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Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2013, 08:44:32 PM »
I have used Mach 3 on Win7 32 bit for half a year now and have installed two different versions.
There was not any problem, just installed und it runs.
I am using ESS (Ethernet version) which makes thing a lot easier.

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Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2013, 11:43:16 AM »
I was using XP Hone and wanted to update to sp1 and then sp2 and then sp3 I was unable to do the upgrades so I went to win 7.  The Mach3 driver test worked and the readings looked good.   The computer starts OK and will run for hours with no problems.  Sometimes when I start Mach3 it locks up (hard reboot required)   Sometimes I can load a tap file and run the file the table does what it is suppose to do.   The lockups have not happened while running a tap file yet!!   I am thinking of going back to XP

Keith  
Keith
Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #12 on: July 09, 2014, 07:30:18 AM »
Hi Billcat,
I'm running Windows Embedded Standard 7 which is the same as Windows 7 but with a few bits left out like Media Player, Internet Explorer and a few things
like that. I looks and behaves just like normal Windows and I have come to quite like it. It runs Mach3 well, better than my old XP machine, mind you
I sometimes had to light a fire under it to boot up!
There are a couple of things which have changed from XP. One of them is User Account Control (UAC). In XP if you are the only user registered in the OS
as often is the case with a home system then you are automatically the Administrator, after all someone has to do it and there is only you.
In Windows 7 and you are the only user, which I imagine would be the situation with a dedicated machine, you will be Administrator by default. Windows 7
does something interesting when you boot/logon tho, it logs you on as ordinary user with reduced privileges. If you want Administrative privilege you have
to ask nicely.
In order to run either Mach3 or Driver Test as Administrator highlight the icon, one left click, but rather than double click, right click instead. That should bring
up a little window of options, third from the top (from memory) is Run as Administrator, click of that and you launch the program with full rights.
You can automate that so that everytime you run that program it runs in Admin account by highlighting the icon, right click and clicking the Properties item from the list
(the bottom, again from memory) and going to the Compatibility tab on the window which results.  At the bottom of that window is a button 'Change settings for
all users', click it. At the bottom of the new window there is a checkbox "Run this program as an Administrator", check it, hit Apply, the OK. Click OK in the revealed
remaining windows and your done. Now any user account can run the program with Admin rights. You will have to repeat the steps for Driver Test.

Hope it helps
Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #13 on: August 25, 2014, 01:21:08 PM »
Where do you find a PC new enough to run Windows 7, but old enough to have a parallel port?

Is there an Idiot's guide to setting up Windows 7 to run with a USB controller?
Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2014, 02:56:14 AM »
Hi GaryM,
if you search for 'industrial single board computer' you will find heaps of manufacturers. Many of the boards they offer have a PP and often expansion slots to add more if you wish. I bought a UMB-1 from a Taiwanese maker UNIGEN and have had no probs. I bought fairly cheaply however. I know ADVANTECH have similar offerings but quite a bit dearer, at least in this part of the world. My board uses a dual core ATOM processor @1.8Ghz and runs Mach3 better than my old XP machine ever did.

Sorry can't help with the USB question as I have never tried. I have yet to exhaust the potential of PP and so don't see the need yet.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #15 on: July 02, 2015, 12:32:29 PM »
Hi, I am also using windows 7, 64bits. I have installed parallel ports in my cpu. I have read in forum that mach3 wont communicate via parallel port in windows 7 64bits. I am curious if the parallel port is not compatible because their cpu did not have it or 64 bit does not support parallel port at all for the mach3 communication even after the installation of the parallel port in the cpu?
After installation of the mach3 software, the driver test kept giving me error "Driver not sensed". Other than using external motion control, is there any other ways to get the software to work, given that I have already installed the parallel port in the cpu (windows 7, 64 bit)? Thank you very much for your feedback.   
Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?
« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2015, 03:32:10 AM »
Hi,
the Mach pulse engine will not operate in a 64bit OS. The pulse engine is responsible for timing the pulses sent to your breakout board via a LPT.
The original pulse engine code was written by Art Fenerty and is a very trick piece of code. It runs at kernel level and in a manner that Microsoft never
anticipated or approved. Think of it like a virus albeit benign.
It is this code that has allowed Mach to develop as it has, without a pulse engine a Windows platform cannot (on its own) control a real time machine.
In recent times external motion controllers have been developed which relieve the PC from timing the pulse stream and Mach becomes a trajectory planner
only, a much simpler proposition with a PC. They start at around $100 and just about everyone who has used one swears by them. I cannot say as I haven't
tried...yet. If you insist on having a 64bit OS then an external controller is required end of story.
I have not heard anyone say that Mach runs better in 64bit and doubt that it does. CAD and CAM programs probably benefit but I refuse to have them on
my machine controller anyway.
Note that Art has written a new or updated PP driver for Mach4 called Darwin. A $25 licence fee applies. It is by his description 'the best of the breed'. I have not tried
it but others who have support Art's contention. It will still only run in 32bit Windows.
Make the choice; 64bit and external controller or 32bit and use PP.
I have found no compelling reason to go 64bit and I keep spending my money on tools and upgrades to my mill to be concerned about it.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'