My PlasmaCam was great when it was working.  The Controller failed and they paid for the repairs but I had to pay the shipping.  I decided to sell it before I had troubles again. and lo and behold the people I sold it to had issues.  The machine was nice and the software was great but they had a bunch of A$$ holes in customer service. No wonder the market is filled with plasma table machines today from China.

I guess you could say my brother and I decided to learn Rocket Science over the Internet.
My brother came across a CNC machine with optical controllers, that didn’t work, so he got steeper motors and a BOB  ( now to the parallel port it was my doing, had always heard parallel ports were faster) got them mounted to CNC table we tried Mach3 and got the motors to work and everything worked great, now we heard Mach3 was old news and Mach4 was the way to go, so he licensed Mach4.
He does have a XP computer running 32 bits.
If we ever figure just where we are now and get the rest worked out in Mach4, then the next headache is going to be mounting the plasma torch, Yes the old CNC machine has a plasma machine.
Where is the plasma set located in Mach4, I’m hearing there is no plasma set in Mach4.
Thanks for all the help you have provided for us Internet Rocket Scientists.

Hi,
THC is an important part of getting a plasma table to operate well.

THC is a realtime function, that is the machine has to respond to THC_UP or THC_DOWN signals within a few ten
of microseconds. That has traditionally meant that it needs to be handled with hardware, ie your controller.

In Mach3 the parallel port driver supported THC, but the Darwin parallel port does not have it.

Until recently the Hicon Integra ($600 plus an activation fee)board was the only Mach4 controller to have realtime THC.
The Ethernet SmoothStepper is Beta testing its realtime THC function now. We can expect the ESS to have realtime
THC support within days, maybe weeks.

NFS has written a script based THC solution. Note that because of the communication delays that its not particularly
realistic to call this a genuine closed loop THC solution. None the less if the required Z axis movement is not to fast or
radical it should work OK, certainly NFS believe so. It has not been officially released yet but is available as a development
download now and can be found on the NFS ftp site.

Your choices are:
1) Forgo THC altogether
2) Buy a Hicon Integra OR an Ethernet SmoothStepper and use the realtime THC function of that controller.
3) Download and install the latest development build of Mach4 and use the script based THC function provided (free).

Craig

Hi,
the current Mach4Hpbby build is 4132 and can be found at:

ftp://ftp.machsupport.com/Mach4/DevlopmentVersions/

Craig

Why on earth would you want to run Mach4 off a parallel port? You could use that $25 toward a purchase of a Warp9 or other modern controller?

In my case I have a system that runs perfectly on the parallel port. I would like to upgrade to Mach4 but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild my control panel for a software upgrade. The lack of parallel port support is the only reason i'm not running Mach4 right now.

Quote from: wmgeorge on March 25, 2019, 07:21:31 PM

Why on earth would you want to run Mach4 off a parallel port? You could use that $25 toward a purchase of a Warp9 or other modern controller?

In my case I have a system that runs perfectly on the parallel port. I would like to upgrade to Mach4 but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild my control panel for a software upgrade. The lack of parallel port support is the only reason i'm not running Mach4 right now.

Well said Steve - I totally agree.

Mach4 printer port (darwin) has some limitations when compared with Mach3 with parallel port
e.g
no Plasma THC
no Backlash compensation
no  threading

If those are no needed as yet, it is OK to use Darwin Mach4 printer port (Darwin) first.
THEN
Save up for
Warp9 ESS which appears to be the most promising motion controller so far.
(Maybe it's better to avoid the USS and ALL other USB based motion controllers.)
ESS should be able to connect to your 1 (or 2 or 3) parallel port Break Out Boards (BOB) so migration from parallel port (Darwin) to ESS should not be too hard assuming you will continue to use Mach4 on Win 7 (32bits).
I think US$25 for Darwin and $180 for ESS is not too expensive.

Thanks to all , for your knowledge and will to help people like me, it is greatly appreciated
Ron

Thanks to all , for your knowledge and will to help people like me, it is greatly appreciated
Ron

   If its working on Mach3 and you don't need any functions that 4 has, keep what you got.

Hi stevehuck,

In my case I have a system that runs perfectly on the parallel port. I would like to upgrade to Mach4 but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars to rebuild my control panel for a software upgrade.

Yes I understand your point of view.......but you have stated the problem already.

'I have a system that runs perfectly on the parallel port', that is correct BUT that is all it will ever do, new features
like Surface Map, Zero Brane Studio editor/debugger, Mach Touch Module and PLC scripts (including PMC ladder logic)
will not be available to you.

There was quite a period of time when Mach4 had, at best, most of the features that Mach3 had, and for the last year or
so its had ALL the functionality of Mach3. Just recently Mach4 has added functionality that EXCEEDS Mach3, and
the pace is accelerating.

So the quandary for you is IF you want that extra functionality and the flexibility that Mach4's structure, API
and Lua bring, then it will cost several hundred dollars to get it. The essential point is that you are buying into
a new product with enhanced capabilities.

Your description suggests that you are entirely happy with your machine the way it is, you neither need
or want extra functionality, so stick with it.

As to why Art has chosen not to develop Darwin with stuff like THC and lathe threading, I don't know.
Maybe it runs contrary to the business model envisaged by NFS?

What is true is that there are five or six manufacturers of Mach4 ready external controllers ranging from
$120 for a single port IO, $150 to $250 for two and up to five ports IO and $600 plus extras for an industrial
grade controller. I don't think that is unreasonable for a controller that will out perform any Mach3 installation.

Craig