I'm looking at purchasing a Shop Sabre from someone used.  The machine currently runs WinCNC, but I want to set it up to run Mach3.  Does anyone know what kinds of settings I need to put in to get it to run on there?  I currently run Mach3 on my EZ-Router machines that do not use a ball screw design, so this is beyond anything I've done up to this point with Mach3.

Thanks
Bill

Hi Bill,

Generally the Shop Sabre machines have their own motion controller built-in and so Mach is not required for their operation. If you plan on stripping out the electronics and rewiring it then use axis controllers which accept step and direction signals to achieve Mach compatability.

Tweakie.

So I have to completely redo the breakout board in order to use Mach3?

No not necessarily - If the machine is genuinely configured to run from WinCNC (which would indicate that it may have already been modified), then WinCNC outputs step and direction signals to drive the machine in a similar way to Mach. Thus with a bit of sorting the pin allocations and timing it should be capable of running with Mach.

Tweakie.

Hi Bill,

Ignore my previous ramblings - I have just been informed that the 2 Shop Sabre machines I was involved with the relocation of each had the WinCNC controller boards fitted as standard. 
So it should just be a case of downloading the manual, identifying the step and direction and limit switch pin connections etc and configuring Mach to supply the pulses.

Tweakie.

 

Nice.  That makes me happy Tweakie.  The guy I'm buying from has a manual, which I didn't look at, but with a little playing around hopefully I can get the thing going.  One problem, my other machines have z zero plates, but the Shop Sabre doesn't.  I want to set it up with one...guess I will just have to look at it and play around with it.