Messages

981

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making sure I get the right control board

« on: January 28, 2018, 10:51:20 AM »

You need to follow the advice from the manufacturer of the particular board you are considering.

The Warp9 ESS for example needs a 5Volt dc supply and this is best provided by a separate unit (such as a mobile phone charger etc.).

Tweakie.

982

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making sure I get the right control board

« on: January 28, 2018, 03:47:30 AM »

Perhaps power-up your old desktop, load Mach3 then run DriverTest.exe (from Mach3 folder) and see what results you get. If the results are OK then get a simple Breakout Board, connect everything up and get your CNC running using the parallel port.

If you find limitations or want to change to your laptop then you need to consider which motion controller to be buying. There are many to choose but as Craig has said the ESS is good.

Tweakie.

983

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making sure I get the right control board

« on: January 28, 2018, 02:10:48 AM »

Is the 540 what is also referred to as a breakout board?

No.

Are you planning on using your PC's Parallel Port or USB or Ethernet connection to your CNC ?

Tweakie.

984

General Mach Discussion / Re: Making sure I get the right control board

« on: January 28, 2018, 01:53:47 AM »

Check out the Gecko G540 - it is not cheap but it is of high quality and has full customer support etc.
Also browse the Gecko site - there is a mine of information there.

http://www.geckodrive.com/geckodrive-step-motor-drives/g540.html


Tweakie.

985

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Suggested OS

« on: January 27, 2018, 07:11:37 AM »

Just for information really...

A couple of years back large numbers of Win7 Pro PC’s were being replaced and scrapped here in the UK (government or large corporate concern perhaps). An enterprising trader removed the COA’s before scrapping the hardware.

I am not sure of all the rules here but using the Win10 Pro iso. (legally downloadable from Microsoft website) or an official installation disc, the Win10 Pro installation can be activated with the Win7 Pro key even though the free upgrade offer ended July 2016.
How is this possible? – I really don’t know but I have just done it with this disc and COA.

If you check out ebay, the old COA’s are around £6.00 and the new (unused) scratchable COA’s around £17.00.

Tweakie.

986

General Mach Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!

« on: January 26, 2018, 01:44:45 AM »

Hi, name is Ken. Live in the Austin Texas area. Normally work with data, but know nothing about electronics. Right now I'm still ordering parts to build my very first CNC.  Making it 2'x4'. I've got most of the hardware, motors, and drivers, but have some more questions. Hope y'all will be patient with me.

Hi KConn23,

Welcome.

Just post any questions you may have as a New Topic in the General Mach Discussion section and we will try to help.

Tweakie.

987

HiCON Motion Controller / Re: mach 4 upgrade and THC

« on: January 24, 2018, 11:01:43 AM »

I’m starting to think Mach 4 has a lot of problems and that's why a lot of companies are going Linux  I really wanted to make this work  so I hope vial systems can help fix this   since it’s a new build I do have the option to scrap the electronics and Mach 4

I think you would be in a much worse situation with LinuxCNC.

You can get full email support from the Artsoft Mach4 team to resolve any problems that you may be having. A quote from the Mach4 thread...

" We created the ticketing system and have added staff here at Artsoft specifically to work with hobby users. Our tech support team responds to and works with hobby users every day. Tuesday morning alone of this week I assisted 3 users in getting their machines up and running with Mach4 and a compatible motion controller right out of the box. No custom scripting required. In fact we have profiles for the common 3020 6040 table top CNC machines that we share with users and literally they are up and running within 20-30 minutes depending on their ability and knowledge. 

We created the help desk to better track and ensure that tickets are responded to and users are helped. Some folks do not want to post publicly what they have for questions, and to be honest I don't think that you would want to read 10 posts a day about how to license the software or what OS the software can run on.   Some users when they get answers post them on the forums some do not. We have kept the forums open for those that want to share publicly what they are doing or working on and that is the individuals choice to make and we respect that choice. We are providing support options for users in addition to forums rather then instead of the forums and in the end its the comfort level and choice of the end user. We will continue to add how to videos to our youtube channel so if there are specific things that you would like to see please let us know! Best regards, Jim. "

Hope this helps,

Tweakie.

988

Mach3 under Vista / Re: MACH 3: Errors with post processor file types in V Carve Pro

« on: January 23, 2018, 02:22:14 AM »

There is something really odd going on there.

Can you attach your .xml file.

Bottom right of main screen is your profile. In Mach3 folder copy <your profile>.xml and rename it to cole.xml and attach it to your post using Reply then the Additional; Options tab.

Tweakie.

989

Building or Buying a Wood routing table.. Beginnners guide.. / Re: Loosing my settings when I close Mach3

« on: January 23, 2018, 01:34:23 AM »

No.
Click X (top right) then confirm End Session?

Tweakie.

990

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Is Mach4 really Hobby Material?

« on: January 22, 2018, 07:38:01 AM »

Newbie question save me some time.

Is Mach4 lathe threading currently 100% functional as described in the manual for the hobby version?

and

What external controllers currently provide 100% functionality for lathe threading at this time?

Thanks,
RICH

Warp9 is expecting Mach4 threading with the ESS to be available soon.

Tweakie.