PDA

View Full Version : Ethernet motion control board choices ?



MasterSpoon
19th Dec 2018, 01:24 AM
Okay before I go and spend all my money on CNC gear I am just checking that I have not missed an obvious choice that is starring me in the face.

In short, I have a Taig CNC Mill, bought from Deepgroove1 many moons ago, it runs a Geckodrive G540 stepper drive
Mill - https://www.deepgroove1.com/cnc-mill
CNC controller box - https://www.deepgroove1.com/cnc-controller

I'm currently running Mach3 but may go Mach4 or something else in the future, who knows.

Being that the G540 only has a parallel input I have a dedicated computer that I run for the mill however I don't use the mill all that often. Can't use my main computer or laptop as no parallel port.
The dedicated computer is old and is starting to show signs of dying. Had to rebuild it when I used it a couple months back, hard drive had gone corrupt and when I had to use it the last couple days I'm pretty sure the graphics card is giving up. I'm planning on rewiring the control box anyway as I want to add some solenoids.

I have pretty much decided on going to a Ethernet motion control unit, reliability is a big thing and has been part of the reason for the limited usage of late. Not interested in finding another old computer as might end up back in the same place in a year.
My travels have led me to Warp9's Ethernet SmoothStepper ESS
https://warp9td.com/
Australian Rep appears to be Homann Designs
https://www.homanndesigns.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=54_20&products_id=187

From what I can tell they seem to be the bee's knee's of Ethernet motion control units, not overly cheap but the only alternatives I can find still seem to be $100+ and might be a roll of the dice if they work or are any good.

Have I missed another really good option or do I need to just pony up and get the ESS ?

warrick
19th Dec 2018, 09:58 AM
This is another alternative, I haven't used it but was been looking for an ethernet version for my next machine build and found it. It is a bit cheaper than the ESS and will run on mach3/4
I run a USB SS on my current machine and have had no problems with that.
Rick
https://stepcraft.com.au/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=430

pippin88
19th Dec 2018, 10:17 PM
Mesanet make great Ethernet, PCI and parallel port motion control cards for LimuxCNC.

Cheaper than a smoothstepper and Mach4.

pippin88
19th Dec 2018, 10:18 PM
Mesanet make great Ethernet, PCI and parallel port motion control cards for LimuxCNC.

Cheaper than a smoothstepper and Mach4.Actually, a lot cheaper given the price of a smoothstepper... Plus the Mach cost.

MasterSpoon
19th Dec 2018, 11:51 PM
Can't say I have ever heard of Mesanet
Looked them up http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=83_85&limit=100
The 7192 looks like it could fit the bill and at 89 USD comes in a lot cheaper than a ESS, not sure how they compare function wise but I doubt I max out the functionality of either
Was thinking yeah I'm trying to move away from a dedicated CNC computer but for that cost could do a cheap computer running Linux and come out around the same final cost

Add one to cart just to check postage costs, cheapest postage is 58.20 USD
That changes the calculations real quick, is there an Aussie distributor ?

rcaffin
24th Dec 2018, 02:00 PM
You get what you pay for.
W7, Mach3 0.062, ESS, two Homann Designs MB-02 Bobs, Geckos: my guess is that half the hobbyist world runs this combo (although the BoBs may vary between countries). It works.

Cheers
Roger

pippin88
24th Dec 2018, 05:58 PM
Roger,

You imply that W7, Mach3 0.062, ESS, two Homann Designs MB-02 Bobs, Geckos is a superior setup because it costs more than a LinuxCNC setup. I don't think that is correct.
Mach3 has well documented bugs and has not been properly developed for years.

Mesa are well known by people who use LinuxCNC. They make excellent hardware. They also provide excellent support to the end user, including promptly generating custom firmware when needed for people using unique setups.

rcaffin
24th Dec 2018, 06:26 PM
a superior setup because it costs more than a LinuxCNC setup. I don't think that is correct.
No, that is not what I meant.
W7 might have 100 users to 1 for Linux. It's a sheer volume thing, and the volume of users contributes to the level of support.

You are right that Mach3 has been frozen. However, that does NOT mean it no longer works: it continues to do so just as it has in the years past, to the satisfaction of thousands of users. It's like W7 and WXP: way out of MS support, but still happily running around the world. Unlike old fish, SW does not 'go off'.

Yes, Mach3 has some bugs, but the average user will never see them. You have to be doing some kinky things to invoke any of them. Very few people do the sort of hand-programming needed; CAD/CAM users will not see them.

Eh, one day I might try LinuxCNC myself!

Cheers
Roger

imr700x
18th Feb 2019, 02:05 PM
I looked at the ESS but it appears to be locked to the one PC so a new PC also means a new licence fee. I just use a cheap PC with a PCI parallel port card, Win XP and Mach3 you just need to find a PCI card that outputs 5VDC as a lot of them only output 3.3VDC. I did try Win 7 once but had problems getting the Mach3 driver to install correctly so I gave up and stayed with XP.

rcaffin
18th Feb 2019, 02:39 PM
I did try Win 7 once but had problems getting the Mach3 driver to install correctly so I gave up and stayed with XP.
My understanding is that you can NOT install the Mach3 LPT driver under W7 or higher. The OS simply will not permit the installation. There is no way around that. Very deep techie reasons for this.

However, you can install Mach3 under W7, W8 and even W10 IF you use an external engine such as the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. That cuts out the whole LPT driver problem.

Cheers
Roger

Sterob
19th Feb 2019, 07:14 PM
I looked at the ESS but it appears to be locked to the one PC so a new PC also means a new licence fee.

No. It will work with as amny PC's as you want. There is no key of dongle that has to be used in oder fro it to work.


I did try Win 7 once but had problems getting the Mach3 driver to install correctly so I gave up and stayed with XP.

I'm using Win 7 , ESS and Mach 3 and only had 1 problem that I managed to fix . ( Cut2D could not 'see' Mach 3 open in the background. I had run a registry file to fix that.
Apolages if you are refering to using the Parallel port with Win 7. I just realised you might be.

Com_VC
21st Feb 2019, 04:08 PM
I did try Win 7 once but had problems getting the Mach3 driver to install correctly so I gave up and stayed with XP.
My understanding is that you can NOT install the Mach3 LPT driver under W7 or higher. The OS simply will not permit the installation. There is no way around that. Very deep techie reasons for this.

However, you can install Mach3 under W7, W8 and even W10 IF you use an external engine such as the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. That cuts out the whole LPT driver problem.

Cheers
Roger


Mach 3 can be installed on Windows 7 with the LPT driver but you need to have the 32 bit version of Windows 7 installed not 64 bit.

Greolt
10th Apr 2019, 09:37 AM
I did try Win 7 once but had problems getting the Mach3 driver to install correctly so I gave up and stayed with XP.
My understanding is that you can NOT install the Mach3 LPT driver under W7 or higher. The OS simply will not permit the installation. There is no way around that. Very deep techie reasons for this.

However, you can install Mach3 under W7, W8 and even W10 IF you use an external engine such as the Ethernet Smooth Stepper. That cuts out the whole LPT driver problem.

Cheers
Roger

As stated above, Win7 and the Mach3 LPT driver work together fine. I run a couple of Win7 computers with Mach3 LPT driver.
However it must be the 32bit version.

I recommend the hardware/software package from CNCDrive.
They have both USB and Ethernet connected motion controllers.
All of which have both Mach3 and Mach4 plugins.

The great advantage to something like the SmoothStepper is that the same company makes the UCCNC control software.
This control software is superior to Mach3 and most importantly is activly developed. Mach3 has long ceased to be developed.

Don't get me wrong, I have a long history with Mach3. It has been great. But I am now going with UCCNC.

CNCDrive make both the software and the hardware. Big advantage in my book.

FOR SALE:VIC UC100 for sale with UCCNC software (yes it is legal and legit) (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f221/uc100-sale-uccnc-software-yes-legal-legit-226930#post2132385)

rcaffin
10th Apr 2019, 01:49 PM
However it must be the 32bit version.

Likely. My replacement systems are all 64 bits.
Hum ... but Mach3 runs under them - did I tell the system to run it as 32 bits? Dunno - too long ago.

Cheers
Roger

Com_VC
10th Apr 2019, 05:24 PM
Mach 3 doesn't care if your system is 32 bit or 64 bit. It will run on both but you will not get the parallel port to work if you run it on the 64 bit version of Windows 7.

You need the 32 bit version of windows, even if you have a 64 bit processor the 32 bit bit version of windows will work just not as efficiently as the 64 bit.