Larken is just introducing its new StarCam for Windows. Very slick controller that uses a 40Mhz microprocessor in the control box to spool the 3 axis motion commands. It has a easy to use little control panel on the windows screen that lets do full multitasking as windows was meant to be. You can surf the net while cutting.

The latest Starcam can be down loaded from the LarkenCNC.com site, under Support.
Its consists of the StarCAM layout, editing frontend and the StarCNC spooler driver program that sends to the processor in the control box.

Can the processor in the control box be purchased alone with out the the entire control box? Or does it not use step/dir commands to the motor drives?

The StarCam board is sold separatly as well. Its a complete CNC control board with 128K ram and connects to the PC via the parallel port.

Features are
4 axis step/dir outputs, XYZ, 2nd Z or Rotory
Spindle on, 0-10 vdc spindle speed control,
2 auxillary outputs ( for M-codes)
Noise filtered limitswitch and Estop inputs
Requires 12VAC
Vector lookahead motion control.
Built in 3d Digitizing
Feedrate override on the fly

and more

Its more than a pulse generator. It has a circular command buffer that holds about 4000 lines of Gcode, and can run unlimited file size.

Larry what is the setup process for the starcam controller board in Mach 3 like the port and pin setup.

Luke

Starcam and Mach2 are both cnc controllers, so they don't work together. Mach2 is a PC based software controller and StarCam uses a CNC control board to do the motion.
With starcam the PC just spools to the control board. The Spooler is called StarCNC and looks like a small mach2, but simplified for easier use. It can run Gcode or link with the graphical Starcam front end program for easier use for people that don't want to know Gcode.

Mach2 is a great program, but I've had a PC based control (Lcam) before and wanted to create something that didn't depend on the PC for timing and would work on any windows PC fast or slow.

We've been using the Starcam control for about 3 1/2 years on all our routers we sell (about 60 a year) plus upgrades and custom controllers, and have had very good satisfaction. Also much less tech support since it donesn't require any special PC requirements other than at least a 200 mhz pentium.

The Starcam software is a free download from our website (under techsupport) www.LarkenCNC.com but only works with our control board.

I see I've bought one of your starcam boards and having some rough times getting mach setup to run it just looking for guidance in configuring it.
Only bench testing it before finally assembling everything.

Download the Starcam manual and the Control board PDF file first. To get the board working, just have a LED connected to the ready out and apply 12VAC. The LED should flash. Load the StarCNC spooler and it should connect and say 'Not initialized'. Click OK and your ready.

Call us at (613) 746 5685 if you have any questions

Larry K

Our company in New Zealand has just litterally in the last couple of days upgraded from Lcam to Starcam and I'm only just getting a chance to play with the software. I've gone through the editing options today and noticed the absence of an "array paste" function that featured in the old Lcam. The PDF file isnt saying anything about it either. Is it there and renamed something else or has that function not been added to Starcam?
Also, the "run tool around border" option (above the "run") doesn't appear to be making itself operational when a file has been sent to the spooler. Any thoughts on that?

I've added the Array paste to the latest version of Starcam. I've also added a few new commands to the Layout menu for setting cut order, and displaying and changing cut direction.

I should have it uploaded in few days.

I've added the Array paste to the latest version of Starcam. I've also added a few new commands to the Layout menu for setting cut order, and displaying and changing cut direction.

I should have it uploaded in few days.

Any ideas why the "zoom table" function isnt working? the table shows up fine if I use the "zoom half" 3 or 4 times, so I know the perameters are set fine. when I click "zoom table" nothing happens. Never had this issue with Lcam.

Antonyhoch,

Hey, you are doing better than me. I have asked Larry 5 times about upgrading my 40/40 machine to Starcam/windows control software and still I have not gotten the controller yet.

I am about to give up and go with Mach 3 or something similar. I love the machine but I hate DOS!

Bruce

Another issue has shown up with our Starcam. When I import a .plt file, the scale is completely screwed up. Lcam had a function in the parameters to set the scaling of imports. I havent managed to find this in starcam. Is this function hiding somewhere in Starcam or do I have to calculate the scale manually of every file I import?

The next issue today is the Starcam stops responding on a regular basis. The PC is a 2.5GHZ celeron with 512mb ram. With all applications closed, the CPU usage is around 2%, as soonas I open the spooler, it shoots up to around 55% without any other programs Is this normal?
Just with Starcam running and no Spooler, the CPU runs around 4%. Thisis until I tried to change the cut direction, then it went stright to 100%. This happens every time and the program requires rebooting.

Ive UPLOADED new versions of StarCAm and StarCNC. I added the Zoom Table command and you can now set the HPGL import scale in the Configuration settings.

The Spooler uses a bit of cpu power, but that seems alot. Send me the file that is crashing starcam when you change directions. Ive improved that in the latest version.

Larry K