Hello Guest it is March 28, 2024, 11:18:00 AM

Author Topic: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010  (Read 173391 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #130 on: March 13, 2013, 05:26:37 PM »
Don't expect to ever see a 64 bit parallel port driver for Mach3.
While there will be a new 32 bit parallel port driver for Mach4, the future will be in external motion controllers. Provided all the developers work together and deliver full featured, reliable products.

That saddens me.  That "provided" is an awfully big one.  I'm not saying external controllers are a bad thing - I think with USB2.0 and up the speed required is more than enough, but it will require additional external hardware that's likely to cost significantly more than the 10 bucks my parallel port did.  It adds another barrier to entry for people with limited budgets.  It's getting harder to find 32 bit machines, and (legitimate) 32 bit copies of Windows.

Offline ger21

*
  • *
  •  6,295 6,295
    • View Profile
    • The CNC Woodworker
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #131 on: March 13, 2013, 06:08:05 PM »
The fact of the matter is that it's just not possible to do what Mach3 does on a 64 bit OS. There's always LinuxCNC, if your budget is that tight.
Gerry

2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

JointCAM Dovetail and Box Joint software
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #132 on: April 09, 2013, 05:06:39 AM »
For anyone wanting to try Mach3 in a VM on 64bit Windows, have a look at VMLite. http://www.vmlite.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=143

Download the XP Mode setup package from Microsoft to use with VM Lite and its setup works with the XP Mode package.

What can VM Lite do that XP Mode can't? Hardware 2D and 3D video acceleration using the host's video hardware. Direct access to other host hardware. Can run on a CPU without hardware virtualization support, which XP Mode requires a patch to do. Can run just about any 32 or 64 bit version of Windows. With a multi core CPU that has hardware virtualization support VMLite can run a 64 bit guest OS on a 32 bit host. I don't think any other VM can do that. VMLite has a full desktop mode where the guest Windows shows its taskbar, icons etc in a window and a seamless mode where guest OS programs acts as if they're running on the host OS, much like how "Classic" worked in early versions of Mac OS X.

Of course a dual or more core CPU improves performance of the guest OS. I use VMLite to run 32 bit XP on a laptop with a Core 2 Duo CPU running 32 bit Vista Ultimate. It used to have a Core 2 Solo Celeron - 64 bit capable but no hardware virtualization support. VMLite had most of its features available but was really really slow. With the CPU upgraded the XP setup runs just a sfast as the host.

The 64 bit on 32 bit setup could work out for running Mach3. Install Win 7 32 bit with Mach3 and its parallel port driver then setup Win 7 64 bit in VMLite and use seamless mode. "Look! I'm running Photoshop CS6 on 32 bit Windows 7!" ;-) Not really but could fool some people.
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #133 on: May 11, 2013, 10:28:52 PM »
I'm hoping someone here may be able to help. I just got my cnc setup, installed mach3 on a windows 7 machine and setup the configs as instructed by the cnc seller. What is really weird is when I test the motors (jog) without any other applications running the steppers barely move; however if I start up another program that uses a fair amount of CPU power (such as Adobe media player, or Google chrome) , the motors run at normal speed. The second I terminate the other program the motors go back to barely moving. Any help at all would be appreciated.

Offline ger21

*
  • *
  •  6,295 6,295
    • View Profile
    • The CNC Woodworker
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #134 on: May 12, 2013, 07:17:56 AM »
I'm hoping someone here may be able to help. I just got my cnc setup, installed mach3 on a windows 7 machine and setup the configs as instructed by the cnc seller. What is really weird is when I test the motors (jog) without any other applications running the steppers barely move; however if I start up another program that uses a fair amount of CPU power (such as Adobe media player, or Google chrome) , the motors run at normal speed. The second I terminate the other program the motors go back to barely moving. Any help at all would be appreciated.

I've heard of this once or twice before, several years ago. There's a post here somewhere where someone found a small program to run in the background that fixed the problem. Not sure what the actual cause is. Possibly a specific motherboard-CPU combination that causes it?
I don't recall the exact program used, but it was something like this. http://www.cpukiller.com/
The author of the post I mentioned claimed that his processor was running to fast for Mach3, and slowing it down allowed Mach3 to run perfectly. I believe the problem was something else, as it didn't seem to affect anyone else. But if it works for you, it's worth a shot.
Gerry

2010 Screenset
http://www.thecncwoodworker.com/2010.html

JointCAM Dovetail and Box Joint software
http://www.g-forcecnc.com/jointcam.html
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #135 on: May 22, 2013, 10:49:28 PM »
I am posting here as it seems to be the most up to date thread on here right now.

I am new to this, I thought I could get Mach 3 running on my 64 bit win7 laptop, but now I see that it is not possible for a number of reasons.

So after reading all night, it seems my 2 options are:

to buy an external motion controller like smooth stepper for $190

Buy a dedicated 32 bit Win7 computer for like $150.

If I just purchase a computer like this one :

 http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-OptiPlex-745-DTDEOP745-DT6-Desktop-PC-Windows-7-Home-Premium-32-Bit-/300909452505?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item460f99dcd9

Will I be able to hook up with my parallel port and be good to run Mach 3?

Thanks,

TJ
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #136 on: July 11, 2013, 02:55:06 PM »
I am running Mach3 from a laptop with 64-bit Windows 7 and a Smoothstepper.  Everything runs just fine.  BUT...

I am trying to install Mach3 on another dedicated 64-bit machine.  I have loaded the Smoothstepper driver and the computer sees the Smoothstepper through the device management window.  When I try to install Mach3, I get the dreaded "No Driver sensed Installed" message, which I go past because there is obviously no parallel port and I'm using a Smoothstepper.  When I try to start Mach with the normal Smoothstepper plugin, and fresh XML (not configured for the machine, just default), I get the window to select the plugin, but it then hangs when I select it.  When I move over my XML and screen sets from the other computer, it just hangs on startup, period.  I'm taking a guess that there's some issue talking to the Smoothstepper.  Any other ideas?  What differences should I look at between the 2 computers to figure out what's hanging?
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #137 on: July 11, 2013, 03:35:12 PM »
Update- solved the problem.  Uninstalled the Smoothstepper driver (v. 2.08.28) and installed an older version (2.08.14) and things are working well again.  Not sure what was going on, but it definitely was not communicating correctly with the smoothstepper.
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #138 on: August 21, 2013, 10:07:19 PM »
I know with windows 7 64bit the system is "protected" from unsigned drivers.  There is a way, a program that will put 64 bit in test mode.  Maybe that will help someone working on getting 64bit to work..
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #139 on: September 01, 2013, 10:58:36 AM »
Can you provide me with the following:
1.  Current version number of the Mach 3 software.
2.  I need to run Mach 3 on a Windows 7 64 bit version----How do I achieve this goal?  My current Windows 2000 and Internet Explorer 6 machine is impacting my Usage of Mach 3 caused primarily due to Windows 2000 will not support current Internet Explorer software and it has limited my internet communications and research needed in cad/cam related research and design assistance.    This is a very important issue that I must resolve.  Not getting thru to Artsoft using their email contact forms.

Thanks much