Dear all,

I made my own 3-axis CNC-miller and its electronics. I used so far an old pc with a parallel port to connect to my interface and drivers. However it takes too much space away and I have to load the codes with a diskette (so old technology...). I would like to connect my laptop (without parallel port output).

I've seen this is a common problem and USB to parallel adapter seems not to work. One of the options I've found is a parallel PCMCIA card. However this also seems to disappear from the market and my new laptop doesnt seem to have this connector slot anymore. are there still some other solutions?

greetings

If you want to use a laptop then a SmoothStepper, DSPMC, kFlop motion control boards are your best bet. I carry the SmoothStepper: http://www.soigeneris.com/SmoothStepper-details.aspx and have used them in many controls.

the problem is that I am such an a**hole that wanted to make his machine completely by hand (to get some practical experience and more insight in mechanical technics)... So I refuse to by such thing (at least for this project)  

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VC12ALIQ is what I mean (some photos of the machine)


Edit: RC

This is from the Mach3 specifications:

   " * Desktop PC (if using the Mach3 Parallel Port Driver - laptops are not supported because the power saving features of the chipsets disrupt the pulse stream, PCMCIA and USB parallel adaptors will *not* work.)"

An external card is mandatory with a laptop.

what is meant with "an external card"? is that the Smoothstepper?

thanks for the clarification (too bad that it is not that good news) maybe i find other software that gets the job done?

It is not a SW issue, it is a HW issue. Laptops are built to save power so they adjust the processor speeds among other things to do that. When you need precise timings, as Mach does, then that will not work. If you want to use a laptop then you need to use an external motion controller.

exactly, an external hardware takes care of the critical timing and keeps the motors running smooth!

At our end we have probably tried 10 laptops. I personally have use an old dead dog NEC which had a PP port and it worked perfectly fine. 
All the Dell laptops  ( about 5 or so ) didn't work well . The Tashiba one was junk fro CNC. A friend uses a Dell laptop and it works fine but he also made a circuit to refine the pulse from the PC. So you just don't know.
I use a dedicated PC for CNC and it is not a laptop.
The SS sits on the shelf gathering dust ( no backlash and there probably never will be in my opinion).
RICH

If you are not using the Smoothstepper I could buy it from you cheap for my next machine! Or maybe trade for something?
Smootstepper has its quirks but work very well iin my application.