CNC Router - New PC Parallel Port Pickle!

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
I bought a dual core Atom based Mini-ITX single board PC using on chip graphics, it had one built in parallel port.
It is a VERY low power PC, below the minimum recommendations for Mach, and by quite a margin.
I loaded 32 bit Windows7 Embedded and proceeded to run Mach3's parallel port seamlessly for a year before I added
a second parallel port in the form of a PCI card and ran that for another year.

The only time I ever had any issues was when I made the mistake of changing screens or causing a tool path redraw
or similar.

Then, about five years ago I bought an Ethernet SmoothStepper….and it puts parallel ports into the shade, way smoother and VERY
VERY much less prone to hickups/stalls etc. Best $180 improvement I've ever made to my machine.

I have also switched to Mach4 which is a quantum leap from Mach3.

The bottom line is that 32bit Windows7 will run a parallel port, but do yourself a favour and get an Ethernet SmoothStepper or a UC300 or a 57CNC
and all those quirky stalls etc are history.

Craig

[RCaffin]

I am running a 'several-years-old' dual processor Dell with W7 at present. Is it 32 bit or 64 bit? I am not sure. It drives an ESS. I monitor the CPU load and memory load via Task Manager all the time.
Mach3 does not cause much more than a small blip in CPU load.
I can easily run Autosketch, a very fine 2D drafting package, at the same time without any inconvenience.

However, I can crash Mach3 by trying to zoom and rotate the on-screen display of the cutter path while the machine is busy. Be warned!
These days I do not try to alter the display while running.

Cheers
Roger

[chopper13]

I'm running a Win7 32 bit Acer with Warp9 ESS and so far the only problem has been it stopped in the middle of a 3D cut. Seems the idiot driving it forgot to turn off the computer shut down after X amount of time! It can run Acad and Aspire products but I choose to use my Win10 for the programming as I still watch Mach3 working. Habit I got into with a crappy Chinese controller. Time is no longer money being retired.