Machsupport Forum
Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: Ray Jorgensen on September 04, 2013, 11:27:06 AM
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About 15 yrs ago I built a small CNC it used a parallel port and I ran Mach.
8 yrs ago I bought a Thermwood 45 - 5' X 10' bed. Since then I haven't used my home made machine. I now want to re purpose it.
Can I run mach3 from my laptop with no parallel port? If so how?
Thanks
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With an external motion device, like a Smoothstepper.
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My first question and I'm sure I know what the answer is going to be. NO A USB to parallel adaptor won't work?
Second - It looks like this replaces the old board that the drives are wired to. So I just need to connect existing steppers?
Thanks
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No, the adapter won't work.
Actually, the breakout board that you had plugged into the parallel port should just plug directly into the smoothstepper.
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So the smoothstepper plugs to the computer via USB - The smooth stepper to existing board via parallel cable? Sorry if I'm slow in getting this.
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Correct. however, the Ethernet version of the Smoothstepper is preferred over the USB version. It's far more immune to noise issues.
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You will however need to make sure you get a parallel to IDC adapter so that you can plug direct.
Hood
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Thanks to all. This will make a very inexpensive solution.
I'm making a auto positioning stop for my chop saw. To buy one is 15K - I'll have less than $400 in it.