Home and Limit

[kenlambert]

how should I wire up the home and limit switches ? do they go to the PCB that hooks to the printer port ? And if I want to use my lap top do they make a card for the pc slot to give me a 25 pin printer port, my laptop does not have one ,it only has a port for external monitor and usb and TV hookups thanks Kenneth


my machine so far

[HomeCNC]

Ken,

Are you saying that your laptop does not have a printer port on it? You do need one if you are going to use the standard controller software for step and direction control.

About the home and limit connection. Have you chosen your controller software? If so there are pins that will be in use for the limit control. Look at the setup of the software and find out what pins and the number it uses. After you know this then you connect the switches to these pins in your break-out-board in your controller box.

[kenlambert]

Yes my laptop does NOT have a printer port other than USB, But i have a comp for the shop I was just wanting to use the laptop because it is much faster. I purchased Bobcad v19 and Artsoft or something like that for control ( the 150.00 program ) how was your vacation? I am getting close to haveing the machine ready guess it will be next week if nothing else comes up Kenneth


Mach 2

[HomeCNC]

My vacation was great. Bora Bora is a fantastic island to visit. Diving is great too.

Mach 2 is very good controller software. It is hard for some to get setup. I have uploaded screen shots of the setup screens from my Mach 2 software. It is in the "Free / Demo" area of the files section.

[UKRobotics]

I thought the Mach 2 was an interface board for the geckos, not a piece of software ?

[Ferenczyg]

Kenlambert, you can try a USB-to-Centronics cable for your laptop. They have no big cost, about 25€ that is about 30 US$ (at least they cost that the last time I seen it). Then you can get from the Centronicst the signals you need. They are the same signals that exist at the subD25female port of the pc's, at the same pin number. You can look at

http://www.hardwarebook.net/cable/parallel/printer.html

and look the wiring of the subd25-to-Centronics cable to get the correct signals directly from the centronics side.

Sorry but i think there is no USB-to-SubD25 Female cable, because the kind of cable I say is designed to provide capability to use a 'old' parallel printer to the people that have the new 'usb-only' laptops. Because it replaces the usual printer cable, it finishes in a Centronics connector at the 'printer side'.


Word of caution 1: This is only a idea, I've not tried.
Word of caution 2: The use of the USB-to-any always implies a driver installation, and some of the functions maybe driver dependant

Caveat Emptor I suppose, but hope it helps.

Fer

[HomeCNC]

I thought the Mach 2 was an interface board for the geckos, not a piece of software ?

No, Mach 2 is step and direction CNC controller software.