Old PC`s and Mach3

[Ger21]

My take is that anyone looking to buy a UC400ETH should buy the UC300ETH. The price difference is fairly small, and the UC300ETH gives you a lot more I/O, plus analog inputs and outputs.
It really makes no sense to buy the UC400ETH, except as a step up from the UC100, unless you know you'll never use the extra I/O or analog I/O.
Performance between the UC300ETH and UC400ETH is the same.

If you go the UC300ETH route, I highly recommend the UB-1 breakout board from CNC Room. This breakout board eliminates the need for the 5LPT motherboard that the UC300ETH is normally mounted to, which saves about $40. You can buy the UC300ETH with the UB-1 as a package. http://www.cncroom.com/interface-cards/uc300eth-ub1

If you need all 5 ports, CNC Room just came out with a 2 port daughterboard for the UB1 as well.

[Palletlad]

I've brought the cnc 6040 and found a few issues with it and after a lot of frustration and a lot of help from peeps on here I think I've narrowed it down to 2 issues, one being the original psu was faulty and the other was my PC's on board LPT connection gave me missed steps (which I will confirm today once my LPT card arrives) the annoyance was that I checked the pc with another pc and it had the same issues but after reading this thread I think it was just sods law that the second one had the same issue which mislead me thinking the PC was fine.
but in the end I have upgraded the BoB + stepper motors + cables + PSU which has improved the performance greatly with 90% issues fixed but it seems the LPT setup is the main cause as previously mentioned in this thread as I have ran out of any other parts to replace
Once confirmed if it is the pc's onboard LPT connection causing the missed steps then for a beginner would the UC100 be enough for me?
Or would the UC400 still be advised (I only be using 3 motors for a while as being a beginner) so the UC300 would be wasted on me to my understanding.

[Ger21]

If you are considering a UC100, I'd buy a UC400ETH.
If you are considering a UC400ETH, I'd get the UC300ETH.

The price difference is very small when moving up to the next option, and in the case of the UC400ETH, you get better performance.
In the case of the UC300ETH, you get more features.

[A_Camera]

Once confirmed if it is the pc's onboard LPT connection causing the missed steps then for a beginner would the UC100 be enough for me?
Or would the UC400 still be advised (I only be using 3 motors for a while as being a beginner) so the UC300 would be wasted on me to my understanding.

The UC100 is sort of a USB - parallel port interface with a built in motion controller. It will replace your parallel port directly and you can plug the DB25 directly into the BOB, between the PC and the CNC. It has the advantage of that it is boxed and 100% plug and play, just install the driver, plug the printer cable into the DB25 and the USB cable between the UC100 and the PC, and off you go. But... it is USB.

The UC400 in your case makes perfect sense. It provides better noise immunity and it has an extra parallel port, so you can have more inputs/outputs compared with the UC100. The only disadvantage I can see over the UC100 is that it is not boxed and needs an external power supply, but the advantages clearly overweights the disadvantages. In my opinion, it makes sense to get the UC400, but makes no sense to get the UC100. I honestly think the UC300ETH would be overkill for you (as it is for me as well) unless you have plans on extending your machine with loads of extra buttons and other bells and whistles. I have no use for the analogue inputs/outputs at all, since I control my VFD via Modbus, but even if I would have used 0-10V I'd prefer an external PWM board. If I buy a new controller I'll buy the UC400 also because it is easier to install than the UC300ETH and the layout is better designed.

[m_c]

Once confirmed if it is the pc's onboard LPT connection causing the missed steps then for a beginner would the UC100 be enough for me?
Or would the UC400 still be advised (I only be using 3 motors for a while as being a beginner) so the UC300 would be wasted on me to my understanding.

The UC100 is essentially a direct replacement for a single parallel port.
The other similar option is a PMDX-411, but that's limited to Mach4.

The comments about USB are valid, but bear in mind, the percentage of people who actually have problems is very slim. From what I remember, one of the original USB Smoothstepper sellers estimated it was under 2% of people who had problems. Newer USB devices do seem more reliable.

[Palletlad]

You all convinced me I am going to purchase the UC400 as like doddy said earlier its only a few pints in difference :D
I got my PCI card in though in the meantime I was going to test the LPT port issue but I cant get the PCI port to link with Mach3 :/ my I/O is DC00 - DC07 so I am putting in 0xDC00 in the port settings under LPT1 (which I have named the PCI port as well. Is this right as there was no instructions that came with the card?

[Doddy]

You all convinced me I am going to purchase the UC400 as like doddy said earlier its only a few pints in difference :D
I got my PCI card in though in the meantime I was going to test the LPT port issue but I cant get the PCI port to link with Mach3 :/ my I/O is DC00 - DC07 so I am putting in 0xDC00 in the port settings under LPT1 (which I have named the PCI port as well. Is this right as there was no instructions that came with the card?

It's the 300 that's a few quid more than the 400. But, I'm sure the 400 is suited to your needs. Not that I'm condoning your fix-by-replacement-until-it-works approach, but you know that already.

[Palletlad]

ah this wasn't part of the replace to fix it, its simply an upgrade I was looking at from the get go. I brought a cheap pci card to see if its the lpt port causing issues, just need to configure it properly and then I should be able to use the machine.
UC300 wont suit my requirements as it offers too much than what I will use it for but from £20 more from the UC100 I might as well get the UC400.

[Ger21]

The UC400ETH is a little more than a UC100, and a UC300ETH is a little more than a UC400ETH.