Mach3 and USB to cnc driver

[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.