Hi Guys,
I am new here and at CNC in general.
I have read so many varying reports, I wonder could someone who absolutely knows the answers to these questions please help me. I have some issues and need to clarify the basics, simple yes and now will work foe me.

MACH 3
1. Does it run ok on Win 7 64 bit ( any proviso's )
2. Does it run ok on Win 10  64 bit ( any proviso's )
3. Does it work with USB3 and USB2
4. What is the max length the USB cable can be. Generaly I believe 10 Mtrs is max, but can this cause issues?


My Machine..?
I have a 2030 from SIGN CNC china and I cant get the spindle motor to turn on. I am in the early stages of learning and haven't routed anything yet..

When I open the roadrunner sample, the CNC  runs extremely slowly and the spindle motor dose not turn on.. I am stumped.. any help would be great.

1) Yes.
2) It should.

3 & 4)
If your machine is using a USB cable, then it's using a 3rd party hardware motion controller to communicate with Mach3. You'd need to ask the manufacturer of that device to get the answers to your questions.

As fpr the slow running file. If your machine is set up to run in mm's, the roadrunner file has a feedrate of 60mm/min. You need to edit the g-code file to increase the feedrate.

I see a lot of posts about the spindle control not working on these machines. I believe that there is no software spindle control on a lot of these machines, or it is not configured correctly.

With the road runner code I do not believe there is any Code in it to turn on the spindle. It is just a test code for motion.

Max normal length for USB is 3 meters. You CAN go longer IF you use an amplified cable up to 10 meters. That type cable is a repeater to extend the signals.

USB2 yes
USB3 I dought as there was no such thing when MAch3 was created. Check with your Manf of the controller as Gerry suggested

(;-) TP

windows 7 and windows 10 64bit, YES but only with a usb signal generator. no printer port drivers. I have done it many times
usb 2 yes
usb3 should be backwards compatible, no speed increase,
cable, keep it short.  standard cable length RF noise can creep in causing Estops
Post a pic of the control box for your router, but normally they are very low quality, I would have to see your XML to see if the spindle is setup.
The roadrunner gcode is in inches so the feedrate commands are going to be very slow on a metric setup machine.  Ohh and the roadrunner is going to be very small.  The gcode for the roadrunner is for a large format router and will crash your small one.

using the MDI line you can type in m03 s5000 and see if that starts your spindle.  BTW that is a zero not a O.  M05 should turn it off if it does come on.   The M03 command has to be at the top of the gcode and m05 at the bottom.

Hope this helps.