This forum is dedicated to those Hobbyists Interested in CNC machining & 3D Printing in their home shops. (Digital Read Outs are also topical, as is CAD/CAM as it relates to CNC)
Marty_Escarcega wrote:DONT plug your machine into a SERIAL Port (male pins)
When I see RS232 and CNC together I think Serial.
So... RS232 is something different when dealing with Mach 3 as opposed to the rest of the CNC world where it is a standard method of Serial communication?
I have never had anything to do with Mach 3, but it seems it is it's own little Country.
Thanks!
Glenn
Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!
Marty_Escarcega wrote:DONT plug your machine into a SERIAL Port (male pins)
When I see RS232 and CNC together I think Serial.
So... RS232 is something different when dealing with Mach 3 as opposed to the rest of the CNC world where it is a standard method of Serial communication?
I have never had anything to do with Mach 3, but it seems it is it's own little Country.
Thanks!
Glenn, Mach3 communicates to the outside world via the input andoutput pins of the PC parallel port. It sends step and direction signals used by most stepper drives out this port and some servo drives. Mach also supports a secon parallel port for more I/O too.
Marty
OK, I've decided to dedicate my old Dell 360 that I no longer use to the machine. It was made in the "transition era" where they used to include ALL the ports (including a DB25) not knowing which the end used would need.
It has the bare minimum of 512 RAM, but does run at 2.8 gHz. So, I'll take my USB - DB25 cable back and get female DB25-DB25 before firing it up. These things can be confusing enough without additional cabling problems.
Well I got it all hooked up and loaded the parameters but am having a problem getting the stepper motors to actually run. I can get them to whine (barely audible), but there is no rotation. The AirSoft software seems to think everything is OK and runs fine on screen, but ...
The controller is built into the unit, and I would have to disassemble a portion of the sheet metal to photo it.
check out you db 25 cables carefully with a ohm meter you may well find several pins without connection.
this being because newer printers before going all usb had limited requirements.
For any who may be interested. I tore the CNC section off the machine and found they use Gecko controllers. The problem was that the Gecko controllers need to see 5 volts on the common and this comes into the machine through the bottom Molex plug from a dedicated cable. But with no cable or response from the mfg and no instructions, who would know this?
Last edited by toddalin on Wed Jan 02, 2013 10:42 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Yes, and the problem wasn't the Pin assignments, it was the lack of 5 volts to the Geckos. I had the correct Pin assignments many times but no response.
You both amaze and disgust me. Someone has put hundreds if not thousands of hours into developing the Mach software and you want it for free.
There are plenty of machines out there that run with Mach. I have had a Tormach PCNC 1100 Series II using the Mach operating system since July 2011. and the only thing I have ever done with it is push the green button and run it. I have run it for hundreds if not thousands of hours with absolutely no hint of a problem. All I do is keep the machine well lubed and clean it out once in a while
You can buy good parts, or you can buy cheap parts, but you can't buy good cheap parts.
