an LPT2 interfaced manual pulse generator (MPG) pendant, relay control box, CAD/CAM, & the Internet.
Mother Board
A
Computer for Mach3 & the Taig Mill CNC Conversion
Last updated on
Thursday, May 16, 2013 06:07:30 AM
Eastern US Time Zone
Mother Board, SSD, Mass Storage, Enclosure, Display Brackets, USB Hub, Cables, UPS
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 low-end
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.
Gigabyte MOBO uses solid capacitors. The network is running at either a Gigabit wired or n
wireless.
Solid State Drive (SSD)
Upgraded to Window 7 (32-bit for the LPT drivers) & installed
it on a Samsung 840 250GB SSD.
Before an upgrade, make sure you have your latest Mach3 mill & turn xml
setup
files, licenses for
Mach3, Newfangled, Gearotic Motion. Set MOBO LPT to EPP+ECP in the BIOS &
verify addresses.
If Mach3 uses Brain Control
(e.g., for an MPG2) they have to be reloaded & configured, as well.
All Brain Control routines are placed into the Brains folder located in the main
Mach3 folder.
Performance gains using Win 7 & an SSD in place of XP & an HDD is nothing short
of phenomenal
even though this particular MOBO only has SATA II (3Gbits/s). All four networked
computers use
Win 7 & SSDs. The 4 extra HDDs (2TB) now reside in a
Mediasonic 4-bay enclosure for backups.
Total network storage is 5.5TB . The venerable XP OS has been retired after
years of ultra-stability.
Mass Storage
Mediasonic 4-bay
Probox HF2-SU3S2; low-cost, compact, fast (non-RAID) external storage solution.
The HDDs were not easily plugging into the box so I opened the back, loosened
the six PCB
screws, installed the drives & re-tightened. Now the drives plug & play into the
box very smoothly.
In the BIOS, I turned-off the two RS232 serial ports & configured the two LPT
ports to EPP+ECP.
LPT1 is on the motherboard (378h) & LPT2 is a PCI card
(df00h). 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 (DF00) 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.
A wall bracket holds the monitor completely off the bench.
I used a Microsoft wireless mouse as I liked 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 signals through the 3" thick granite surface plate.
Upgraded to a Logitech M510 mouse with a USB micro-receiver.
This mouse has superior ergonomics
with comfortable overall shape & slightly protruding forward/backward switches
that have tactile feedback.
A shallow indent in the area in between the side switches gives location info to
the thumb. The LED is
invisible infrared light & the two AA batteries last years. It works on one
battery if light weight is desired.
One micro-receiver can interface up to seven coupled Logitech devices.
Seven-port, externally powered USB 2.0 hub (D-Link DUB-H7) with two,
high-current charging ports (Taiwan).
Bench-mounted the hub using an aluminum plate screwed to the backstop & attached
with double-sided tape.
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.
The monitor bracket has since been lowered as I wear
bifocals for close viewing.
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.
UPS
Uninterruptible Power System (UPS).
An upgraded APC Back-UPS ES 550 having computer monitoring
software connected via a USB.
Mother Board, SSD, Mass Storage, Enclosure, Display Brackets, USB Hub, Cables, UPS
