Re: CNC upgrade

Peter Smith wrote:
Hi Peter,

I originally tried using a 486 to drive steppers and got abysmal
performance. Out of three motors I could only get one stepping reliably
and one of the others would do no more than sit twittering and fidgeting
without actually turning at all. When I hung them on an old Pentium 60
they all started flying. I tried both Stepster and MaxNC as driver
programmes with equivalent results (although MacNC has the edge at the
moment in that it will also take limit switches). Now I'm tring to get
EMC working as it looks very promising. I wasted a lot of time trying to
persuade the 486 to behave so, if you can go for a pentium upgrade, I
would say do it. Don't forget, however, that if you plan to upgrade your
existing 486, you will need to change both your motherboard and
processor and probably also the RAM as well. If you need any advice on
this contact me off list.
A friend of mine just told me that his neice had been to a local
computer upgrade shop and had asked if they could supply her with a
simple basic computer for her home business - she was told to go round
the back and pick one out of the skip! She came away with a fully
working Pentium 60 and monitor. She also asked them if they had any
second hand printers and, after being told she 'had a bloody cheek!' for
asking when she'd just got a new computer, they sold her a HP 500
deskjet for 20UKP. It just shows, it pays to ask.

>
> 1 I think the computer would cope ok generating faster signals, but
> anything over 7"pm the motors sound rough and start missing steps.

Best wishes

Ian

--

Ian W. Wright LBHI
Sheffield Branch Chairman of the British Horological Institute.
Bandmaster and Euphonium player of the Hathersage Brass Band. UK.
See our homepage at:- http://www.iw63.freeserve.co.uk or
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'Music is the filling of regular time intervals with harmonious
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