Boxford 190vmc upgrade

[davethesteam]

I did look into Mach3 when I found I had to replace the control system on my Conect lathe, but went for the CDE system based on cost and the difficulty in continued support for parallel ports on PCs. The serial port solution seemed more supportable and easier to add on newer PCs so I went that way. Also CDEs controller comes with a copy of EasiCNC whereas a proper copy of Mach3 is extra cost.

Having said the above I notice that there are some USB to parallel adapters appearing especially designed for Mach3 so that particular objection may become irrelevant.

David

[davethesteam]

i2i - you've' got me a bit interested. I've had a chat with Boxford and they can't sell me the software unless I'm an educational establishment, which I am not. All this stuff probably went in the bin instead of staying with the mill so unless I can get it running easily (i.e. with EasyCNC or Freemill, neither of which I've tried yet!) I'm going to have to change the control system. So can you advise if Mach3 will handle the following:

1/ Stepper motor indexing tool carousel, valve or motor for clamping and unclamping the tool and programmed sequence to move the spindle to the holder, drop the tool, raise the spindle and then rotate the carousel, drop and reclamp. I ask as I'm going to have to make a carousel as the Boxford one is pneumatic and I don't want to go that route.

2/ interface to DC level speed control for spindle? I know about the parallel port signals for the steppers but how do you drive the spindle?

3/ I need to engrave windows TTFs, with borders and simple line graphics, do you know if there is software available to do this?

Sorry about the list, but I need to be sure I make the right choice, it seems much more complicated driving a mill than a lathe because I need the engraving.

TIA
David