A Computer for Mach3 & the Taig Mill CNC Conversion
Last updated on Friday, November 25, 2011 06:27:26 AM Eastern US Time Zone

Mother Board, Enclosure, Display Brackets, Cables

First, assembled a computer to handle the Mach3 Mill software, a 4-axes LPT1 interfaced stepper controller,
an LPT2 interfaced manual pulse generator (MPG) pendant, relay control box, CAD/CAM, & the Internet.

Mother Board

Intel 775 socket Asus μATX MB with LPT1 I/O, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.2 GHz E4500 CPU & 2GB RAM.
This low-cost Asus P5VD2-VM SE motherboard has integrated graphics & high-fidelity audio.
The CPU is pin-less. Running XP Pro SP3 OS & attached to a wired LAN on a high-speed cable WAN.

The supplied Intel CPU fan has plenty of reserve cooling capacity for this application.
The magenta colored connector is LPT1.

Pre-graphics card configuration with 2GB RAM, a 320 GB WDC SATA 3 Mb/s, 16 MB cache, 7200 RPM HDD,
 Apacer AE101 embedded card reader & a Viewsonic Optiquest Q91b, 19" LCD monitor.

Asus DRW-20B1LT LightScribe DVD R-W upgrade. SATA cables opened the area for better ventilation.
This deck has built-in auto-vibration reduction, optimal tuning strategy & an energy green engine.
This Jaton Video Card PX 8000 v2 was replaced by a Raedon 5570 graphics card.

Upgraded to a faster graphics card with an ATI Raedon HD 5570 graphics engine, PCIe (16x) & 1GB DDR3
memory. Added 2GB RAM. With four fans (CPU, graphics card, power supply, & chassis) this system runs
cool & quiet. Power meter measurements: 80W at idle (65W without the graphics card) & 110W peak on boot;
300W power supply. This computer was built specifically for & is dedicated to controlling the CNC Taig mill in
4 axes using Mach3 Mill & the CNC Lathe using Mach3 Turn. It also has plenty of power for other applications.

Back panel of the computer. LPT1 (left) is on the motherboard & LPT2 (far right) is a Lava PCI card.

The computer was upgraded. The configuration is: a Gigabyte G41M-ES2L motherboard with LPT1 I/O,
Intel Core 2 Extreme x6800 2.93 GHz 1066 FSB CPU with Rosewill cooler, 4GB G.Skill 4-4-4-12 DDR2-800
RAM with heat sinks, & a Raedon HD5570 chipset PCIe (16x) video card with 1GB DDR3 onboard RAM.
This Gigabyte MOBO uses solid capacitors. The entire wired LAN is now running at 1.0 Gbps (wireless n).

In the BIOS, I turned-off the two RS232 serial ports & configured the two LPT ports to EPP+ECP.
LPT1 is on the motherboard (Hex 0378) & LPT2 is a PCI card (Hex d000). The Port #1 address
is standard but the Port #2 address can vary so examine the computer's devices menu.

Enclosure

This photo shows Mach3 Mill depicting the tool path for cutting a circular pocket.
This Core 2 Extreme x6800 (Conroe) CPU-based system easily generates 100K pulses/sec &
higher in Mach3. 25,000 pulses/s is fine for this application & does not burden either of the two CPUs.

This enclosure has a door in an extra effort to reduce swarf infiltration; it is effective.
The low-profile μATX case was selected to optimize placement under the bench.

Added an LPT2 PCI card to interface the manual pulse generator (MPG) pendant remote control. 

Display Brackets

Wall-mounted bracket for the computer's 19" LCD monitor. The bracket allows  the display to move
vertically, pivot, rotate, & tilt. Removing 4 small screws allows the OEM base to be completely removed.

The 4.75" x 4.75" x ¼" plate attaches to the 4, pre-existing M4-0.7 threaded mounting holes.

Top monitor bracket pivot with locking ¼-20 knob.

Wall bracket holds the monitor completely off the bench.

I use a Microsoft wireless mouse as I like the backward/forward page thumb buttons, wide-tilt scroll wheel &
ergonomic shape. Added a programmable HP wireless keyboard to further reduce clutter & it allows me to
completely remove them from the work area. I have the two USB receivers located above the bench top as
 they were having difficulty picking-up their signals through the 3" thick granite surface plate.

Installed Logitech Z-4 speakers which included a subwoofer. The Z-4 has a decent price to performance ratio.
All of the components of the install emphasized lowered bench clutter & the mitigation of metal swarf effects.

Cables

The CPU, LCD, opto-isolation, safety charge pump, & pendant interfaces are protected by a computer monitored (RS232)
APC uninterruptable power supply while the stepper motor control circuit is protected by a standard APC surge protector.

An upgraded APC Back-UPS ES 550 having computer monitoring software connected via a USB.

Mother Board, Enclosure, Display Brackets, Cables