hi there i'm new to this and have purchased a 4x8 gantry kit and had it shipped to Australia. I have run in to some small problems one being my computer has a parallel port but no serial port so i'm wondering if i can use a usb to db9 adaptor?
thanks Wes.
Short answer yes a USB serial port should work.
Slightly longer answer... there is a lot of manufactures and drivers out there, you may find that some USB-Serial adapters will work with your product and some wont... It all depends on how closely they follow the specifications (and which ones) for serial ports.
Where I used to work they had one specific brand/model they bought as they knew it worked with the hardware... sorry but I don't recall the brand ... Parallel port USB adapters don't play well with CNC machines because of timing issues, but the serial lines are usually used for sending/receiving DATA and not individual timed BIT control.
And USB is a Universal Serial Bus ... still serial data, but more overhead for multiple device addressing and higher speed capabilities.
Very good answer. It should work in theory because the only serial data is the screen data feedback (Torch volts and power supply parameters) and the transfer of data to/from the DTHC for setup or changing parameters (from the screen or from the CUT PROFILE). Running parameters are stored in the DTHC non-volatile RAM memory for high speed access while cutting. I say "in theory" because we have not actually done it with the BladeRunner and DTHC package.
TOm caudle
www.CandCNC.com
It's unusual to find a PC with a parallel port and no serial unless it's an add-in parallel port. You can get inexpensive PCI serial port cards.
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