Status on the Mach3 plugin ??

[beefy]

Just wondering if the Mach3 plugin is up and running.

My interest in this is for SCANYTHING camera scanning software made by Les Newell at Sheetcam.

It would be great to be using UCcnc for my normal plasma cutting then just switch over to Mach3 when I want to scan an existing part.

Of course I hope one day Les makes a Scanything plugin for UCcnc too.

Keith.

[cncdrive]

Mach3 plugin for the uc400eth is available on our website, on the product's page, it is available for a few months now.

[beefy]

Thanks Balazs,

I was looking for it in the downloads section.

Will this plugin also be available for the UC300ETH when it's in production.

Keith.

[cncdrive]

Hi Keith,

The UC300ETH will be out really soon, but it will first only have UCCNC support and later we will add the M3 plugin, just like how we did with the UC400ETH.
And if you guys are interested here is a sneak peak of the UC300ETH details, manual, etc.: http://www.cncdrive.com/UC300ETH.html
The link page is not linked to our website yet, but will be very soon.

[Robertspark]

Ooh.... uc300eth.... I see a direct thc interface coming .... well direct with the 50:1 etc voltage divider..... (I have a pmx45, so part of the hard work is done via the interface)

Also fancy having a go at changing the current pot for a digital pot so current can be set and adjusted (tweaked) relative to feedrate... or using an il300 as a linear optocoupler via one of the analogue outputs, may need a faster loop than plugin at 25hz... the options look good

Rob

[Robertspark]

TP, unfortunately the PMX45 does not have RS485, only the PMX65,85and 105 via the axillary interface board.

Also the PMX65 is not available as single phase to the CE (European) market (electrical noise suppression appears to be the issue of incoming supply looking at the service manuals). I attempted to get a single phase PMX65 from the us but was let down by a seller, so went for a new pmx45 from a reliable uk seller in the end. hence had an idea that I'd look at replacing the ampage set pot on the front with a digital potentiometer (although most I can find are SPI or I2c, hence the IL300 offers something different that may work (not looked into it other than at a very high level).

Rob

[beefy]

Hi Keith,

The UC300ETH will be out really soon, but it will first only have UCCNC support and later we will add the M3 plugin, just like how we did with the UC400ETH.
And if you guys are interested here is a sneak peak of the UC300ETH details, manual, etc.: http://www.cncdrive.com/UC300ETH.html
The link page is not linked to our website yet, but will be very soon.

Thanks Balazs,

was I interested in the UC300ETH manual, I couldn't click on the link fast enough LOL. It's been a bad bad winter and I'm very broke at the moment but I'm hoping I can afford a UC300ETH when they're up for sale.

On a side note guys, there's a member on Plasmaspider trying to decide between Mach3 / Smoothstepper and UCCNC. Don't know if anyone wants to chip in with their advise for him.

http://www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.p ... 26#p125326

Keith.

[cncdrive]

Ooh.... uc300eth.... I see a direct thc interface coming .... well direct with the 50:1 etc voltage divider..... (I have a pmx45, so part of the hard work is done via the interface)

Also fancy having a go at changing the current pot for a digital pot so current can be set and adjusted (tweaked) relative to feedrate... or using an il300 as a linear optocoupler via one of the analogue outputs, may need a faster loop than plugin at 25hz... the options look good

Rob

The analog input currently can't be used as the THC control signal unfortunately.
I also think (but will have to check) that the analog signal is probably filtered with a too high time constant (for good noise immunity) on the -5LPT motherboard for this to work,
I mean probably it could not work, because of the limitation of the board and also the analog signal is not sampled at high speed,
the analog signal works for Feedrate override, Spindle speed override and jog override and can be attached to # variables,
and these does not need real fast processing. I think the processing is about 20Hz currently.

The loop in the plugin is 25Hz, because for most things that is enough and you know the higher the loop speed the more CPU time the PC will need,
so we set that to a 25Hz frequency, but ofcourse you can create your own Timers or your own Threads and run your own loops which can be any fast you building it in the plugin.
But this will not make the analog sampling faster and also the analog low-pass filter time constant I mentioned is still there and can't be resolved with faster sampling.
Basicly the board and code was not designed to control plasma based on the analog input signal. It is a good idea, but we did not think about it when designing the motherboard.
The THC control is currently built around digital inputs only from external THC controller with THC up, down and ARCOK signals.

[Kelevra]

I've had a short look at the ETH300 and to me it looks like it will make the ETH400 obsolete or am I missing something?

[cncdrive]

The UC400ETH has less ports, less I/Os than the UC300ETH.
So, the UC300ETH will be more expensive as it has more parts on the PCB -> more parts and assembly costs.
For applications where lots of I/Os are not required the UC400ETH can be used for less cost and for others the UC300ETH can be used.

We will not make the UC400ETH obsolete, it has it's rule in our products range.