General CNC Chat > Show"N"Tell ( Your Machines)
Controller and drivers
TJoensen:
Hello everyone, I'm new to the CNC world, and I'm a bit lost regarding controllers and drivers, and how the parallel port for mach 4 works.
I'm trying to fix an old gas-cutter at my dads shop, the cutter is from the 1980, and is not working correctly anymore.
Here are some pictures of the gas-cutter setup and a quick explanation on each image: https://imgur.com/a/qD02SCu
My plan was to replace the motors, and create a new setup so it would be controlled via a PC (Mach 4). But I don't quite understand the parallel port function with Mach 4, or if it's really necessary to have? Can I skip the parallel port if I have an external controller ? What solution is better, using the parallel port or an external driver ?
Is there any other hardware I need? As I understand it the setup would be like this: PC->Controller->Drivers->Motors, is this correct ?
Thanks for any help,
TJoensen
Tweakie.CNC:
I think an external motion controller would be a better choice than parallel port operation.
You would need to find details of the existing motors and drivers as they could possibly be OK to re-use.
It certainly sounds like an interesting project to undertake.
Tweakie.
TJoensen:
Ok, external motion controller it is.
The current motors are just normal brushed dc motors, and they are in quite a bad shape. I think it would be best to replace them. I tried with stepper motors, but they don't get to high enough rpms so I think servo motors would be the way to go?
TJoensen
Tweakie.CNC:
Choose a motion controller with good backup and support (not a cheap Chinese product) and the same for servo's and their controllers and all should be well.
It's not going to be a cheap project but I am sure the end result will be well worth the effort.
Tweakie.
TJoensen:
Any motion controller that you can recommend?
TJoensen
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