Question STEPCRAFT and Mach3

Hello guys
Last month I bought the Stepcraft 600, Mach3 and UC100. I built it without problems but I had a lot of difficult configuring it. Luckily StoneyCNC helped me quickly and sent me the installation help documentation. Today, fist time, the Stepcraft is working. Thanks Rory.
Antonio

Yep must agree, Rory assisted me with getting my machine running better under Mach3 also. Very fast response and I'm sure we all agree the amount of support he provides to the community is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Hallo there,

I Intend to buy a stepcraft420 and I have something that is not clear for me because I intend to use it with mach3. This is what I understood so far:

if I want to control it via usb from Mach3 the usb version of the machine will not work.

I need to buy the parallel port version and additionally the uc100 usb converter.

Is that correct ?

Yes, correct. The USB board offered by stepcraft is actually like a dongle for the WinPC NC software.

As far as I know there are other USB solutions for Mach3 available, but yes, uc100 is an option.

Yes, you are correct in your planning. The UC-100 device is easy to setup and thorough in the instructions for loading and installing. More importantly, it works!

Good luck.

Great support from Rory . Even though i am not their client he answered e-mail in 20min and helped me configure my stepcraft-600 .

I can confirm the great support from Rory!

I bought the UC100 from him but read some of the forum info too late because I could have been buying also the parallel port together with it (I ordered it from Stepcraft).

Anyhow, he gave me the STepcraft.xml for Mach3 as well, it was for a 420 but I could change it to meet my 600 limits.

I had some problems with the HF spindle until I found a description in the German forum.

Anyhow, StoneyCNC was great, I received my goods on the day after Rory sent the mail that he was sending them, and I am in Austria.

p.s.: My first parts on Mach3 for the grandchild:

Some more experience about using Mach3 with parallel port equpipped Stepcraft. I got an old used PC with a clean 32 bit XP installation for running the machine as mentioned in post 9659: https://www.stepcraft-systems.com/en/forum/software2/744-stepcraft-and-mach3#9659 . Since Windows XP is no longer supported and many people replaced their computers together with the new software, used computers can be found pretty cheap. A PC should be easy to configure and use, but a laptop could prove to be a bit more tricky to set up.

I bought an old Dell D600 laptop with a clean 32 bit XP install for my next CNC project. D600 has a parallel port, but initially it failed the driver test. Did some researching and found good advice here: http://www.sonsivri.to/forum/index.php?topic=54116.0 and here: https://www.probotix.com/downloads/XP_Optimization.txt . Replacing the ACPI with Standard PC driver worked for me. Basically I did as one user said:
Suggest using the 'Standard PC' driver, no other installed programs, no start up programs, no internet connection, no av, fresh xp install, no auto updates, no firewall, use maximum ram (which in the older laptops is still not very much). Use ac power adaptor and no wireless mice or keyboards. I don't even bother with updates as these are mainly IE security related.
Further testing proved successful. Some things are different with the standard PC driver, for example I don`t see any laptop battery monitor. My CNC lathe project is currently on hold but maybe someone decides to take the same route with the Stepcraft and investigate further.

I bought a stepcraft 600 and had trouble with winpc-nc. I decided to hook up the machine to my LPT port and run it with mach3.
This wasn't as easy as it seemed but with the help of Rory (Stoneycnc) I got it running in a couple of hours which should've been minutes if I had kept my eyes open.

Thank you Rory and keep up the remarkable service and help us noobs milling!

Hello, I am using SC420 version 2. I have configured all the 3 axes and homing switches working properly. But I cannot get the spindle working. It doesn't even spin. This is so frustrating. Can someone give me some advices? I am using stepcraft HF500 spindle. Did I even set the I/O pins wrong? Which pin is it to toggle on/off? Which pin is the PWM signal? Any help is appreciated.

I thin k on Motor pin is 17 and on output (PWM) pin is 1 (one).

Check the manual of the hf spindel.
It is written inside it.
Chapter 6.2.
On/Off is pin 13
PWM = 7

Hello I am a newbie S2 840 user hunting for info in order to 3d print ; right now my outputs look like this; do you confirm I need to pull out the current USB output and replace it with the UC100 in order for the S2 to talk to Mach3?

For Mach3 with UC100 you need to REPLACE the USB module (WinPC-CNC only) with the Parallel Interface. Then then UC100 module connects to the Parallel port on one end and with USB to the other end (PC). Together with the UC100 plugin MACH3 is now able to talk with the machiene. But UC100 is no must have. My SC420/2 works very fine with the parallel port directly. U just need a PC with parallel interface.

thank you for this clarification
I presume Win PC-NC still works through the UC100? However maybe you do not use it anymore once you have Mach3?

pverlhac wrote: thank you for this clarification
I presume Win PC-NC still works through the UC100? However maybe you do not use it anymore once you have Mach3?

It's either - or! They use different HW which is not compatible with each other.

pverlhac wrote: I presume Win PC-NC still works through the UC100? However maybe you do not use it anymore once you have Mach3?

AFAIK WinPC-CNC Starter only works with its special made USB Interface. It can be regarded as some type of dongle.

Hi to all,

I wanted to use my Stepcraft600 v2 with Mach3 and found this thread. I contacted Rory for help through the StoneyCNC contact form on their website and even though I hadn't bought anything from them, Rory shared the Mach 3 Stepcraft profile immediatly and for free. The machine even runs smoother than before.

That said, I had my personnal stupid reasons to use Mach3, but I believe that the VCarve/UCCNC/UC100 combination they advice on their website is much better.

A big thank you to Rory for the reponsiveness and efficiency !

Big thanks for Rory! He sent me the Stepcraft Profile for Mach 3 and it works!

Kind Regards!

Million Thanks to Rory - he so kindly helped by providing a Mach3 configuration file, and I did not even buy my stepcraft from him (but I do not live in the UK...).
That will save me masses of time getting through all the settings in Mach3.
I can only say that when I need any supply for my Stepcraft, being it milling bits or parts - I will buy it from StoneyCNC.
I also have to mention that response to my emails was immediate, so with that company everything is top - you will appreciate it when you call for help.
Thumbs up!