![parallel port cnc controller parallel port cnc controller](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/182396890679-0-1/s-l1000.jpg)
Its great, you can just drag a file from one window to the other to move files between systems. This is a great introduction to designing things for CAD/CAM and it is really easy to use.Īfter creating a design that I wanted to use I wirelessly connected to the Raspberry Pi using WinSCP to transfer design files to the Raspberry Pi.
#Parallel port cnc controller pro
I have used a few tools on my Windows 8.1 Pro laptop to design a few simple things (like tutorials in makercam here: ).
![parallel port cnc controller parallel port cnc controller](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1LAzIi9YH8KJjSspdq6ARgVXap/CNC-MACH3-MPG-USB-to-Parallel-LPT-Port-Converter-Adapter-6-Axis-Controller.jpg)
The Raspberry Pi processes an "nc" file that contains a design that is described in GCode commands that can be understood by the Arduino. I have now built an Arduino based CNC Controller system that uses a Raspberry Pi as its host computer. It kept on changing until I finally got my project completed. I created a Visio drawing of what I intended to do: It didn't turn out that way and the drawing continued to evolve as I learned more. So I modified my solution and started working on using a Raspberry Pi as my host computer. The Arduino UNO just does not have enough memory or processing capacity to process a design file by itself. I decided that I would try to put together an Arduino based controller and try to use USB to communicate with it.Īfter studying that for a while I came to realize the Arduino was just not going to be able to do all that needed to be done on its own. So I started looking for another solution. I used an old Pentium based computer and ran LinuxCNC on it for a while but was still not happy with that. It used a traditional parallel port controller and of course no modern computers have those.
![parallel port cnc controller parallel port cnc controller](https://cdn.hackaday.io/images/6215551563784106868.png)
I bought a CNC machine some time ago and I was never happy with it. Please read through the comments for more details. This is my first attempt at an instructable.