I understand that Millmage is new and will have many features added in the coming year.
I currently use Bob-Cad 20 and Mach3 connected by a parallel port cable.with my machine.
I am thinking it is about time to change my controller breakout board with one supporting USB or Ethernet connection. Do you think Parallel ports will be supported in the future?
Hi William,
MillMage has no intention of being a motion controller - which is what Mach3 performs. You will always need Mach3 or LinuxCNC to control a parallel-port interfaced device. Our software talks to controllers - be it a grbl, grblhal, windows running Mach, Linuxcnc, etc - but it is not a controller.
To elaborate a little, because this comes up a lot, Mach3 is generating step and direction signals, and the parallel port is connected more or less directly to the stepper motors. Mach3 is the controller, and it doesn’t allow external software to control it. You can load GCode and run it, but that’s it.
Controlling the machine through a parallel port requires a kernel level device driver, and even then it’s extremely difficult to do - Windows was never intended to do this, and it’s problematic and finicky.
By contrast, GRBL firmware running on an Arduino, ESP32, or other small microcontroller performs the same task but doesn’t need a whole PC to do it. It does the job of translating GCode into step/direction signals just like Mach, but requires something else to send it GCode.
As I understand it MillMage is a CAD/CAM program that you still need to generate a gcode program and then run that on Mac3 to control the cnc router. Right?
My controller has a control break out board that connects to the 4 stepper motors. It uses a parallel port interface to Mach 3.
Some controller boards use a USB interface and I could replace my controller board with one of those to get away from the parallel port. But I would still run the gcode on Mach3 connected to the new USB ported controller.
So the by using MillMage I am just replacing my BobCad cad/cam software. right?
Sorry I dont understand this all better but Im trying.
Some boards are just Mach3/4 interface boards - The one you have now, SmoothStepper, and a few others all require Mach to work, because they don’t do motion planning - they’re mostly playing back step/direction data generated by Mach.
Other boards take over the job of Mach, using firmware like GRBL or Smoothieware - they use a USB connection (sometimes network too) and can take gcode directly from MillMage or other tools. They can vary wildly in price from $30 to $300 or more. The better ones typically have better signal isolation, use a more powerful processor, have network support, etc.
The SuperLongBoard from Sienci Labs is a good example:
There are other types of controllers, like UCCNC and a few others, that are similar to Mach in that they only work with their paired control software.
If you get a controller that says it uses Grbl, GrblHL, FluidNC (which is Grbl), or Smoothieware firmware, it should be directly controllable from MillMage.
Yep. The easiest and cheapest way for you to do this would be a Picobob from Expatria: PicoBOB CNC control module for GRBLHAL – Expatria Technologies
I can also strongly recommend the FlexiHal from Expatria (designed by the same guy that did the SLB), but far more of a DIY kit. FlexiHAL Isolated CNC Controller Rev A7 for GRBLHAL and LinuxCNC – Expatria Technologies
It’s all open source hardware, and you are welcome to source components and build your own boards.
Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me.
Your information helped a lot.
Thank you … I ordered the PicoBob interface board today.
Have you have time to adapt to the PicoBob?
I have other users with mach3/4 breakouts asking for alternatives.
How has your experience been so far? Is your machine up and running?