1. Product description and background of working
Mach3 is a popular CNC machine tool control software running on desktop computers and
laptops under Windows operating system. Mach3 in default working the the computer's
parallel (printer) port and sending all signals via this port. Windows is not a realtime
operating system and therefor it is a difficult and CPU time consuming task for Mach3 to
generate these signals in a precise manner. As the output signals frequency gets higher
with using todays more and more advanced motor control electronics Mach3 needs the
more processor time of the computer. If the computer gets overloaded by Mach3 or by
running other software(s) in the background may leads to a lagging of the G-code code
execution to even a falter in the motion interpolation which may lead to a catastrophic
failure of some applications.
Another problem with the LPT port is that in today's informatic technology this kind of port
is no more used and is a dying out device and non of the new laptops having this kind of
port built in anymore.
The UC100 motion controller overcomes these problems with removing all time critical
tasks from the control computer and Windows and executing all these tasks on inside it's
own high speed DSP control chip outside the PC.
The UC100 controller connects to the PC via the USB port and this kind of port is more
modern as an LPT port and exists on all today's computers.
The UC100 has a look as if it was a “simple USB to LPT port converter module”, but it is
much more than this. The UC100 is the result of a 2 years hard development and testing
cycle and it implements linear and arc interpolation routines with trajectory planner,
communication routines, limits and homing functions handling and it has nearly all the
functions (with some limitations) as what Mach3 supports with the LPT port driver.
Because of using a high speed DSP core the UC100 making the interpolations and other
timings much more precise as Mach3 could ever do using it's standard LPT port driver and
because the time critical tasks are no more done on the PC side, but on the UC100
controller the PC's CPU time usage is much lower and the risk of overloading the PC
resources lowers with factors as the UC100 has a long enough data buffer so that it can
handle a 100% CPU usage and overload for some seconds without interrupting the motion
and the G-code execution.
For these reasons it is also possible to use a much slower and cheaper computer together
with the UC100 as what is needed for Mach3 if using the LPT port drivers and this can
even lower the system's overall cost.
When developing we also thought about backward compatibility with the old LPT printer
port and therefor the UC100 has a DSUB-25 female connection interface to the
enviroment with the same pinout as what a printer port has. This means that the UC100
can replace an LPT port on an existing system simply with plugging the controller to the
USB port of the PC and plugging the DSUB25 cable end (which was originally plugged
into the LPT port of the PC) to the UC100 controller's DSUB-25 port.
To Next Page
Loading...
Need help?
General
