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Author Topic: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010  (Read 173394 times)

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Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #20 on: April 09, 2010, 12:48:24 PM »
Honestly, the real question is "What advantage does 64 bit get you"? 64 bit Windows really only improves a few things: You get support for more than 4Gb of RAM, and can use more than 2Gb of RAM in a process. You get address space layer randomization which can prevent or protect a lot of different security flaws in Windows. You get 64 bit extensions which make certain tasks like media encoding 10% faster in 64 bit applications. Realistically, none of that is super useful for a controller PC, unless you're also running some 64 bit CAD/CAM software on the controller PC for some quick design work.

You have a point that it is 2010 and it's high time the software at least worked on a 64 bit PC, but you have 3 or so years till the next version of Windows is released which might be 64 bit only. That's when it really becomes a critical issue.

left of centre here but since i can capture a printer port in both VMware, Sun Virtualbox et al would mach run hassle free in a 32 bit VM under a 64bit OS?  If you are desperate enough to HAVE to use the dedicated controller pc as a standard work pc too  (which i completely disagree with) then this may be a solution?

Would be interesting to see if that worked, but I wonder if there would be weird latency issues involved. The free XP mode in Windows 7 Pro would probably be the best solution since that's included with the OS and thus basically free. I see people in the other thread talking about it and I'd be curious to see if it would reliably work for everyone.
« Last Edit: April 09, 2010, 12:51:39 PM by El_Matarife »
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #21 on: May 02, 2010, 03:12:09 AM »
Making a printer port as Plugin is fine, but don't waste the whole thing away. Printer port support has to remain, because many of the users make use of old or second handed PCs to run Mach3.
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #22 on: May 18, 2010, 05:58:41 PM »
My 2 cents:

I could buy a Pinto just to get to work and back but I want/can buy a new car with the latest bells and whistles with warranty and support.

I don't have / want to support two cars so that I can also take long trips.

I want to have one PC that I use for CNC sometimes (my CNC work will not be a 24/7 thing) and then use for surfing, design work (heavy graphics0, gaming or whatever when I'm not making dust.

As mentioned before - it is 2010.

Dennis (who bought a PCI card last week and just went to Staples to get a Windows 7 upgrade so I can run old software and use my new CNC router)

end of rant

Offline Jeff_Birt

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Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #23 on: May 18, 2010, 07:41:44 PM »
Or you can use Mach on Win 7/64 with a SS, Galil, etc, etc and be miles ahead of the parallel port...
Happy machining , Jeff Birt
 
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #24 on: May 19, 2010, 12:33:04 AM »
But my router controller box has this 25 pin connector on it................

Offline Jeff_Birt

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Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #25 on: May 19, 2010, 09:54:25 AM »
And? I know the SS has a cable that goes from the 26 pin header to the 25pin D-dub connector typically found on the parallel port. I suspect others have the same capability.
Happy machining , Jeff Birt
 

Offline FXC

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Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #26 on: May 19, 2010, 10:41:59 AM »
Yes, yes, an SS has many many advantages over the parallel port. HOWEVER, using it as an argument in this particular thread is... well, beyond the scope of this thread.

See, the SS discussion would only make sense if Warp9 would suddenly become a charity, supporting - let's say - the noble cause of "CNC for the masses" and then lower the price of a SmoothStepper from $155 to $9 - $15 which is the cost of a parallel port, since newer PCs don't have one.
Mach3 is a mess.
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #27 on: May 24, 2010, 06:34:38 PM »

Dennis (who bought a PCI card last week and just went to Staples to get a Windows 7 upgrade so I can run old software and use my new CNC router)


I'm in the same situation -- the old WinXP machine I used with my CNC mill finally died.

I didn't notice when I bought the replacement that it has Windows 7 64 bit installed  :(

Did the upgrade to Windows 7 Professional allow you to use Mach3?  I'm assuming you had to use the WinXP compatibility mode?  Any advice?

Steve
Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #28 on: May 24, 2010, 10:29:04 PM »
I'm at a standstill at the moment. I've got a $5K router and a $400 PC that don't want to speak to each other. I downloaded the 32 bit XP driver for my BYTECC Serial Card 2 Port  CNT-COM-BY-BT-P2S1P + 1 Parallel Port PCI Controller Card that I got to add to the PC. I upgraded my Win 7 to Win 7 Pro to give me access to XP compatibility mode. I did what I knew how to (including changing a few dozen settings in MACH3 per my router manufacturer) and still no go. Seems like the only work around is the ridiculous situation of having two PC's in the shop with the router so I can do work with a current PC while I'm not routing and using the new dinosaur with XP/Parallel/32 bit when I'm routing. Looks like I'll be shopping for a KVM switch so I don't need a new keyboard/monitor/mouse too. Someone pinch me, I thought it was 2010 >:(

What are you planning to do Steve?
Dennis

Offline FXC

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Re: Will MACH3 ever support 64-bit systems? Officially? FYI, it's 2010
« Reply #29 on: May 24, 2010, 11:06:23 PM »
Dennis,

If you're running XP 32-bit, there's no reason for Mach to refuse working.

In your particular case, I think the problem is, or could be, the parallel port's I/O address. Most add-on PCI cards will have a "non-standard" address instead of the "standard" 0x0278 or whatever. For instance, my card (Moschip) has 0xd100 instead. You may want to check yours, even if just for the sake of elimination: under My Computer > Properties > Device Manager > Ports > Your Card > Resources
Mach3 is a mess.