Where are Mach3 outputs #4, #5 and #6 on the PCB board?

I've got one of my servos to work and spindle too but now I'm getting extremely frustrated with this board or more frustrated with the lack of support. There are so many questions even here without answers, nobody seems to care, its soon like with those Chinese Hit-And-Run crappy cards. I tried to create a support Ticket to ask them "guys".  However when I tried to register for creating a ticket (multiple times, even using 3 different email addresses)  no response email ever got back to me.

The biggest problem now seems to be the crappy manual and there the lack of IO mapping from Mach3 to the PCB. There isn't even one word to explain where Output #1, #2,#3, #4,#5, #6 are on the PCB even though they are all over the program and Mach. Everything seems to be explained from the PCBs perspective not realizing that ppl need to get it from Mach to PCB too. A simple map/list would do to make things clearer. Making the IO status window non-modal so that one could experiment with IO without constantly closing and re-opening windows would help a lot and minimize frustration.

In EU lack of proper user manuals makes a product faulty and a proper reason to return the goods. I have now wondered why on earth did I buy this controller as SmoothStepper has been there for ages and has but good reviews. All the extra time spent with poor design - product and manuals - can get very expensive.

So please, where are Mach3 outputs #4, #5 and #6 on the PCB board? I also need to use an external 8 relay board and get signals for them. What would be the most straightforward way to accomplish this.

Thanks!

 

OK; I may be starting to understand better about the IO, but it is still quite confusing. The net seems filled with similar questions regarding this card. Been working long hours all this week to get the thing working and to replace old Parallel Port cards with this. I would like to get some more light of how to connect and external 8 relay board, I want to get all AC connections into a separate box outside the controller cabinet.

Thanks.

Well, it seems that there aren't enough (8pcs) DO5 type pins that can drain the relay boards inputs. The (only) solution I can see now is to use the DIO33 pins of the LCD connector and use a transistor array inbetween to drain the relay boards inputs to ground. This is a very basic relay board which you can find from multiple sellers.

There is also the option to buy a Pokeys CAN module which has 8 relays. The problem with that unit is that it only allows 7 Amps for 250Vac which is not enough even for my vacuum suction.

Yet another thing with which one needs to be careful is that to me it seems the PoKeys mapping window wrongly allows a Pokeys pins Function to be define as Output while the manual says that said pin is only of type DI33P so not DIO33. For instance, starting from Pendants pin 10 which also is Pokeys pin3 in the mapping as said in its comment.

OK; I may be starting to understand better about the IO, but it is still quite confusing. The net seems filled with similar questions regarding this card. Been working long hours all this week to get the thing working and to replace old Parallel Port cards with this. I would like to get some more light of how to connect and external 8 relay board, I want to get all AC connections into a separate box outside the controller cabinet.

Thanks.

I now of course realize how ignorant my first question was but thats how it goes when things aren't explained clearly and you are getting a bit tired. 

Hi Ftec, have you had any success with this? I recently got a Porelay8 which I would like to run with Mach3 paired with Pokeys57cnc. I did ask tech support at Polabs if they had any tutorials or worked examples of mating the Mach3 outputs with Pokeys but the reply I received was so vague that it was basically useless. I looks like Mach4 is far easier to pair but I thought I might look into Mach3 a little further before committing to upgrading.

Yes, I got them working indeed, I'm using the LCD connector pins for outputs.  Attached a pic of my pokeys setup for those outputs and below the commands for them to be put in a m script.

What I could read from Pokeys manual about allowed current drain limits for DIO33 outputs I decided to use an ULN2803A darlington array inbetween, they can take the heavy load.

About Mach4, I'm overhauling my over 10 years old machine and I have Aqua screen as Mach3 screen and have become quite familiar with it. It does not have enough buttons for all outputs (one could edit the screen though) but as I will command many of the outputs directly from G-code using m scrips I wil manage without a button for every output. My Pokeys test setup is still in test bench with everything working in the setup (including VFD, a new servo motor and a Probe input) but I have not assembled it in the actual machine yet. If everything works as well as now in reality I don't see any reason to upgrade to Mach4.

ON:
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT3)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT4)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT5)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT6)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT7)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT8)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT9)
ActivateSignal(OUTPUT10)

OFF:
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT3)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT4)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT5)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT6)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT7)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT8)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT9)
DeactivateSignal(OUTPUT10)

Cheers and Good luck!

Edit: VFD, not VFC

Deleted.

Sorry, I mean vica versa, multiple Pins can drive same output.

Ftec, thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'll get to and see if I can get it up and running.

Ftec, thank you so much for the detailed reply. I'll get to and see if I can get it up and running.

I just realized that you got the Porelay8 card from Pokeys, the CAN bus driven relay card. That's not similar to mine and is a totally different animal. What I explained applies to those 3rd party cheap 8 relay cards and not to a CAN bus driven device. Sorry about that.

OK, thanks anyway.