Status on the Sherline CNC lathe

I worked with it on Thursday night and ran into a few issues.

  • It turns out the Parallel Port (PP) cable was not a straight thru cable but rather a cross wire cable for doing a data transfer which is probably why I couldn’t get it to work with Mach 3. But we’re now banking on Mach4 and the PDMX smart cable.
  • The PP/USB smart connector we got for Mach 4 is a stubby little guy. So we need a USB extension cable so that the PC doesn’t need to be put on the table. I have an extension cable so that is taken care of.
  • The smart connector didn’t work even after I downloaded the PP legacy driver for Mach 4. Of course I dinked with it or over an hour before I finally ran across the fine print that reads “only works with the License”. but as it turns out that may not be the correct plug in. the PDMX cable has its own plug in which I will install tonight and try again.

Oh well, that’s how you learn. that sucker WILL run even if it kills me.

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I’m around Sunday at 11 to teach a Shapeoko class, then hanging around for some screen printing. I’ll have some free time if you want some help.

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I’m teaching at 1pm on Sunday although I’ll be there early. I’ll work on it some tonight and let you know how it goes.