About to fall down the rabbit hole ??

[cropwell]

Can you remember the operating system ? e.g. Windows XP Home, Windows XP Pro etc etc. Do you have a sticker on the computer with the operating system details and product key ?
If so I am sure I can get you a Windows setup CD-Rom. If you don't know what you are doing get the computer to a specialist.


If you have these then the system can be rebuilt, but it is essential that you have a clone copy of the hard drive before you start. There a a number of essential files you need to secure.

Cheers, Rob

[Ollie78]

Cropwell

Thanks for the reply. I think it is definitely an xp system, though I can`t say if it is pro or home etc. No licence sticker or anything is on the chasis.
I tried a basic download of the recovery partition but I didn`t want to go any further. I was thinking of trying a usb bootable linux version to try and recover the files but it has been ages since I did that sort of thing.
I will get my brother to see if he can rescue the system or at least the drive, he has access to some rescue software for this sort of thing.

Longer term though I think a more modern system might be in order.

Ollie

[Ollie78]

It looks like the hard drive is dead. We tried various ways to get it sorted but no luck.

So I guess I will start from scratch with a newer PC which will hopefully offer good future proofing and reliability.

I have purchased a UC300 ethernet motion controller and a 5 volt power supply from CNC Drive so I will attach this to the existing control box setup.

Not sure what PC to get at this point. Obviously I don`t want to spend loads of money.

The choice I need to make is do I just get a lower powered PC to run the machine or get one at least capable of editing in fusion 360.
My workshop is 20 minutes away from my house and I could see it being a problem if I couldn`t just make a quick adjustment to a file or something without driving back home.

Apparently the Ryzen 2400g apu`s will run fusion quite well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWwcStt868 (I have a Ryzen5 1600 in my home PC, it is fast and cheap)

Does anyone have any thoughts about this?
What Computers are you running?

And finally, if you were starting from scratch at this point in time, with no experience of either. Would mach3 or UCCNC be the best choice ?

Thanks

Ollie

[cropwell]

It looks like the hard drive is dead.
Not sure what PC to get at this point. Obviously I don`t want to spend loads of money.

I would rebuild the system on a new hard drive (That is because I have all the OS and software disks and several spare hard drives and no money)

I run Mach3 on a very old machine - a 32bit Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 896MB of RAM with Windows XP home installed. Mach3 doesn't need wizzy wizzy power. It is connected up to my home network, but the Internet Gateway is disabled as there is no virus protection. I regard Microsoft in the same category as malicious software. Apart from a couple of hard disk failures (crappy old drives !) The machine is stable and all my data and essential files (xml and licences etc) are copied on to the NAS drive.

As my new main machine, I have a 64bit Windows 10 installed on an Intel i3 3.6GHz processor, it runs Fusion better than my old machine, which limped through it like a pig on stilts. I have only been seriously using Win10 for a couple of weeks and I now seriously loathe Microsoft. My old machine is a Win7 machine which I intend to use by remote desktopping, but I need to set up a control panel to switch it on and reset it, when the machine is tucked away. All my files are on it at the moment and I am in the process of moving them onto the NAS drive.

If you are wanting to use Fusion in your workshop, you will need t'Interweb there. Maybe I am stating the bleeding obvious

That's the way I am set up and it works for me (apart from the process of change which is in progress).

Cheers,

Rob

[AndyGuid]

. . . . . . I regard Microsoft in the same category as malicious software. . . . . . . . I have only been seriously using Win10 for a couple of weeks and I now seriously loathe Microsoft. . . . . . . . My old machine is a Win7 machine which I intend to use

Rob, although some might say the opposite, I have no doubt that the two of us great minds think alike.

Your antipodean twin.

[Ollie78]

Hello CNC people.

I have made finally made some small progress with my machine, however it is a case of two steps forward one step back.

After the old PC died completely, I bought a second hand PC with an i5 and a basic graphics card with a fresh windows 10 install.
Then I managed to get the UC300eth all set up with UCCNC (after getting the correct ethernet lead, DOH !!). The software registered with the uc300 and it did an update and I checked the ports were working etc.

However I now have 2 issues, the first is that one of the leadshine sps705 power supplies is behaving oddly. When I turn on the power to the "control box" where the power supplies and stepper drivers are along with the BOB, everything turns on great green lights on both power supplies and all 3 stepper drivers. (the bob is powered by 5v off usb)
Then after a period of time (can be 10 minutes or 45 minutes) the bottom power supply will show a red led instead of green and all the other green LED`s turn off.
I have checked all the wires are physically tight and connected on everything I can see (one wire was a bit loose so I re-did it with a new spade connector). The problem persists and I am wondering if the power supply might be dead.
Any ideas how to test it ?

My other issue is the initial setup of the machine with the software.

I understand that I must find out the PIN OUTS from the BOB. This is listed on the uniport v2 pdf and seems to tally with what is physically attached. So when I am in the configuration/axis menu of UCCNC I see the pin section has Step pin/ Dir pin/ Enable pin. (I will not worry about limit and home pins yet.)
I can find the step and dir pins on the BOB but which one is the Enable pin ?
Also in the next column it has an option for POrt number next to each pin section. Does the port just refer to the one I have plugged the parallel ribbon in to (ie port 2) on the uc300eth ?

Sorry for the dumb questions but it has been frying my brain a bit today. I am sure it will be simple once I "get it".

Many thanks

Ollie

[Ollie78]

Quick update

Getting some progress. I switched the position of the power supplies as they are both identical and the same one was giving me the red light so I was more confident it was a Knackered power supply not another short. So I bought an identical one and installed it this fixed the problem with that bit anyway.
Next managed to sort out my pin outs. With some very good assistance from the cncdrive forum I found out I had the charge pump signal pin in the wrong area so I removed this pin out from the axis menus and put the value in the I/O configuration page. So now it jogs in all axis nicely and I can move on to the E stop and limit switches.

Woohoo

Ollie