Originally Posted by Ejdepalm  OK so I’ve been reading through the entire Mach3 manual and from what I understand a PC running Mach3 can control a machine as long as the driver has a parallel port.
I didn’t notice a parallel port in the driver cabinet in the pictures in the first post but I shall contact the seller again and ask him. Was it common for tape readers to connect to the machine via parallel port on machines as old as this one?
Since this mill is a “factory” NC it should already have axis limiters and e-stop right?
If we assume that the drive electronics are working and connected properly a PC and Mach 3 should allow me to get control over the machine?
It would be great if it would be as simple as this but there must be something I’m missing. |
It is pretty much that simple, as others have mentioned, you are most likely not going to see a PC compatible parallel port on the machine, although the Tape reader operates in parallel date mode it is more important to find a PC with one, than one on the machine!
I would check to see what documentation there is on the machine, especially as to schematics, it avoids the need to do a lot of 'Reverse Engineering' which even on the simplest machines can take some time.
Al.