Machsupport Forum

Mach Discussion => General Mach Discussion => Topic started by: discountBrainSurgery on November 12, 2020, 11:54:35 AM

Title: How can I get away from parallel cable
Post by: discountBrainSurgery on November 12, 2020, 11:54:35 AM

I'm about to begin building my third machine. It's getting harder to find old computers with a parallel port. I need suggestions on how to build a system not requiring it. It's my understanding that Mach3 will not accommodate such a system. And the Longs kit I used on my last build required the cable as well. So I need a controller like Mach that doesn't require the cable and a stepper/driver kit as well. Any suggestions? I really appreciate it.

Title: Re: How can I get away from parallel cable
Post by: CNCfan on November 12, 2020, 02:10:45 PM

Smoothstepper has a eithernet port.

https://warp9td.com/

Title: Re: How can I get away from parallel cable
Post by: discountBrainSurgery on November 12, 2020, 09:49:07 PM

Thank you!

Title: Re: How can I get away from parallel cable
Post by: BluePinnacle on December 01, 2020, 03:46:35 PM

There are a number of Ethernet based sub controllers around, Smoothstepper is one and the UC300ETH is another. Both are good and offer a lot of scope for I/O expansion as well as breaking from from the ancient parallel port and its increasingly rare cable.