Isel 4433 - Can I use Mach3 with it?

[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.