[sirkossorg]

Lets just say that probably 1000 have tried laptops with Mach for every one that has succeed. And I have been the Mach email list for many years. ANd I don't think even the EMC group is very high on laptops.

But I wish you the best as I have 5 micron laptops sitting around here now. If you are that successful maybe you will share...how you did it.

Garry[/QUOTE]


I hate to be contrarian here, but I am 3 for 3 on getting old laptops to work with my CNC running Mach3. One is an old, old, Sony with a PP, and the other two are different HPs that I had to use a $20 PCMCIA port adaptor for. The best one so far is so loaded with crap from my sons that I'm tempted to reload XP just on principle, but it works just fine.

I don't say this to brag, because frankly, I'm not that smart. I'm just saying it hasn't been that big of a deal for me (or I need to buy a lottery ticket, because I'm apparently the luckiest CNCer alive). If I can do it, I'm pretty sure anyone who built a CNC can.

I'm with yackback, there are lots of good reasons to use a laptop if you can make it work.

[gmfoster]

Lets just say that probably 1000 have tried laptops with Mach for every one that has succeed. And I have been the Mach email list for many years. ANd I don't think even the EMC group is very high on laptops.

But I wish you the best as I have 5 micron laptops sitting around here now. If you are that successful maybe you will share...how you did it.

Garry

I hate to be contrarian here, but I am 3 for 3 on getting old laptops to work with my CNC running Mach3. One is an old, old, Sony with a PP, and the other two are different HPs that I had to use a $20 PCMCIA port adaptor for. The best one so far is so loaded with crap from my sons that I'm tempted to reload XP just on principle, but it works just fine.

I don't say this to brag, because frankly, I'm not that smart. I'm just saying it hasn't been that big of a deal for me (or I need to buy a lottery ticket, because I'm apparently the luckiest CNCer alive). If I can do it, I'm pretty sure anyone who built a CNC can.

I'm with yackback, there are lots of good reasons to use a laptop if you can make it work.[/QUOTE]

Do you care to share what you have done or have they just worked.
Maybe it is only the ones that have problems that have complained.

Garry

[mocnc]

I use my HP netbook (HP 311) to run my CNC machine...mind you its a little quicker then the average netbook. I had no intentions of going with parallel port boards. Even tho they are still the standard its a dead technology IMO. The little USB board I run has been preforming flawlessly, I could not be happier with the outcome.

OK did I miss something here.......what little usb board are you running FreeRider? Can you let us know you secrets? Any help would be great. WOW, 20 plus responses.....and a lot more views on this topic, guess I wasn't the only one with this question. Thanks again everyone for your kindness of helping and sharing your knowledge and experiences.(group):banana:

[microcarve]

This will be available from Probotix Very soon....

http://www.probotix.com/manuals/PBX-USB_manual.pdf

I know nothing about it and have no interest, but thought I'd mention
it. Too many desktops are free and work great for me....

Like I said...I know nothing about it...

John

[sirkossorg]

I hate to be contrarian here, but I am 3 for 3 on getting old laptops to work with my CNC running Mach3. One is an old, old, Sony with a PP, and the other two are different HPs that I had to use a $20 PCMCIA port adaptor for. The best one so far is so loaded with crap from my sons that I'm tempted to reload XP just on principle, but it works just fine.

I don't say this to brag, because frankly, I'm not that smart. I'm just saying it hasn't been that big of a deal for me (or I need to buy a lottery ticket, because I'm apparently the luckiest CNCer alive). If I can do it, I'm pretty sure anyone who built a CNC can.

I'm with yackback, there are lots of good reasons to use a laptop if you can make it work.

Do you care to share what you have done or have they just worked.
Maybe it is only the ones that have problems that have complained.

Garry[/QUOTE]

Fair enough, I guess I asked for it. I'll try to keep it short.

First of all, all power save stuff is off. Systems are set for always on.

Each one was a little different. The Sony Vaio with the built in parallel port just plain worked. Piece of cake. Other than changing the power management settings, no other changes needed.

The HP Pavilion ZV6000 is working with a PCMCIA adaptor I got from eBay. I had to go on the manufacturers website to get the latest driver. I had to change the port from LPT3 to LPT1 in the hardware settings of the computer. Also, the port address was FEE8, which I had to change from 0x378 in Mach3.

The HP Pavilion DV8000 was the toughest one. It failed the driver test right off (pulses too fast, pulses too slow) On that one I had to do everything I did above for the other HP to get the port talking with my machine. To make the driver test work, I had to change the APCI setting to Standard PC in hardware settings. After that it worked fine.

This is not a guarantee that any laptop will work with Mach3 or your machine. This is just how I made three different laptops work with Mach3 and my machine. I only use the ZV6000 now.

My apologies to mocnc for taking your thread out into the weeds.

[jyotti]

"Its been a long time since I have been back here......" ... well, I started cnclinks in '90, and am absolutley thrilled, that that some other enterprising person(s) has picked up the ball on this stuff.

"lets just say the good old lord was calling me and I didn't want to pick up." Man ... I hear that bro .. a few times since nam '68.

" I was thinking about the gecko G540." Well, while i can't speak with any authority about that product, I can tell you that I shipped gazzilions of G201's all over the world .. and the only failures, where due to a few reverse polarity install problems .. and running 6 amp triple stack 34's, without proper heat sinking .. in 110*F+ ambient .. in India.

If Mariss stands behind it .. it's good. Again .. I have no opinion, as to a g540, or it's origins .. but the ole g201 worked flawlessly, when properly installed. As I understand it .. the triple stack 34's were installed on locomotive throttles, to prevent train collissions via satellite.

Verifying that, is like anything in India .. including verifications on shipments. Butt ... train colllisions have been down, right? You bet they have. And, samarium, can take the heat, and virtually imposssible to de-magnitize.

The stepper "driver" is just that. In 2011, why anyone is still "doing" parallel port stuff, is pretty amazing to me. Just a step above centronics .. what is that .. the 60's? Two ibm 360's back to back .. tracking all the ships they could .. like the computing power of the Casio on your wrist. USB "should" be abel to to any housekeeping tasks to run any cnc.

What are "housekeeping" tasks? Umm .. like doing rapids, with the same stepper resolution as you use, for work. Challenged some years back, by lossing geckodrives.com .. I designed a drive that embraced multi-resolution, so as to negate the limitations of using the parrallel port, and enhance machine perfomance. Now, .. years later .. I come back and find you all still using a 40 year old interface, just one step above the 36 pin centronics interface. Perhaps I am dating myself .. my first modem was 300 baud, but even current vendors, don't mention USB 3.0.

Soo ... I say .. hold their feet to the fire. Demand USB or firewire or infrared wireless or wifi ... but gesus h krist .. get over this pp thing. I bought and paid for a microflucous turning .. with a dongel no less .. of course, using a parallel port .. for PAKIII. Now ... givin away ... just buy their pp board.

Summary ... vote with your dollars .. find and use a USB interface that works succesfully. For over 3amps bi-polar .. use gecodrives.

peace .. out

[eSilviu]

I would suggest this:

CNC USB controller

I've been running it on my last 2 machines and find it works great. I went the DIY route but you can buy fully assembled boards from the shop on that site as well. The software seems to be very feature rich and works very well for most hobby CNC setups.

I use this controller with its software and CamBam for most of my CAD work (except 3D, I use blender or sketchup for my 3D Cad needs). Does everything I can throw at it and then some (currently I have no need for spindle control, flood, mist or 4th axis outputs but its nice to have the options if I decided to implement things in the future).

+1

[FreeRider]

OK did I miss something here.......what little usb board are you running FreeRider? Can you let us know you secrets? Any help would be great. WOW, 20 plus responses.....and a lot more views on this topic, guess I wasn't the only one with this question. Thanks again everyone for your kindness of helping and sharing your knowledge and experiences.(group):banana:

You betcha...may have just passed my little reply...here it is again .

I would suggest this:

CNC USB controller

I've been running it on my last 2 machines and find it works great. I went the DIY route but you can buy fully assembled boards from the shop on that site as well. The software seems to be very feature rich and works very well for most hobby CNC setups.

I use this controller with its software and CamBam for most of my CAD work (except 3D, I use blender or sketchup for my 3D Cad needs). Does everything I can throw at it and then some (currently I have no need for spindle control, flood, mist or 4th axis outputs but its nice to have the options if I decided to implement things in the future).

[yackback]

You betcha...may have just passed my little reply...here it is again .

That CNC usb controller you linked to....forgive the ignorance....but I'm not entirely certain what purpose it is aimed at achieving? It it meant to be a go between that's put between a stepper driver and a computer, thus doing a usb "conversion" if you will, or is it meant to be a stepper driver itself?

It mentions that it includes it's own software and perhaps that is what is throwing me off. Does it have to use it's own software or can people who prefer Mach 3 continue using that?

The "shop" portion of the site actually mentions some sort of adapter that can be made for the Gecko G540 which seems to be what a large portion of the community is using.

Here is what it says:

"Connect controller to parallel port (DB25) breakout board.
Not assembled - requires soldering to match your DB25 pinout.
All parts included.

On request I can assemble adapter for you
(Gecko G540, Probotix, EasyCNC, ...) "

[ger21]

You can't use Mach3 with it.
It uses it's own software, which sends signals via USB to the hardware, which sends step/dir signals to the drives.

Basically the same principle as using Mach3 with an USB motion device like the Smoothstepper.

[yackback]

Gotcha, that makes perfect sense.