help with components
What I have: 4) gecko 203V stepper drives, 4) 980 oz in Nema34 steppers, 65V , 12V; 5V 15A toroidal power supply,. New old stock Hypertherm 1250G Wanting to build a plasma table. Have licensed version of Mach3 as well as SheetcamTNG.
have never built a stepper control before
Want to use Ethernet interface on BOB Would like recommendations there as well as table I/O & any other cards needed as well as THC.
curious about LinuxCNC anyone using that?
Open to any suggestions
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If it works.....Don't fix it!
Re: help with components
Hi,
if you wish to use Mach3 then consider an Ethernet SmoothStepper
https://warp9td.com/
The SmoothStepper external controller requires BoBs to interface with drivers/switches etc, C10 BoBs are economical at $23.00 each. You would
require three of them if you wanted to use ALL the IO the SmoothStepper has, 51 inputs and/or outputs.
Proma is a commonly used THC device.
Craig
Re: help with components
Linuxcnc and Mesa 7i76e ethernet card will blitz a smooth stepper for about the same money. 32 inputs, 16 outputs, 2 MPG, 1 encoder, 5 stepgens, 4 Analog to digital inputs, spindle. Toss in a Mesa THCAD card fr USD $69 to read the torch voltage and you are set. Plus the 7i76e is infinitely expandable wit various daughter cards and even a simple BOB.
Rod Webster
www.vmn.com.au
Re: help with components
am hearing Mach3 is no longer being supported??
I used it for past 12 years on a stepper OX fuel machine with CandCNC hardware.
Technology has passed me up I guess Once I had table doing what I wanted/needed I unplugged from internet & used it..... the old " if it works...don't fix it attitude"
If it works.....Don't fix it!
Re: help with components
Hi,
all development on Mach3 ceased five years ago. There have been one or two minor patches since but by and large
Mach3 it what it is and will remain that way.
Mach4 is the new control software from New Fangled Solutions (Artsoft). Anyone who has used Mach3 will recognize Mach4
instantly. There are differences of course, the main one being the flexibility offered by the new programming language Lua and
Mach4's modular structure.
Mach4 can be run with a parallel port like Mach3 but the parallel port has limitations....purposely. Thus Mach4 is 'native' to
an external controller like the 57CNC,the SmoothStepper or the UC300. None of these devices, at this time, support highspeed THC.
The only controller that does is the HiCon Integra by Vital Systems, regrettably not a cheap unit ($600).
Thus those people using Mach4 for Plasma Cutting are using the Hicon external controller, a high quality board and fully featured. The lack of
choice in controller hardware is seen by some as a disadvantage.
Craig
Re: help with components
The UC300ETH and UC400ETH support high speed THC, but only with UCCNC and Mach3 softwares.Originally Posted by joeavaerage
I'm using it with UCCNC on my plasma machine for 2 years and it works very well.
Re: help with components
Hi,
you are correct the UC300 and UC400 support THC with Mach3 but not Mach4 yet.
In fact ALL the devices I listed support THC with Mach3 but ONLY the HiCon with Mach4.
Mach 3 OR 4 is not a realtime computing system, the Windows operating system precludes it. Mach's parallel port is a gallant attempt to make
a Windows PC into a realtime computing system and does a fair job but ultimately a Windows PC cannot be a realtime computing system.
THC is a realtime process. The motion controller must provide that functionality because Mach, by definition, cannot.
Vital Systems is, to date, the only company to have built THC support into their device for use with Mach4.
Warp9's Ethernet SmoothStepper Mach4 plugin has just recently had single point lathe threading support and multipulse per rev Spindle PID support added. THC
will be the next realtime feature to be worked on.
The controller hardware development for Mach4 is a bit like where controller hardware development for Mach3 was five to eight years
ago. Some controllers had this....but not that. Eventually all controllers ended up with all the common realtime supports, well at least the decent US
and European made controllers, the Chinese made ones are still patchy.
Craig
Re: help with components
Something to be said for linuxCNC which is a real time CNC controller. A Mesa 7i76e ethernet card and a Mesa THCAD card to read torch voltage will set you back USD $268. Thats all you need. Sheetcam will still work on Linux. Just download the Linux version and run it on both Windows and Linux with the same license string (which is permitted). The fundamental difference between LinuxCNC and a smooth stepper is that LinuxCNC always remains the motion controller where a smooth stepper is the Motion controller in a Mach environment. That means it presents a much more robust and capable motion controller as it has the full power of a PC behind it. The MEsa THCAD is a voltage to Frequency card that is built for the hostile plasma environment. It sends a frequency to the 7i76e spindle encoder and this in turn is decoded back to a voltage by LInuxCNC. LinuxCNC offloads the step generation to the Mesa hardware which can run at up to 10 Mhz. There are some very interesting developments with LinuxCNC and internal THC control on the linuxCNC forum right now.
Rod Webster
www.vmn.com.au
Re: help with components
Some of my concern with Mach3 is What happens when Microsoft moves away from Windows 10. Will Mach3 even work with what ever they do next??
If it works.....Don't fix it!
Re: help with components
Hi,
eventually Mach3 will no longer work....it might for instance get tipped over by the successor to Windows 10,no one knows.
Having said that lots of people still use XP with Mach3. Neither Mach3 or XP are changing so if they work now they will work in th
future.
If you are concerned about Mach3 then use Mach4.....after all that is what NFS have released as the current software solution.
Craig
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