[cuemaker1]

Just purchased a techno isel 24" x 19" with kress 800w motor. The unit has not been used much but is a 1997 or so year model with a centronics plug. Anyone know if I can upgrade to regular parallel or usb without too much $$$. I got mastercam 6 with it and it gets a "can't find SIM" error message. What is that? I cannot find in the book what a SIM is...or where to get it...

[cuemaker1]

Well after a talk with Mastercam and a couple of other tries, I have it working... The sim is the plug they sent that goes into the parallel port...

[cuemaker1]

My son recently purchased a techno isel !9 x 24, 3 axis cnc router that is approx 10 yrs old. As an old retired guy I am trying to help him set it up. It came with a old compaq computer and mastercam software with a interface that uses (.nci) file extensions. We want to continue to use Vcarve. What are my options?? The machine has a nec style circuit board with a 50 pin plug and the computer has win98. SRV400 servo controller card. Maybe I could move the computer interface card to a new computer and use mach2 or 3 ??

[RandK]

If it's like my machine the other end of that cable from the machine controller box plugs into a Techno interface card that goes in PC running their controller application. Do you have a half or full slot ISA card that came with it ?

[cuemaker1]

I have not opened the computer yet, but according to the manual its a full slot isa card...also its an older compaq so I would assume full slot. I'm going to pull it tomorrow. The plug is 50 pin and looks like the old centronics.. Do you think I could get mach2 or 3 to run this setup if I move the card...???

[RandK]

Suggest you try to get everything running as the previous owner had it first. The Techno controller and interface card has some h/w intelligence and hence doesn't need as powerful a PC as Mach would interfacing to dumb servo driver modules. See how it runs and upgrade the PC or OS if you need/want. I use a separate higher power PC for my CAD/CAM and network share the .NC files with the PC running the Techno controller app. The Techno app doesn't allow other apps to run while it's running. There's nothing to prevent you from running other apps when the controller isn't running.