Meanwhile - even more of a hack - Windows is being used to drive the signals via real-time bit-flipping, despite the fact that Windows is not a real-time operating system, or at least not without yet more hacking. where the "break out" seems to be little more than the reproduction of a parallel port. 30 years later, Ι see what appear to be sophisticated interface / break-out boards with ethernet interfaces. It must be acknowledged that using a parallel port in this way started out as a hack workaround, a way to avoid the expense of a purpose-designed interface card. I find it endlessly fascinating that the venerable parallel port continues to play such an integral role in both the Mach and LinuxCNC environments. Have laptops sold in other parts of the world have continued to offer that slot?Īs someone who once made a living working with / designing embedded systems. I haven't seen as pcmcia expansion slot on a laptop here in the US in at least a decade, maybe more. I bought the UC100 from Amazon and found the software to install it here CNCdrive - motion controlsĬlick to expand.Hmm. I have been saving an old PC-64 bit with Win 7 installed for this purpose. Not wanting to spend a lot of money I opted to try the UC100 parallel port adapter (motion controller) for a USB port. Beware it might be only another way to learn the hard way, that it all seems to be: You get what you pay for. In that case I think a parallel ports system is an excellent starting point, because often you can get a free PC from obsolescence pile.Ĭheap 3d printer controllers might be an option for the hunter of the cheap but amazing CNC hardware. If I debug a shitty controller, because it is part of my hobby to debug shitty controllers. I think people tend to not value their own time enough. If I debug my shitty controller, hate debugging controllers and do this instead of building my other projects. Spending "big bucks" can safe time, but comes at increased purchase cost. Not because I think the Parallel port is still going strong, but I think it is not quite dead yet as long as so many older machines are still using it and at the same time hardware can be found free of charge in many occasions. I found out about this option far too late, so I advertise it (maybe too agressive ). I think it still can make sense to use a 2nd hand vintage PC to run Mach3 or Linux-cnc, if you do not want to touch the parallel interface on an existing machine, or if you got the PC for free because it was obsolete for someone else.Ī 10 USD Parallel card can save an obsolete PC from junk pile. Mentioned UC100 seems still do use the parallel interface of the machine side of things or not? Just because I thought it is nice to have an independent experimenting system. One refused to run the linux cnc stable, one is running linux cnc, the third one is a ready to run backup. I ended up buying three vintage PCs for about 90 USD plus 30 USD for some parallel interface cards. To be honest I thought of retiring it at some point too. Just curious: Did you have bad experience with "fakes" or are you deducting that your systems are working because they are original?įrom my personal experience with Computer systems it seems often to be a matter of pure luck if a system works or not. And you may need a gender adaptor for a parallel port. Actually if your old PC is as old as mine was you will probably need a new keyboard and may need to setup your hotkeys. The first time you load Mach 3 a popup screen will prompt you to select the port, select the UC100 port. Load the UC100 Installer and a popup screen will let you load the drivers and the plugin for Mach 3. That will transfer your license and setup files. To set things up correctly you must install Mach 3 on the new computer and then copy the original Mach 3 directory from your old PC over the Mach 3 directory on the new computer. The UC100 should work on all windows versions from 7 thru 10. I bought the UC100 from Amazon and found the software to install it here I was expecting that to happen so I had backed up my Mach 3 program a while back so I wouldn't lose the setup for my CNC router table. My old PC with a parallel port lost its magic smoke and died.
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