Thread: How to do this

You could try a peripheral parallel card, there's tons on flea-bay...
I use a USB to parallel converter on the Roland, but from memory, I don't think they work with Mach3. If you have one of those, it's probably worth a shot to try it.

Rather than trying to buy a paralell card, I would suggest that you buy an old Dell or some-such computer. They can generally be purchased for about $40-$50 and make excellent dedicated workhorses.

Aten make a good USB to Serial converter HOWEVER.... it does crash occasionally without good reason & needs a restart.

Any computer place that stocks bits & pieces from anyware.com.au will be able to get you one.
Anyware - Home of Computer Accessories


Do you know what the motherboard is in your computer?
Some of them still have the serial port & all they need is the cable to go from the header on the board to the back of the computer.

Hi Cliff
Mach3 uses the parallel port to control the machine, not the serial port.
Parallel port add on boards have always been a bit of a problem due to the many different implementations of their specifications around the world.

While your at it, it is probably a good idea to avoid windows 7 64 bit (if your using mach3 - apparantly the parallel port driver doesn't work on a 64 bit system, everything else is fine though if you have a usb motion controller) and avoid laptops.

Originally Posted by Cliff Rogers

Aten make a good USB to Serial converter HOWEVER.... it does crash occasionally without good reason & needs a restart.

Any computer place that stocks bits & pieces from anyware.com.au will be able to get you one.
Anyware - Home of Computer Accessories


Do you know what the motherboard is in your computer?
Some of them still have the serial port & all they need is the cable to go from the header on the board to the back of the computer.

Mine is a HP touch screen and I can't even add a second monitor.
I swore black and blue I would never buy HP again and then, after the cyclone, that's what the insurance company bought me

A more expensive option is a controller that will run from USB or ethernet such as the Smoothstepper.
As suggested though, a cheap, basic PC with a parallel port would be the preferred method as it can live in the shed with the CNC. Use your touch screen computer for doing the designs you later want to cut.

Try your local tip shop. I picked up an old no-name brand computer that worked. I gutted it for the case but it did work prior to that. I think I paid $20 which goes towards recycling.

I would not go with a usb -> parallel port converter. They have not shown themselves to be up for the job of controlling a CNC. Great for passing the information from a computer to an old printer but unreliable when accurate timings are required on the port.

I have an ethernet smoothstepper which works well and you can also get a usb version. That would be your only option to use that computer as you cannot add a parallel port PCI card.

Otherwise, as suggested another computer is required.

have a good look on the motherboard , find out the brand and model and search for some reference PDF's about your motherboard , there should be a " Legacy " plug on the board , if it has IDE ( old hard drive connections ) it will have a "legacy serial port" , even if you are using the SATA drive's

look for a plug like this

legacy "parallel communication "the plug you want too look for will be named as a IEEE 1284 plug , this board has an "apple fire wall? "

Sawdustsniffer, he has an HP all in one computer which is like an imac, they are not meant to be open and it wont have a traditional motherboard like our pc's.

well then is time to bye an old door stop off ebay then , there are some nice quick 3.4ghz dual core Dells/HP's with parallel ports for around $80

your hard pressed to find a 3.4ghz processor now , ok they have 6 cores not 2 , but ghz still beat cores for speed

Bugger. USB to Parallel converters are hopeless unless you just want to run a very old printer.

Plug in parallel cards are very hit & miss, some are good, some are crap.

I haven't had to use one for a long time so I can't comment.

I put an ad on Gumtree and someone in Cairns responded.
He has a complete system with all the necessary bits and pieces.
Price?
A lotto ticket

We will be picking it up on Wednesday.

That'd be right, and I get called a cheapskate for spending more for a lot less.