running mach 3 with a usb to parallel adapter

[paulus.v]

I am controlling my CNC with Mach3 on an old IBM Thinkpad laptop (Pentium 1.8 GHz, 512 MB RAM) with a parallel port.

I made a fresh Windows XP install skipping the ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) install by holding F5 (select standard pc) or simply F7 during install, when at the bottom of the screen is asking to press F6 if you have raid devices. This way there will be no APM/ACPI installed. APM/ACPI is responsible for reducing the parallel port clock speed to reduce power consumption, and there is no other way to disable this function.

Without the APM/ACPI the laptop runs at full power but there is no cooling problem because the cooling system relies on temerature sensors not software. There is no battery monitor, windows does not know/inform you if you are running on AC or battery or the battery level, but who cares as long as the laptop is always plugged in. The only downside, very annoying at the beginning (now I'm used to it), is that the system is not shutting down automatically. You get a message "It is now safe to turn off your computer" and need to press the power button for two seconds to cut the power.

I think the most important thing is to have a computer dedicated to control the CNC. With a fresh windows installed, any graphics enhancements disabled, and only the CNC control software installed (Mach3 or other).

This way I get excellent results even at 100 KHz with the Mach3 timer variations test software on my old IBM Thinkpad laptop.

[Neale]

That's pretty good performance, and way beyond what I get running LinuxCNC on a newly-built PC, even with its "real-time" modified kernel (which even has cpu temperature monitoring code removed). I have Mach3 demo version ready to run on a dual-boot disk on that machine although I haven't tried that one yet. That's Windows 7, though, and I'm not sure what difference that might make in practice.

[Kendrick57]

From what I read in the manual and from what has been said on this thread by using the uc100 you take the timing problem out of the equation the uc100 deals with timing all the computer does is stream locations to the uc100 and that sends them out in a timed fashion so as not to confuse the Cnc. Have I got the it just about worked out.
kendrick

[Neale]

Close enough! Mach3 sends a stream of commands to the UC100, which stores them locally and turns them into pulse streams as required. Because it holds about a second's worth of commands in its local buffer store (according to the spec on the web site) unless the PC is really busy and can't update the buffer for more than a second (which is unlikely if it's not doing anything else) nothing gets lost. Strictly speaking, the PC does not just send "location" data to the UC100 as it will also send things like spindle speed control, coolant on/off, etc, commands as well and the UC100 then generates the appropriate output signals on its parallel port. The UC100 will also send things like limit switch operation signals back to Mach3, I suspect, but for all practical purposes you don't have to worry about the details - Mach3 and the UC100 sort it out between them.

[Kendrick57]

Well it's arrived I set it up followed all the instructions still nothing works

[paulus.v]

Well it's arrived I set it up followed all the instructions still nothing works

Have you set the port number in Mach3 Ports and Pins configuration? I remember when I first tried to get Mach3 working I forgot to set the port and by default it is 0.

[Kendrick57]

Is there a setup guide to interface mach3 to the uc100