have seen a PCI & PCIe parallel port card on ebay, these are going for £11 & £19, i dont mind buying one, but will it work ok with Mach3
Thanks
Anthony.
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Most PCI parallel Ports will work fine with Mach but some dont, hard to say which will/which wont unless you can find the type that someone else has used.
One thing to look for which often can be a sign is if it has quite a lot of components on the board, if it has very little then the chances are it will not work as it will likely just be emulating a port in software and Mach requires a hardware port.
Hood
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Just going off topic..
This PC has no parallel port on it, its the only reason im not using it to control the CNC. I have seen a PCI & PCIe parallel port card on ebay, these are going for £11 & £19, i dont mind buying one, but will it work ok with Mach3
Thanks
Anthony.
Hi Anthony,
Here's a fairly recent post you may be interested in:
http://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,11300.0.html
Dave
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Hi Dave,
Just been out and purchased that parallel card ( i got the single port version though ) £30 from maplins.
It looks like it was a waste of money. The card itself works fine under windows 7 but what u cannot do in windows 7 is change the card to EPP and as far as i understand Mach3 needs it to be in this mode.
I have it installed, no errors reported in device manager but Mach will not control the CNC, maybe i have the wrong port address or maybe its the ECP setting?
Its currently listed in device manager as PCI ECP Parallel Port (LPT1) and if you look at the properties for the device it gives you no options to swap it over to EPP
I think this is a Windows 7 problem no the card, i have tried the latest win 7 drivers from www.Moschip.com and still no joy.
Thanks
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Hi Shaped
I am pretty sure that you need to change this setting in the BIOS, which you can access by pressing a key, usually delete, during start up.
Regards
RonC
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Hi Ron
Thanks for the reply but theres no option in the bios for lpt.
Anthony
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Hi Shaped,
I just rebooted my computer running Windows 7, actually the OS dosen't matter,
as this is a BIOS setting, I have An American Megatrends BIOS and you need to look through the tabs at
the top of the screen in mine it is listed under the Advanced tab and then under parallel port,
all option are listed there ECP EPP, etc.
Take another look and check all the tabs if your BIOS is different to mine.
RonC
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The card itself works fine under windows 7 but what u cannot do in windows 7 is change the card to EPP and as far as i understand Mach3 needs it to be in this mode.
I know Gecko recommends EPP mode for their G540, but I think SPP mode also works.
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Will a BIOS setting affect a PCI card?
Hood
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Hood
you could be right, it probably only affects the on board port, sorry I hadn't thought of that!
RonC