Hi,

Can someone tell me what parts are required with the USB connection and the SmoothStepper?

Really not much....

First a small explanation that may help. Machs trajectory planner produces numeric data which describe the controlled point in 1 millisecond time slices. The familiar Mach parallel port
takes that numeric data and generates pulse stream to the motors to enact the commands. Machs parallel port did a pretty good job, but it was and still is, FAR from what a PC is good at.

An external motion controller like a UC100 or a SmoothStepper takes the numeric data and converts it into pulse streams. The hardware of the controller is vastly better, faster and more
accurate than a PC is at the same job.

A UC100 is USB connected to the PC and that's how it gets the numeric data from Mach and produces the pulse streams on a DB25 socket. You could plug your G540 straight into it,
nothing extra required.

A SmoothStepper  is Ethernet connected and that's how it gets its data from Mach and it produces pulse streams onto an IDC26 pin socket that replicates a parallel port. With a IDC-to-DB25 adaptor cable
you can plug you G540 straight in, nothing extra required. The ESS actually has three parallel output ports so you could have the G540 plugged into port 1 and if you still want more inputs or outputs
you could plug simple and cheap parallel breakout boards plugged into ports 2&3 to have an extra 34IO's....if you want them.

When I changed from a parallel port to an ESS seven years ago all those extra inputs and output are a pure luxury after having to combine things cleverly with a much more limited parallel port.
For instance I have one input for each of my six limit switches and another three inputs for my home switches, for a total of nine inputs......because I've got them. Mach NEVER gets confused between
a Home event and a Limit event because they are all on individual circuits.....pure luxury, and that doesn't count the five inputs I use for a wired pendant, nor the dedicated Probe input.

Craig

Much appreciated Craig for your time and that’s what I wanted. At least now I know a bit more of these new to me setups. I have been reading on the web to further educate myself and if/when you have the time please let me know the answer to my question below.

Perhaps I misunderstood but I read that using UC100, Mach3 is not required. If that’s true then how where do you arrange the settings which we normally use on Mach3 screen? What kind of a screen you have in your PC?

So regardless if I choose to use the UC100 or SmoothStepper I will still need drivers for the steppers + a BOB with capabilities to connect my spindle.

My thanks again

Hi,
the UC100 is made by CNCDrive and their software is called UCCNC. If you are familiar with Mach3 you would also be happy with UCCNC.
The UC100 requires at least one CNC software, so either Mach3 (or Mach4) or UCCNC. If you stick with Mach3 then you will install a plugin
supplied by CNCDrive and that will allow you to make pin assignments and other stuff you are already familiar with.

So regardless if I choose to use the UC100 or SmoothStepper I will still need drivers for the steppers + a BOB with capabilities to connect my spindle.

Yes, re-reading your initial post I realise you don't have a G540....when I assumed that you  have one already. As you know the G540 has four stepper drivers built-in and doubles
as a breakout board. If you want bigger or better stepper drivers then a breakout board and individual drivers are required.

Craig

Gosh Craig looks like you know everything lol and I’m happy about it. Yes I do know Mach3 and very well actually so that clears my question about the UC100

I don’t have a G540 but I have use them before a few times and they are pretty good, but expensive and I will look if 4 drivers + BOB are much less expensive otherwise I will stick with the G540. I used to buy them from Keling (now they are called I think Automation…something). I don’t want anything better than Gecko and I remember the G540 was able to run nicely the Sherline spindle I have with the VS controller but I had to use a relay which is nothing special.

Thanks again for your time

Hi,
G540's used to be about $300, and given the quality I'd say pretty good value.

If there were one limitation that I don't like about a G540 is the 50VDC max input voltage, I'd much prefer 80VDC if not higher.
There are plenty of good Chinese made stepper drivers of 80VDC input and up to 6A-8A outputs for around $70.00

Four such drivers is $280 and you'd still need a breakout board....so $300 for a G540 starts to look pretty good.

Craig

I agree Craig, G540 is a good unit at a good price. Problem for me is the shipping cost from USA to Canada which since the mid 21’s and after the postal strike down there went up by a lot.

Looking now to see if I can get it locally but for sure I will still have to buy the rest parts from USA or China so it needs a lot of work to figure out where I get what I need.

Hi,
apparently UPS is not accepting any mail for Australia or New Zealand and has not done so for a while.

Craig

I’m surprised Craig and I don’t know the reason but there is one think I want to say about the Yanks, they are a bloody lucky blocks cause they have everything right in their feet!

Ethernet has nothing to do with usb!  It's an alternative for connecting the pc to the motion controller.  The ESS has the same function as the UC100 that I mentioned except it has an ethernet cable rather than USB.  It's also about twice the price.  Whether you need the additional performance is doubtful in a hobby machine, as I mentioned I've found the uc100 works fine.  Whichever you choose you also need a BoB between the motion controller and the drives.  The uc100 is more compact than the ess which is about the size of a typical BoB.

Hi,
the UC100 is not a patch on an ESS.

Firstly its about USB verses Ethernet, Ethernet wins hands down in latency and noise immunity.

The UC100 maxes out at 100kHz whereas an ESS is good to 4Mhz, that is 40 times faster!.

The UC100 has 17 IOs whereas an ESS has 51 IOs, that is three times more.

Whether you need the additional performance is doubtful in a hobby machine,

A UC100 could not hope to run my mill, I require a pulse output rate to the servos of 416.66kHz. I have
21 digital inputs, nine for limits and homes, one for a probe, one for an Estop and five for a wired pendant.
The remaining five inputs are alarms, one for each axis. I have 10 differential outputs for up to five axes,
two outputs for the spindle, one of those is PWM and another output for the coolant pump, and one output
as an Enable commoned to all axes.

That's a total of 35 IOs....but that's OK I've still got 16 IOs in reserve

The ESS has arguably the most complete Mach4 plugin with realtime supports for backlash comp, single
point lathe threading, spindle PID, realtime plasma torch height control. The UC100 misses on all of those
features. The manufacturer of the UC100, CNCDrive, is naturally more interested in promoting their own
software rather than Mach and so it dubious that the UC100 will ever have a competing Mach plugin.

The UC100 is 80Euro or $89USD. The ESS is $190USD, so is indeed about twice the price but the ESS
is SO much more than double the motion control solution.

Craig