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PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« on: April 23, 2019, 03:01:33 PM »
Hi All,

After using Mach3 for many years on both a mill and lathe and experiencing many annoying issues that have supposedly been fixed with Mach4 I have decided to take the plunge and update to Mach4.

Currently I have two machines running Mach3 with DSPMC's on windows XP platform. My concern is when I update to Mach4 with the DSPMC's will I need to upgrade the operating system as well? Does anyone have any insight into updating from Mach3 to Mach4 with a DSPMC controller?

Thanks
protman16
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2019, 03:08:26 AM »
Hi,
I don't have the same controller but Mach4 runs on any Windows OS that would run Mach3. The controller is irrelevant to
that.

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

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Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2019, 03:13:17 AM »
Mach4 Recommended Requirements

PREFERRED: 32 or 64-bit Laptop or Desktop – Using an External Motion Controller
Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
An appropriate external motion controller
Mach4 Plugin for the selected Motion Controller
2Ghz CPU
1GB RAM
Video Card with 256MB RAM(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)


32-bit Desktop – Parallel Port Recommended Requirements
32-bit version of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
Mach4 Parallel Port Legacy Plugin (cost applicable)
2Ghz CPU
1GB RAM
Non-integrated Video Card with 256MB RAM(Large G-code files, especially 3D files will require a video card with 512MB RAM or higher)
*Use of Parallel Port for machine control only with desktop style computers with 32-bit versions of windows 7 and below.
anything is possible, just try to do it.
if you find some mistakes, in my bad bavarian english,they are yours.
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2019, 10:45:22 AM »
Doing a little searching I found one user that said Mach4 needs to run on window 7 when using a DSPMC.

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=32095.msg224015#msg224015

Any other DSPMC machines out there found that they need to run on windows 7?
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2019, 05:05:35 PM »
For those who maybe interested in this, it seems that Mach4 loads without issue on an XP system. Unfortunately the plugin for the DSPMC will not load the library file correctly under an XP system. I think this is probably due to the plugin being compiled on a windows 7 system.

If you see this error;

"Failed to load shared library 'M4DSPMC.m4pw' (error 0: the operation completed successfully.)"

then your XP system cannot run Mach4 using the DSPMC plugin.

On a side note, I changed firmware from 9.05 to 10.12 in preparation for Mach4 and noticed that Mach3 will still work with the DSPMC. Actually some of the issues I was seeing with the spindle control in Mach3 went away with the firmware update. Not all functions work using firmware 10.12 with Mach3, such as MPG(s), but I did not expect any functions to work considering 10.12 is to be used with Mach4.

Thanks,
protman16
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2019, 03:57:01 AM »
Hi,
I'm just guessing here but XP, depending on which service packs are installed may not have the later .NET components
required and regarded as standard environmental components for the Mach4 plugin 'M4DSPMC.m4pw'.

Is there a particular reason that you wish to use XP....it is getting pretty old school now.


Have you considered a PC such as this:

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1585.html

4 G RAM and 64 G eMMC with Windows 10 (Enterprise) and an Arduino co-processor all for $209.
Sure the eMMC is not quite a sprightly as a genuine SSD, but given that even a large Gcode file is  less that 10MB
who cares? Windows Enterprise is a step up from Windows 10 Home. You can't turn off automatic Microsoft updates
with Home but you can with Enterprise......and you don't want an update when cutting a part because the PC will drop
Mach like a hot potato do the update and wreck your job.

I run Mach4 on a Dual core Atom running at 1.8GHz with onchip graphics and 4 GB DDR3 RAM with
Windows 7 Embedded (Standard) and it goes great. The Latte Panda is a little slower at 1.44GHz but quad core.
I think it will do a great job on Mach4.

At $209 for the hardware and Windows 10 (Ent) activation why would you bother with XP?

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2019, 09:28:02 AM »
Hi Graig,

Granted XP is pretty old school but then again I am too. I have been using Mach3 since it was Mach2 (I guess about 15 years)!

I tried to install Mach4 a few years ago on the same XP system and had zero success. I realized Mach4 has gone through quite a few updates since then so I attempted to install it again seeing that the system requirements says it is XP compatible. This time it loaded and works well in simulation mode.

My next step was to get the DSPMC plugin installed on the XP system and that's where I found some problems. Now I do have some other PC's with windows 7 on them I plan to test with today since they had no issues loading the DSPMC plugin. If all goes well I will update to a newer windows 7 platform or maybe windows 10.

The main reason for trying Mach4 on XP is because its free (everything for nothing scenario), software requirements state it will run on XP, and I have had too many issues with Mach3 lately that is wreaking havoc with the spindle on my lathe.

Thanks,
protman16
Re: PC requirements for Mach4 with DSPMC
« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2019, 10:05:31 AM »
Hi,
I think the claim that Mach4 can run on XP is correct but in this case its the Vital Systems plugin that is causing
the trouble.

Quite frankly I don't see either NFS or Vital Systems getting exercised about their software running on XP.

Craig

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