Hey Guys,

So I am over wondering if my lost steps are due to a lack of quality pulsing on the part of my pc and I am thinking of either getting a controller from Tormach or saving a few dollars and just getting a smooth stepper. 

Any suggestions?

S

SmoothStepper works great, and provides a VERY clean pulse train.  I ran mine for a couple of years on a 500 MHz PC with no performance-related problems.  Get the new Ethernet one, rather than the USB.

Regards,
Ray L.

Great.  I have been considering the Warp9 Tech?  Any brand better/more compatible with mach3 than others?

Great.  I have been considering the Warp9 Tech?  Any brand better/more compatible with mach3 than others?

There is only one.  They all come from Warp9.  Greg there is the designer/programmer.  All the other sellers are simply re-sellers.

Regards,
Ray L.

oh.  I thought there were a few that I saw in the plugins part of the Mach webpage.  http://www.machsupport.com/plugins.php.  Not really sure about it all as I am new to it all.  Thanks for the reply and I can't wait to get one shipped up here!

S

There is only one Smoothstepper, well two actually as there is the original USB one and the New Ethernet one. There are other external devices that work with Mach also and that is what you are seeing on the plugins downloads page.
Hood

Ok great.  That makes it easy.  All the reviews of the Warp9 are great so I am going to purchase it.  I read through the manual and as a newbie it seems simple and complicated all at the same time.  I was really hoping for a plug and play device and it seems close.  Maybe I am making it more difficult than it really is.

S

The Smoothstepper was designed originally as a USB replacement for the parallel port and as such it is very much like setting up Mach with  two parallel ports. The USB version had a 3rd port with six inputs of which 3 could be used as differential inputs for such things as MPGs or Encoders. The Ethernet Smoothstepper has the third port as well but it is actually a full parallel port equivelent of 12 outs, 5 ins or 4 outs 13 Ins depending on how you wish to configure it, so for most people it is better as it means you now have 3 full parallel ports equivelent worth of I/O

Hood

A few years ago I came up with the 'SmoothStepper in a Can', a SmoothStepper which is installed in a small enclosure with a 5V power supply. Take a look at : http://www.soigeneris.com/Motion_Control_and_I_O_Boards-list.aspx , this makes it easy to add a SmoothStepper to a system.

If you have room in your control box then you can add the SmoothStepper into your controller box itself.