Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: jrhines on January 22, 2011, 01:35:45 PM
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I have a mill set up with Ah-ha iron. The motherboard in the computer died and mobos with ISA slots are hard to find (read extinct). So, I would like to keep using the motor driver box but with Mach3 and an interface card that will fit in a PCI (or PCI-e or X) slot.
Any guidance will be appreciated!
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Not possible to do that I am afraid, if you can find the pinouts and your drives can accept Step and Direction signals then you could wire up to the parallel port and run from there.
Hood
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New MOBOs with ISA are still available.
(;-) TP
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Where and at what price? I have seen some but they were pretty pricey.
I do have the pinout/signals for the Ah-ha IFB (step, direction, +/- limits and aux I/O).
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Should be straightforward enough then, I would get a breakout board as it makes connections easier and will afford some protection to the parallel port if you wire something wrong.
Hood
Oh I preume the Step/Dir signals are 5v? I have seen some servo drives that require 12 or 15v Step/Dir signals.
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Even if they aren't 5 volt.. that can be solved with a simple opto-isolator. I would recommend using them anyways.
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I have a router at work that uses Ah-Ha controls, I have always wanted to convert it to Mach control.
I believe the isa card is a dio card and I think they made pci versions as well.
I have some docs on the Ah-Ha system at work and will share them with you, I will also look
for a spare ISA mobo. I have a lot of machines that need these so I have eveyrone at work
bring me their old computers.
Monday is a "layoff day" for me so I will post here tuesday on what I have.
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Richard - Thanks, I look forward to what ever docs you might have. I have the Ah-ha user manual V3.1, but nothing beyond that. It gives the pinouts of the IFB and the Aux DB25.
Standing by...
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Hi,
I have helped a few customers interface our controls to the old Ah-ha drive boxes. All you need to do is make a crossover cable from their (I think DB37) to a DB25. I just did it with 2 connectors and soldered wires in between. Attached is a simple doc that I made a few years ago when I set one up. There are 2 pins that need to be jumper-ed for enable, and they are not on this doc so you will need to look them up. Or you could just make a cable and connect the DB37 to a BOB.
Andrew
PS. I just realized the PDF only shows the connections I made to the PPort. So it really doesn't help you. But I do know it can be done, I just don't have a document on it any more. From what I remember all the IO is 5V and it uses standard Step and Dir.
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are1987 - I hate to appear thick, but what is "our controls"? Do you mean the Mach software or is there a specific breakout board? I think I understand what you mean, that is, use the PP and rewire to the Ah-ha 37 pin Dsub and use Mach as the driving software. Am I close?
JR
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I think this is the missing info we need
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I posted the last file while at work, I was just looking at it and it looks like this is possible
My only question is about the enable and exception pins, I have four solid state relays on
my system ( I only need 2 ) and there is not enough pinouts listed. I will get my meter
out tomorrow and see if I can figure that out. I do have a mobo that might work for
you, Myself I am more interested in getting this machine to work with mach, I have
programming to do, and do not want to work in dos and learn artisan gcode. Eventually
I will put servos on this machine and get rid of the remaining artisan hardware.
I found this doc on the web, it describes a bridgeport conversion to artisan hardware
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Richard - Thanks for all the input. As I already have a new non-ISA mobo, I think that the attack I am going to use is to install duel PPorts and make up a PPort to 37-pin conversion connector. I have the hardware laid out on my bench, awaiting PP card and Dsub connector arrival. I will carefully photo and document along with tweaks to Mach3 and get the info out to the community. Stay tuned!