A reliable breakout board

[terry1956]

Hi chaps. I am looking for a reliable breakout board. This is for a lathe running off Mach 3. Must be USB compatible as all my computer don’t have a printer port and I am not too sure about the UC100,s etc. there are lots on Amazon and a few which look like they are tarted up boards at a higher price. I was using a CS-Labs smooth stepper but they have put their prices up a fair bit and with postage and import tax would make this too expensive now.
So what’s a reliable board that I will not need to spend weeks trying to get mach3 ports and pins correct. Thanks

[dh42]

Hello

The UC100USB must be connected to a standard parallel port breakout board (bob) as the ST-V2 or equivalent (the UC100 is only a motion controller with no bob integrated)... If you already have the machine in parallel port you just need to connect the UC100 to the bob, no change to the Mach3 settings, the ports & pins number stay unchanged and you can use the same profile file, you just need to said Mach3 that the UC100 must be used when you run the profile for the first time with an UC100. (be careful, there is Chinese fake of the UC100USB .. if you buy an UC100, buy it directly at CNCdrive to be sure !!)

Chinese bob like NVUM and similar are not expensive but not really reliable and they do not always manage all Mach3 features, like the features for the laser (M10/M11), for the plasma (TCH) or for the threading (lathe). It is a "combo" board (motion controller + integrated bob)

The USB is also not the more stable, it is sensible to "noise" (EMI), if possible, prefer Ethernet, all PC can drive through Ethernet.

A good choice can be a UC400ETH (cncdrive) if you already have a // bob, so same thing that the UC100USB but in Ethernet. If you don't have a // bob and start from scratch, have a look to the AXBBE (cncdrive), it is a combo motion controller + integrated bob that have a very good compatibility with Mach3 ... and also works with UCCNC. It manage turning features (as all CNCdrive board) and all specifics functions like the M10/M11, THC .. the only features that it same not manage is the slow down when we approach the limits.

http://shop.cncdrive.com/index.php?categoryID=114

++
David