[basselete]

im slowly building a small cnc grizzly lathe and ive decided to go with g540 drivers based on the fact i want to eventually have an additional axis attachment for small milling and i like plug and play . My question is if i go with the g540 drivers should i buy a uc100 and use the laptop that i have the software on,or buy an ethernet smoothstepper,or just buy a cheap desktop computer that has a parallel port?

[Namnp2007]

The laptop with parallel port is old, better you can use some desktop PC, is newer and faster.

[Wiggles84]

The laptop with parallel port is old, better you can use some desktop PC, is newer and faster.

Namnp2007,

He's asking if he should get a smoothstepper or UC100 because his lap top does not have a parallel port.

basselete,

I'm using a ethernet smoothstepper on my older dest top because I had issues with my parallel port. So either way you might need to get an ESS or uc100

Andrew

[dracozny]

I'm not too keen on using laptops for CNC. they have a ton of crap in the bios that makes them unreliable to the task, I realize you are most likely running Mach since your asking about smoothsteppers. My advice, find a cheap PC setup on newegg or something, at least a Pentium platform, although the Atom setups have some good response on a dedicated machine. If it doesn't have a parallel port it's not a deal breaker since you can easily get a PCI-E 1X parallel port card to run as an example a Mesa 6i25 card. A 7I92 is another alternative if you want to go the Ethernet route. High end Pc's tend to have too much going on as well so don't fall down that rabbit hole.

[mmoe]

If you use an ethernet based controller, any modern laptop from about 2005 and newer will be plenty. The calculations are done at the controller for ethernet based systems, and Mach 3 requires very little of the computer. You'll want to configure it so that it doesn't sleep or hibernate, etc., but otherwise I've never had any issues with a laptop and an ethernet based system. You could also check out the CS Labs CSMIO IP-M, which has a more industrial 24 volt input/output system. It's a 4 axis ethernet based controller, while the more expensive IP-S controller is a 6 axis (with extra I/O and higher signal speeds). I have worked with all three CS Labs controllers and they are all excellent. They're more money than the ESS though, or a lot more if you go with their 6 axis, but I do think the 24 volt I/O system is a better system since it would be less likely to pick up interference.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

If you use an ethernet based controller, any modern laptop from about 2005 and newer will be plenty. The calculations are done at the controller for ethernet based systems, and Mach 3 requires very little of the computer.

That is not really true. The controller off-loads the time-critical real-time operations - basically generating step pulses. The bulk of the actual calculation (i.e. - parsing the g-code and doing the trajectory planning) is still performed on the PC.

Regards,
Ray L.

[basselete]

thanks for the help

[basselete]

will a windows 8 pc work well with mach 3 if i get a Mesa 6i25 card?

[Connor]

will a windows 8 pc work well with mach 3 if i get a Mesa 6i25 card?

If your going to do Mesa, Do LinuxCNC. I wouldn't trust windows to save my life...

[109jb]

Also consider that windows 8 is sooooo good that Microsoft is abandoning it with the upcoming release of windows 10.

[dracozny]

if I was going to do a windows box I would go with XP. If all else fails win7 was tolerable on the administrative side. win8 is an epic disaster for many people just as a desk top system.

[123CNC]

I would vote for a new Atom board PC with parallel port and PCI slot. Then you can go any direction you like, UC100, Smoothstepper USb or Ethernet, Mesa parallel port packages or Mesa PCi cards, Windows XP and Mach3 or LinuxCNC.

[ger21]

will a windows 8 pc work well with mach 3 if i get a Mesa 6i25 card?

Mesa cards will not work with Mach3. They only work with LinuxCNC.
Mach 3 does work fine in Windows 8 if you use a motion controller that Mach3 supports. UC100, Smoothstepper, CS Labs should all be fine in Windows 8.

[dracozny]

Mesa cards will not work with Mach3. They only work with LinuxCNC.
Mach 3 does work fine in Windows 8 if you use a motion controller that Mach3 supports. UC100, Smoothstepper, CS Labs should all be fine in Windows 8.

I'm not an expert on the subject of Mach but apparently there are plugins available to support Mesa cards. Mesa Board Plugins

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Perhaps you didn't notice that post was from 4 years ago, and there have been no follow-ons?

Regards,
Ray L.

[Fastest1]

Ray, Are you referring to this thread? It appears to have started 9-30-2014.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

Ray, Are you referring to this thread? It appears to have started 9-30-2014.

No, I'm referring to the "Mesa Board Plug-in" thread (containing only one post) on the ArtSoft forum that dracozny linked to.

Regards,
Ray L.