Promica CNC owners

[robbycar]

I tried the XML file, and I was able to jog steppers with no problem.

But no joy with the spindle. I see the index is not set to a pin, so I need to work out how to set this up again.

As soon as I enable the driver, the spindle starts and I cant stop it with Mach3

I moved house, and setting this up again has proven to be a challenge after the disk went belly up.

If anyone else happens to have the XML file which I think was called Ultra which came from Marc, I would be grateful.

Otherwise, it is going to be trial and error!

Rob

[robbycar]

I managed to find a spare backup I had hidden!

Best Christmas present I could get.

Here is a copy if anyone needs it.

There is no way I would have fluked the spindle setup.

Rob.

[imperative]

Its been a while Promica owners - I hope you are all still here - on the planet as well as on the forum. It's finally happened, my XP computer has decided to quit rendering my mill useless. A but of internet study tells me that we have moved on from a parallel port and are now using USB connections with Windows 10 on Mach 3. I no electronics guru but it seems there are a number of USB style 4 axis 100khz motion control boards on the grand old auction site with wildly varying prices for often the same piece of hardware. Can I substitute one of these motion control boards on my Promica control box and can the xml file be used on windows 10? Thanks.

[phomann]

Hi,
A simple upgrade for a legacy parallel port controller is to use the UCCNC USB motion controller.
It plugs into the existing controller via its parallel port connector.

https://www.homanndesigns.com/index....roducts_id=359

Cheers

Peter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[RCaffin]

there are a number of USB style 4 axis 100khz motion control boards on the grand old auction site with wildly varying prices for often the same piece of hardware.
Chuckle.
What's more, some of them might even work - sometimes, and for some commands. Do you feel lucky?

But some of them do NOT implement the full set of g-codes. Threading is particularly doubtful. Yer pays yer money ...

Also, using the USB version of anything is unreliable (imho). You are putting either 5 V or 3.3 V TTl logic signals with a shared 0 V line in competition with the RFI (noise) from the (possibly kilowatt) switch mode power supplies. I tried it, and my machine crashed about once per day - and I am not a novice in electronics.

Switch to an ethernet version: +-15 V signals and transformer isolation. It is far more robust, and widely used in industry. I did, and I have had zero crashes since. Me, I favour the Warp9 ESS, but there are others.

Once you switch to using the etherrnet, you can run on any version of Windows you want. The ESS uses the Windows ethernet driver.

Just about everything in this neck of the woods uses the pin-out from the old LPT port. It has become a sort of industry standard. Often parts are interchangeable. When I switched from the USB SS to the ethernet SS, I kept the (Homann Designs) MB-02 Break-Out Boards exactly as they were.

Cheers
Roger

[Toolrunner]

I'm just posting to demonstrate continued interest in this thread. I bought a Promica kit in August 2009, along with a Sieg X3 mill. The terrible thing is, I never assembled it. It's all still on a shelf in my workshop, and the mill still with the factory grease. It was for an enterprise I didn't go ahead with. If it ever gets assembled, I assume it should by now be retrofitted with a much newer controller.
Ian
Canberra