Two Machines from one PC

[cropwell]

I am long term friends with owner of Computer Services Nottingham. If my Mach 3 PC crashed, I would get an old machine for free, that somebody has traded in and load it up with my software from the mirrored NAS box. I speak from experience. That way you get a PC good enough to run the fairly low demands of Mach3 and with a parallel port.

My systems are all networked and the Mach3 machine has the Internet Gateway disabled, so no stupid interruptions. All my Gcode is generated on my Win10 machine and filed in the NAS box, so a hard drive failure on the CNC machine has low impact.

Even my 3D Printer has a Wifi enabled SD card, so I can download to it easily.

[magicniner]

See how it goes, but a fundamental misunderstanding of how Mach3 works with the PP seems to be at the heart of the assumption that this will not be problematic.

[cropwell]

See how it goes, but a fundamental misunderstanding of how Mach3 works with the PP seems to be at the heart of the assumption that this will not be problematic.

In order to control the PP effectively Mach 3 has its own driver with high priority control of interrupts. That is why I endorse a separate machine. It simply takes control of the interrupts, which can severely affect any other software running.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Best would be 2 machine and no PC. Each machine its own controller. Why people love so much mach3 when dedicated controllers are so much better and cheap nowadays, i dont get it. Obviously the desire for suffering...

[ngwagwa]

And it works!
Ran both machines today cuting fresh air from the same PC for several hours without any issues. The only thing I still need to do is connect 2 keyboards and mice to the PC.

[cropwell]

And it works!
Ran both machines today cuting fresh air from the same PC for several hours without any issues. The only thing I still need to do is connect 2 keyboards and mice to the PC.

Then you will need a KVM, but be careful you get one that operates backwards as they are normally 1 Kb & Mouse for 2 PCs - you would be better off with a mechanically switched one. Like this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sienoc-Port...c-fefa6b9989e1 although the sockets are the wrong way round

[ngwagwa]

I am hoping I wont need a KVM as I already have both of the monitors working and I am led to believe Windoze wil work with 2 keyboards and 2 mice connected at the same time. Will find out if it is true tomorrow.

[AndyUK]

I am hoping I wont need a KVM as I already have both of the monitors working and I am led to believe Windoze wil work with 2 keyboards and 2 mice connected at the same time. Will find out if it is true tomorrow.

You're correct, absolutely no need for a KVM.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[A_Camera]

Why would you use 2 keyboards if you have only one computer and screen? I hope you don't expect the two software to run in one window each and believe that you can allocate one keyboard to each and control them independently. Ms windows allows only one to be active so what's the point of two keyboards?

[AndyUK]

Why would you use 2 keyboards if you have only one computer and screen? I hope you don't expect the two software to run in one window each and believe that you can allocate one keyboard to each and control them independently. Ms windows allows only one to be active so what's the point of two keyboards?

He has one computer, but two screens. Placing the screens at different sides of the workshop and you can use that computer from either of the locations is what I assume he's doing.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk