Tired of banging my head against the wall

[soarnut]

Dudes

Looking for somehelp here. Totally inexperienced except for cnc foam cutting and many months frustration with the router.
For my router I have a French software called Ninos (http://www.cadcam-ninos.com/) which actually does everything I need. Put in a dxf, add cut points (I'm cutting flat sheets of parts, not machining) go to the cam module and all is converted into a cut file for you, cut the parts. Problem is that I could only get a cut speed of 3 mm's a second. If you have ever seen 3mm's a second, it is painful to watch. The problem there seemed to be that I have Geko 2,000 microstep drivers and the old computer (P2-386) simply wasn't processing fast enough. Got a P4-1.7gh and switched machines. Now able to process about 3 times faster without error and the cut simulates just fine BUT, when you do the actual cut, the lines are all over the place!
Anybody have any ideas? Could it be a problem with the newer machine having the newer, lower voltage? I got a card and added another parallel port and the results are the same.
I would really like to get this going. I also have Quickstep software and the pulsepacer attachment which will make the machine run quite handily but uses ace converter which seems to require gcode editing and redrawing all of my parts individually, adding cut points manually. I have hundreds of parts that I cut and this could take a lifetime (I'm not that young:-)

Any help appreciated
Denny

[NC Cams]

It might not be the PC but actually your O/S.

Your older PC was probably running DOS or a DOS based O/S (DOS, WIN3x, Win95 or Win 98). Some DOS programs won't work on newer computers running XP. We have some DOS programs that won't even work on 98/98SE and 98 is supposedly still a DOS based O/S.

The XP incompatibility has something to do with XP not allowing direct calls to the LPT port as could be done in DOS.

Try contacting the software vendor to see if they have drivers for whatever O/S that you have on your new PC. Or upgrade the software to match your newest O/S.

[soarnut]

NC

Thank you very much for the reply. Both machines are running the same version of 98SE. I'm not much of a computer guy but both machines are as identical as I can make them. Both are dedicated cnc and have no other crap on them, just the basic operating system. Not knowing much about puters I thought there could be something with the port so I got a card and installed a second port with the same results.

[ger21]

Why won't Quickstep run the same G-code from Ninos? Why do you have to use ACE, can't you just export the G-code from Ninos?

I'm going to guess that the problem is with Ninos. Or more specifically with Windows. At lthe higher speeds your trying to use, Windows is probably interfering with Ninos parallel port output. The only Windows software that avoids this is Mach2/3 from www.artsoft.ca.

If you already have the Quickstep pulse generator, I'd try to figure out a way to use Ninos for your CAM like you've been doing, and see if you can get Quickstep to run the Ninos G-code.

[strat]

another thought is get into your bios and see how the lpt ports are set not sure if it would cause the probs you are describing or not but anythings poss with puters anyways once in bios i always set to the ecp/epp setting if your set for SPP try switching to ECP/EPP and see if it makes a difference main thought on this is spp is a 4 bit setting where the other are 8 bit so if its taking your data and splitting it up in half it could make some wierd moves