uc100 cnc usb controller usb to parallel adapter for mach3 cnc router

Other options are to have 2 UC100 (£92 each) controllers and a USB switch or go for the UC400ETH (£128) which has 2 ports (and a slightly higher cost) and would require 2 interface cables (IDC26-DSUB25 £5.32) to go from the headers on the controller to your machines. This means the idea of a parallel port switch is probably unnecessary. One set up would only use port 1 and the other only port 2.

This would require two Mach3 setups which can be named to match the equipment and just run one at a time. Since a lot of external motion controllers have the equivalent of 2 parallel ports (the Smooth Steppers certainly do) on them it should be possible to run two machines from one motion controller, though most likely not at the same time. If you do it before the old set-up dies you can take time to do it at a leisurely pace. I think you are better off getting away from using a parallel port and using an external motion controller to future proof (at least in a limited way, nothing lasts forever) your system. I have a cheap used Toshiba touch screen laptop from Ebay on one machine that runs Win10 and XP on a freebie laptop on another. I run Mach3 with Warp9 Smooth Steppers, so similar to the UC100, which means I can use any PC to run it. Just watch out for seriously silly high prices! It was never a cheap way to go with three cables and a switch box but CPC and Amazon both still list them. It's a shame I gave away the switch and cables with the old pc but the new owner may have them spare if you want me to check? I've got one on the mill and another on the lathe, with manual changeover. I'm not sure how easy it is to get 25 way printer switches these days, by the time you've found one and the necessary cable it might be as cheap to buy another uc100. It may depend on the drive capability of the uc100 and the cable length. I used to work like this when using the parallel port on an xp machine so in principle it should be ok. Is the switch likely to affect performance? Anybody done this? I'd like to use a single Win10 PC for both. I'm wondering about using the UC100 motion controller with a printer/parallel cable switch so that I don't have to physically plug/unplug the two machines.Īt the moment I have a Triac mill running Mach3/parallel port and a Stepcraft router running with UCCNC via UC100, on separate PCs.

Uc100 cnc usb controller usb to parallel adapter for mach3 cnc router