No. It serves as the motion controller. It interfaces directly to stepper drivers.
No doubt. Though some people are not familiar with command line and man pages 
1 Like
Or my favorite, VI
2 Likes
Ok. So what would I need to go from straight demon to Mach 3. The interface on Mach 3 looks pretty cool.
:wq!
I like your CAD system (Cardboard Aided Design)
4 Likes
Technically, you just need a dedicated PC with a parallel port and a DB25 breakout board. You can wire everything else from the demon to it (I believe).
I think you’d be better off finding a better GRBL interface (for now) than wholesale changing to MACH3.
Nah - force the change through, your probably logged in as root anyways 
2 Likes
Hi all
I use uccnc for over a year now on two machines. Cnc and co laser. Started with Mach 3 bit they need parralel port of smoothie board.
Uccnc alsof need ethernet control Cars nut so fast and stable way netter and cheap er than Mach 3.
Grtz
They don’t have a gcode sender built into emacs yet?
I’m beginning to understand. Mach 3 utilizes a (db25) breakout board to control the (tb6600) stepper controller, bypassing the arduino and talking directly to them over PP or usb to parallel converter?
How does it send pulses and coordinate/synchronize the stepper controllers all at the same time?
LinuxCNC/Mach3 or 4 Basically operates as the motion controller. It directly drives the drivers and monitors all the I/O directly (i.e. Input devices like Endstops, Probes and output devices like SSR or VFD/Spindle controllers.) Far superior to AVR based motion controllers.
As for the DB25 configuration this a ‘common’ pin out. Not a huge fan of USB based controllers. But this is a Mach 3/4 thing. LinuxCNC does not support it (Officially, There are hacks. But I’d avoid them. Specifically motion controlling. USB addons for more I/O thats fine for thing like controlling a tool changer, vac. pump for a vac. vise or other light duty on/off tasks or status changes.)
5i25
Configuration pin-out:
Mill Function DB25 Mesa Type Chan Function IO
Spindle Enable 1 0 IOPort None
Spindle Speed 14 1 IOPort PWM 0
X Step 2 2 IOPort StepGen 0 Step (Out)
Estop Reset 15 3 IOPort None (In)
X Direction 3 4 IOPort StepGen 0 Dir (Out)
Charge Pump 16 5 IOPort StepGen 4 Step (Out)
Y Step 4 6 IOPort StepGen 1 Step (Out)
Coolant 17 7 IOPort None (Out)
Y Direction 5 8 IOPort StepGen 1 Dir (Out)
Z Step 6 9 IOPort StepGen 2 Step (Out)
Z Direction 7 10 IOPort StepGen 2 Dir (Out)
A Step 8 11 IOPort StepGen 3 Step (Out)
A Direction 9 12 IOPort StepGen 3 Dir (Out)
X Limit 10 13 IOPort None (In)
Y Limit 11 14 IOPort None (In)
Z Limit 12 15 IOPort None (In)
Probe In 13 16 IOPort QCountIdx 0 Idx (In)
At any rate, both of those platforms use RTOS. Which can easily drive multi-axes machines with a crap ton of inputs/outputs. Especially setups with MESA cards (i.e. 5i25/6i25 or ethernet based units like the 7i92H/M) The MESA platform uses an FPGA that handles stepgen duties, I/O monitoring and encoders setups at a much higher frequency which offloads that task from LinuxCNC or Mach 3/4)
Angus I was just making a joke - Linux is just a whole other animal in itself. I’ve been a systems admin for 21 years, 17 was on *nix systems. They have changed for the better though, tried to become easier to install and use which is always good.
jer
Lower impedance is better.
They are similar, but the 3A one is better on paper. Due to the +/- 20% variation it could in fact be opposite 
If lower impedance is better then lower amperage goes hand in hand. So I’m I’m lost again. 
@PhilJohnson check this out.
Had it printed out for shifts and giggles.
2 Likes
23HS30-3004S
rated current 3.0 amps
phase resistance 1.12 ohms
inductance 4.8 mH +/- 20 percent
23HS30-2804S
rated current 2.8 amps
phase resistance 1.13 ohms
inductance 5.4 mH +/- 20 percent
variation in the 2804 = (5.4 * 0.2 = 1.08) range is 4.32 mH to 6.48 mH
variation in the 3004 = (4.8 * 0.2 = 0.96) range is 3.84 mH to 5.76 mH
I would go with the 23HS3004S.
2 Likes
Inductance (not impedance) dictates the torque curve. The torque curve is limited by the current capacity of the stepper. The lower inductance means it takes less drive voltage to optimally run the stepper.
The inductance does NOT always correlate to the current rating. They are two different ratings for steppers. You can have lower inductance and high current motors.
That’s a 3.5A stepper with a 4.1 mH inductance.
The 2.8A Has a higher inductance than the 3.0A one which means the 3.0A is actually a better fit for the 24V drive voltage of the Xcarve.
1 Like