Isel 4433 - Can I use Mach3 with it?

[john swift]

yes thats why I said in post 7
"a generic breakout board connected to an old PC's parallel printer port will be cheaper"

an old 32 bit windows 7 PC* with a parallel printer port will work

the smooth stepper emulates 3 printer ports and can be added later once you have the cnc machine working
(* mach3 only works with a parallel printerport when using a 32bit OS)

laptops can be a problem , built in power saving features clash with mach3's low level control of the printer port
some laptops don't have a proper parallel printer port
they have a USB to parallel printer port converter that only works with printers !

John

[loudew]

Sorry John, I misread that! So this wouldn't harm accuracy?
Thanks,
L

[Doddy]

loudew: A BoB might introduce a degree of uncertainty (what I mean is that it's dependent on the performance of the host PC, rather than offloading the motion control onto the controller), BUT... you've got a journey to travel to understand how the build-up the machine. If cost is an issue then a £5-£10 BoB can introduce a degree of predictable control provided that you have a desktop with a parallel port and typically XP o/s. The worst case is that you're out the £5/£10, but other cases are that when you later decide whether to introduce a motion controller then you might well re-use the BoB (e.g. the UCxxx motion controllers).

I would say, though, is cost is sensitive then hold off buying anything until you take possession of the machine and a screwdriver.

[loudew]

Okay. I think my budget for this solution is around £40. I don't have a spare winXP machine, I have a spare win10 machine but it doesn't have a parallel port either. If only there was a cheaper ESS! Thank you both for the help
L

EDIT:
What do you think about this? Firstly, is it the correct thing? Will it work?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-3-Axi....c100005.m1851

EDIT 2:
or this?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-Axis-50...75.c100623.m-1


EDIT 3:
Or this?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MACH3-4Ax....c100005.m1851

[Doddy]

There are several threads of USB vs Ethernet motion controllers - it would be worth researching these. I've never used a USB controller (though the seller of the Starmill that I picked up did). I've the ethernet version of the first link (a NVEM controller), which is okay, works, but nothing special.

Ignoring the prejudice against the USB motion controllers (and many people do use them) then they could be an affordable alternative to the parallel BoB.

Regarding your budget - remember, the BoB or motion controller is only a small part of the overall solution. You might find that you need to buy stepper drivers as well - at a cost of £20 upwards each. This, and the underlying PSU will help to define the performance that you can expect from the machine - you need to go into this with eyes wide-open on the likely costs.

[loudew]

Okay. I will research into Ethernet VS USB. Is the stepper control pulse output rating anything to take into account? It seems the cheaper I go, the lower the frequency. I am hoping that it is just the board I need to replace - will try and look at the electronics on Monday.
Cheers,
L

EDIT:
Could using the software KAY be a way to get around the issue of not being able to load G-Code?
Thanks
L

[loudew]

Sorry to continually bother you with my ridiculous inquiries, but I have been looking at TB6600 stepper drivers on eBay and have found these. If I do need to buy stepper drivers, would these suffice?
As I said, I am a newbie when it comes to CNCs (and a 16 year-old with no income!) so I do apologize if any of my questions are ridiculous!
Thanks
L

Drivers:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TB6600-Si...3fa9e22480dcd0

[Doddy]

Okay. I will research into Ethernet VS USB. Is the stepper control pulse output rating anything to take into account? It seems the cheaper I go, the lower the frequency. I am hoping that it is just the board I need to replace - will try and look at the electronics on Monday.
Cheers,
L

The pulse frequency describes a relationship with the maximum axis velocity. Imagine:- Let's say your machine has a 5mm screw pitch, but say a 2:1 belt drive (not unusual) giving an effective 2.5mm pitch (1 revolution of the stepper, through the 2:1 drive results in half a revolution of the screw, therefore the nut will travel 2.5mm). Now lets say that you have 16 micro steps configured for whatever reason - again, not an unusual number, and that your stepper has 200 steps per revolution. With micro-stepping, that gives 16x200 = 3200 steps per revolution, or, with the belt reduction and screw pitch, that's 3200 steps per 2.5mm of travel. Now, factor in the motion controller's frequency - let's say it's 50kHz - or 50,000 times a second, then that infers the maximum axis velocity would be 50,000/3,200 x 2.5 mm/second, or a little under 40mm/second (someone check my math - too early in the morning and that final G&T last night was one too many).

As to what feed rate you need - much depends on what you're cutting, how you're cutting, your tooling and the machine's own limits. I'm not comfortable to advise in that direction - that's for you to research (google "Feeds and Speeds").

For reference, on my cheap XP machine, pre-motion controller I was using a kernel speed of 25kHz on a small desktop milling machine.

EDIT:
Could using the software KAY be a way to get around the issue of not being able to load G-Code?
Thanks
L

No experience - I'll let others comment if they know the software.