Breakout Board expandability...CNCdrive based control system

[Neale]

I suspect that you have not quite understood the way the set of 5 ports works on the UC300/400. You can plug a BOB into port 1, and that gives you access to the various I/O pins 1-25. You can plug a second BOB into port 2, and that gives you access to I/O pins 1-25 - but this time they are labelled Port 2/Pin 1, for example. Similarly, you can plug BOBs into ports 3-5 for additional I/O. Port 1/pin 1, Port 2 pin 1, Port 3/pin 1, etc, are all different connections and that is how you get access to the enormous number of I/O pins. You don't need to reuse the step/dir pins. I know that the UC300ETH manual is slightly ambiguous about the analogue port, but if you look at the UC300USB manual which has the same output port configuration, the description is better. It might be worth reading both manuals for descriptions of the digital I/O ports and pins as well but I haven't read those parts of the manuals myself. I'm sure that the ETH manual version will be corrected in a later version.

[Ger21]

If you run the UCCNC software in demo mode, and select the UC300ETH-5LPT, the diagnostics page shows you which pins can be used for inputs and outputs.

[Lee Roberts]

I suspect that you have not quite understood the way the set of 5 ports works on the UC300/400. You can plug a BOB into port 1, and that gives you access to the various I/O pins 1-25. You can plug a second BOB into port 2, and that gives you access to I/O pins 1-25 - but this time they are labelled Port 2/Pin 1, for example. Similarly, you can plug BOBs into ports 3-5 for additional I/O. Port 1/pin 1, Port 2 pin 1, Port 3/pin 1, etc, are all different connections and that is how you get access to the enormous number of I/O pins.

This was true for me Neale so thanks for making it clear.

[John S]

Like pulling bloody teeth isn't it ?

So where is the missing link that tells you what pins to connect what to because I'm sure it's not that simple that you can connect to whatever you want ?

[Neale]

I assume if you're using it with Mach3, you use the usual ports-and-pins mapping page. Don't know about UCCNC as I've never seen it. Guess that there's an equivalent set-up screen?

Trouble is, put all the detail in the manual and you confuse people. Don't put in every last detail and someone will bitch. Best bet is probably put in enough for someone intelligent and knowledgeable, and kick off with something like, "if you don't understand this, ask yourself if you should be doing it by yourself. Why not ask someone who does know what they're doing?" Actually, that's probably where this forum kicks in!

[Ger21]

It's not that complicated.
The software is free to try, download it and install it.

The choice of motherboard determines which pins can be used for inputs and outputs.

With the 5LPT motherboard from CNC Drive, ports 2 and 3 are the same pinouts as standard parallel ports. (1-9, 14, 16, 17 Outputs ----- 10-13, 15 Inputs)
Ports 1,4, and 5 use pins 2-9 as inputs. (1, 14, 16, 17 Outputs------2-13, 15 Inputs)

It's just like using a parallel port, except that you have 5 of them.

[Lee Roberts]

actually, that's probably where this forum kicks in!

I love you !

It's just like using a parallel port, except that you have 5 of them.

Cheers Gerry we would be lost without you...off to read your PM now !

[Ger21]

Here's the diagnostic page showing the pinout, and some setup pages.

[John S]

I think after Christmas, too much to do before, I'll have to get one and have a play as regards getting lathe running.

There are very few, in fact no cheap alternatives for lathe.
The £400 Chinese lathe controller works and works well but it's mainly suited to production runs where you know the code and trust the controller.

My customers would just love a Mach3 lathe program that worked for worked read threading but it's not going to happen.
It would be nice if this UCCNC plug in worked but I think it's more the fault of how Mach works than anything else but Gerry has shown that you can make UCCNC look like Mach so it could well be the next best thing.

When we did the first Sieg X3 milling machine kits the box of tricks came with a story book that basically said bolt this to that etc, etc and when It came to the electronics it has very clear colour pictures of where each wire went, what colour and why.

We even had guys as old as 84 build these and it's this that is missing from a lot of the conversions nowadays.

I think I need to talk to these people after Christmas.