ebay score dwt cnc router

[j4son]

thanks irving im going to go away and have a look at it and have a chat with my freind Phil "he helps me no end with things technical like this"
1 may have the words parallel and serial mixed up im unsure which is which
on the subject of the computer this is it's statrs

system
microsoft windows xp
perfessional
version 2002
servive pack 3

computer
intel(r) celeron(r)m
processor 1.40ghz
1.40ghz, 1.24 gb of ram
physical address extension

the reason im posting it is they is a slot on the side with a blank bit a plastic in which im thinking might be a place where one of those converter cards goes into to make it old school printer port or am i barking up the wrong tree?

also when i draw in autodesk and save as dfx would that go into mach3 then that translates to this horrid DOS stuff

i do eccept im over my head but would love to get up and running and learning with it and as you can see im trying to get out of spending on a new latop thats why i've ran that buy you above to see if this can be converted

[irving2008]

Jase,

MACH3 doesnt like laptops but can be persuaded to work on one... its usually a case of turning off the power management functions and some other configuration items. Google the web on this, there's lots of info and there's some threads on the subject here and on CNCZone. I don't know enough about MACH3 (I use EMC2 on Linux) but I suspect the laptop might be a little underpowered, maybe someone else can comment.

You will need a parallel port installed in the machine. A Cardbus adaptor (thats the slot you refer to) is a possible approach and easily obtained on eBay relatively cheaply. I have never tried this but I see no reason why it shouldnt work.

The basic process is:
1/ CAD design tool -> vector file (dxf)
2/ Translate the vector info into G-Code file (CamBam or other DXF->G-Code). This is where you define tool sizes, feed rates, etc.
3/ Edit G-Code file if need be
4/ Interpret G-Code file to drive steppers; e.g. MACH3 (windows), EMC2 (Linux), PC-NC (DOS), etc. - the good ones do simulation to allow you to detect problems before turning stock into scrap so you have the chance to go back to Step 3

There are lots of ways to do the above - again search on the threads here to see how others do it...

[j4son]

2/ Translate the vector info into G-Code file (CamBam or other DXF->G-Code). This is where you define tool sizes, feed rates, etc.
3/ Edit G-Code file if need be
4/ Interpret G-Code file to drive steppers; e.g. MACH3 (windows), EMC2 (Linux), PC-NC (DOS), etc. -

does this mean i could ditch the horrid DOS all together and use mach to talk to the plotter direct

also if anyone else here that has had similar problem or ideas for me to get around this cheaply or know of a nice package that would do what i want or if solid works will do this for me please do jump in you thought and opinions will be very appreciated