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mach3 on cnc masters mill
« on: December 12, 2007, 03:38:19 PM »
 Has anyone installed mach3 control on a cnc masters mill? Their software is very hard to use. And how hard was it to set up the mach3?

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Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2007, 04:46:15 PM »
I have just looked at their brochure and although the control is PC based it uses USB rather than the paralllel port that is most common in Mach. So what this means is it will not be a straight swap over of software. It should still be relatively easy to do though as I presume the USB connection is a form of breakout board which then goes to drives relays etc. If that is the case then you should be able to connect all these wires up to a new breakout board and use that to connect via the parallel port for Mach.
 Can you post some photos of the inside of the control case as that might give more of an idea of how its connected at the moment.
Hood
Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2007, 05:31:27 PM »
 here are some pics. tell me what other info or pictures you need. Thanks for the help.

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Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2007, 06:23:33 PM »
Pics are a bit on the big size ;)
 Does this mill have a seperate computer?
 Where does the USE cable go to from the computer?

Hood
Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2007, 08:04:26 PM »
 yes it has a pc connected to it.
It has a nine pin cable from the computer to the right side of the board.(see pic)
The other nine pin cable goes out of the board to the hand wheel.
 And i do not know how to send the pic smaller, but when you click on the download button they get smaller.

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Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2007, 02:54:31 AM »
It looks like it is more integrated than I thought it would be, also it looks like a serial cable rather than a USB that the manual states. That however doesnt make much difference as Mach doesnt use either for main control at the moment and although there is a device called the SmoothStepper in Beta testing, it uses USB but I dont think it would make the swap over easier.
 What you would probably have to do is work out hows the drives are connected and their pinouts, then the same for buttons etc and then connect them all up to a breakout board. It wont be as easy as just swapping the software but shouldnt be impossible to do.

Hood
Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2009, 04:30:09 PM »
Buvkeye, Does your nickname imply that you are in Ohio.

I have mach3 on my cnc masters. The big ordeal for me was to rebuild their controller using the 4 gecko 201's, they have inside.  iI you're halfway mechanically inclined and have some basic knowledge of these things you can do it easily and it'll run a whole lot more efficient.

When I took their controller apart I saw too many things in there that i didn't agree with, one being the power supply was too small to be sufficeient.
Here's what I did and what it'll cost you change over. 
I first purchased a toroid transformer , if i were you i'd gte from antec, and make sure you have at least 40 volts and probably 15-20 amps, it'll cost you about $60, then you'll need some capacitors, anywhere from 20, 000 mfd to 30000mfd and rated at 75volts  . If you look around you can usually find these fairly reasonable, Brent, on ebay sells them for around$10 as a set(30,000mfd) Next you need a c-11g breakout board from cnc4pc, it'll cost you about $120 with shipping. I'd buy mach 3 from Arturo at cnc4pc also, you'll save $25.

So basically i don't really know that there is an easy fix to change this over to mach 3, just by adding a breakout board. There are quite a few people that say it's not possible to send step and direction signals thru a usb port without losing signals.  There are quite a few limitations to having a usb port on your cnc.

Ok
toroid tranformer @ $60
(30,000)Capacitors, between $10- $30
C-11g breakout board  @ $120
Mach3 $150 ( from cnc 4pc)
Estop switch $13
ac switch , fuse block ,misc 2 $20

So right around $400 and your time to assemble it
Let me tell you a secret. I had the main board go bad on mine just jogging the axis, i never even got to run it with their controller.
I contacted them and their reply was : for $500 we'll look at it , if you send it back, part will be additonal if any needed.

If you need any help changing your over, I'll be gald to help and save you the grief and time i had to go thru rebuilding mine.
my regukar email is gone4pepsi@yahoo.com

Re: mach3 on cnc masters mill
« Reply #7 on: February 15, 2010, 09:36:09 PM »
i have a cnc masters supra and i dont care for there software either .  im not a whiz at the controller aspect but i would like to see some pics of your controller you built (if you would''nt mind.) so i can see if it is something i could accomplish on my own .  i really hate to quirks that this software and controller has it has cost me several hundred dollars in broken tooling .
thanks
kevin 

 dwg at wind stream dot net can get me !!