DesclCNC Board and Mach2

[ger21]

The steppers connect to driver boards. The deskCNC needs their controller board plus the stepper drives, while Mach3 only needs the stepper drives.

[Jimilo]

Originally Posted by smparkinson I just purchased a cnc router from moosecreeksales on ebay.( it'sitem number 320109204739 if you care to look at the listing), and the machine's maker suggest's using MACH3 software. However, I'm new to cnc (my only experience is with engravers and their software) and I got a copy of EASYCNC which suggest's DeskCNC as the best software for beginners. Even though it cost's about $100. more than Mach3, from the demo's it looks like DeskCNC is a lot more intuitive and less intimidating for me. My question is this: can I use DeskCNC with whatever kind of control board will be comming with my router, or am I going to be pulling my hair out trying to make it work. We all know that nothing boost's one's confidence like having some success in the begining of using new equipment. Any help or thoughts would be welcome, and I thank you in advance. PS-as an alternative, I would consider getting DeskCNC bundled with their board (and probably the USB adaptor) if it would get me up and running with better and easier results. Thanks!

Sam... Im intrested in the system from moosecreek. I just saw that you purchased one. can you pease tell me what you think of the machine.

[David Da Costa]

I have a DeskCNC controller box from http://www.cadcamcadcam.com that came with their CNC router that I bought from them.

I would really like to use it with Mach3 and know that they now offer a USB version which uses ncPod which I also have one hanging around.

Can anyone give me some idea of what I would need to do to convert the serial controller to use ncPod and work with Mach3?

Thanks


David

[wmgeorge]

Originally Posted by smparkinson I just purchased a cnc router from moosecreeksales on ebay.( it'sitem number 320109204739 if you care to look at the listing), and the machine's maker suggest's using MACH3 software. However, I'm new to cnc (my only experience is with engravers and their software) and I got a copy of EASYCNC which suggest's DeskCNC as the best software for beginners. Even though it cost's about $100. more than Mach3, from the demo's it looks like DeskCNC is a lot more intuitive and less intimidating for me. My question is this: can I use DeskCNC with whatever kind of control board will be comming with my router, or am I going to be pulling my hair out trying to make it work. We all know that nothing boost's one's confidence like having some success in the begining of using new equipment. Any help or thoughts would be welcome, and I thank you in advance. PS-as an alternative, I would consider getting DeskCNC bundled with their board (and probably the USB adaptor) if it would get me up and running with better and easier results. Thanks!

The short answer is no. The reason is that the machine comes with a controller card (I hope) that is set up to use Mach 2 or 3, which uses your computer parallel port. It would be more cost effective for you just to stay with what is already installed. Now the fun part, if you can't find a computer with a parallel port, now you need to add a parallel card adapter to your computer. Or buy, if they exist a USB to parallel adapter.

If you don't have a controller in the machine, I have and use DeskCNC on my router, runs off a serial port or a USB to serial adapter. I like DeskCNC and it runs my machine just fine. Good Luck.