Mach3 and USB to cnc driver

[Silver]

You can't do away with the conversion process. You will always need a motion controller, a BOB and drivers. The blue card is your BOB and drivers combined to one. Buying a new genuine UC100 is not waste of money if the rest of the machine is working. But of course, buying a UC400 would be even better because that way you can do away with the USB.

So..

Even if I replace the BOB with an external unit such as the DDCSv2.1 or a board with smoothie firmware I will still nee the UC100?

I'm a little confused now as I understood that the UC100 was just for converting the PP to a USB configuration !

[Neale]

I'm a little confused now as I understood that the UC100 was just for converting the PP to a USB configuration !

Indeed, that is part of the confusion. It's not obvious from the outside but the UC100 is not a USB to PP converter. Yes, it looks like it is, but it actually has a lot of added intelligence inside. To drive a CNC machine, you need something to read gcode, analyse it, work out where the axes need to move, and generate several series of precisely-timed pulses to drive each axis. Plus a user interface and the various housekeeping jobs like homing, managing limit switches, etc. Mach3 is OK for most of this, but can struggle with generating the precise timing that is needed for the various pulse trains to make a machine run smoothly at speed. Actually, the limiting factor is Windows, for various reasons, but we don't need to worry about that level of detail. The UC100 offloads the time-critical bits of the job - the pulse generation - and leaves Mach3 to do the bits it's better at. Again, this is an over-simplification but the general principle is correct. The UC100 is designed the way it is so that you can upgrade an existing PP system just by inserting the UC100, and installing and configuring its Mach3 plugin. If you have a spare usb port, it's as easy as that.

The UC100 is in current production with full support from its makers; I've no idea what's inside the fake versions but they are notoriously unreliable. You could think of the UC100 a bit like a grbl board - it does some of the trajectory planning ("where is the machine going?") and pulse generation, but needs something else to feed it gcode. My limited experience of grbl is that it works ok within its limitations but the various user interface options available are very limited; the UC100 works very well indeed and supports full Mach3 user interface functionality.

Additionally, because the UC100 offloads the time-critical bits, it allows Mach3 to run on versions of Windows which do not use the PP.

[Silver]

Again, this is an over-simplification but the general principle is correct. The UC100 is designed the way it is so that you can upgrade an existing PP system just by inserting the UC100, and installing and configuring its Mach3 plugin. If you have a spare usb port, it's as easy as that.

Additionally, because the UC100 offloads the time-critical bits, it allows Mach3 to run on versions of Windows which do not use the PP.

Yes, I understand that part of the information and fully support using the UC100 and would bin the one I have that the previous owner purchase. That I fully understand but what I cant get is I said earlier that rather than spending money on the PP to USB convertor why don't I put that money towards another BOB or external unit that is either flashed or direct USB controlled

A_camera said
"I can not do away with the conversion process, you will always need a motion controller" Indicating that I would always need the UC100. This is the bit I don't understand.

[Neale]

Couple of key points:

- you said that you are running W10/64. You cannot run Mach3 with parallel port on W10/64 (it just does not work), so you are going to need an external motion controller. This could be USB or ethernet but using the parallel port is a definite nono with your Windows version. That is why just replacing the BOB isn't going to make a difference - you don't have anywhere to plug it in except for a proper UC100 as you cannot use a PC parallel port (if your PC even has one - they are becoming uncommon on modern machines)

- When I say "external motion controller" (and the UC100 is one of these) I most definitely mean motion controller. You cannot use a USB-to-parallel converter. These are available but are really intended for use with things like printers which are not very critical with respect to signal timing. CNC machines, on the other hand, are very sensitive to signal timing which is why the simple converters do not work. Your "external unit that is either flashed or direct USB controlled" is, in reality, a motion controller.

- what I have said here also explains A_Camera's comment - you cannot drive your machine with a simple BOB directly from the PC because the BOB wants to plug into a parallel port and even if your PC has one, it cannot use it with the W10/64/Mach3 conbination, unfortunately. So you need an external motion controller. The UC100 plus cheap BOB is probably the most cost-effective combination available and it is the kind of thing that everyone starting from scratch these days is going to need because of the W10/no parallel port issue. There are more sophisticated motion controllers available that use ethernet rather than USB, have built-in BOB functionality, etc, but generally these are going to cost more than the UC100+BOB option.

[Silver]

Couple of key points:

- you said that you are running W10/64. You cannot run Mach3 with parallel port on W10/64 (it just does not work), so you are going to need an external motion controller. This could be USB or ethernet but using the parallel port is a definite nono with your Windows version. That is why just replacing the BOB isn't going to make a difference - you don't have anywhere to plug it in except for a proper UC100 as you cannot use a PC parallel port (if your PC even has one - they are becoming uncommon on modern machines)

- When I say "external motion controller" (and the UC100 is one of these) I most definitely mean motion controller. You cannot use a USB-to-parallel converter. These are available but are really intended for use with things like printers which are not very critical with respect to signal timing. CNC machines, on the other hand, are very sensitive to signal timing which is why the simple converters do not work. Your "external unit that is either flashed or direct USB controlled" is, in reality, a motion controller.

- what I have said here also explains A_Camera's comment - you cannot drive your machine with a simple BOB directly from the PC because the BOB wants to plug into a parallel port and even if your PC has one, it cannot use it with the W10/64/Mach3 conbination, unfortunately. So you need an external motion controller. The UC100 plus cheap BOB is probably the most cost-effective combination available and it is the kind of thing that everyone starting from scratch these days is going to need because of the W10/no parallel port issue. There are more sophisticated motion controllers available that use ethernet rather than USB, have built-in BOB functionality, etc, but generally these are going to cost more than the UC100+BOB option.

Thankyou, so moving to the likes of an external BOB or such as the DDCSv2.1 with external stepper drivers means I don't need the UC100

I appreciate that investing in the UC100 and plugging direct to my existing system is a quick fix..

BUT, im one for saying in ivest that in to upgrading the BOB or new motion controller that does away with the "converters" so to speak. Even investing 200 to 300 GBP would future proof things for me and I could also use the controllers for a new bigger machine if needed.

[Ger21]

The UC100 is a motion controller for use with either Mach3 or UCCNC.

The DDCS is a complete standalone controller, that requires no other hardware.

[Silver]

The UC100 is a motion controller for use with either Mach3 or UCCNC.

The DDCS is a complete standalone controller, that requires no other hardware.

Exactly my point, so putting the money towards the upgrade rather than buying the UC100 would be a better option..

I don't like spending money on a "Fix" rather spend more money to get it right first time rather than spending money on something that would be obsolete in a few years time..