I have a JGRO CNC Router.? Here's a web site where someone described their build process.

Mine is a modified version of that which it seems most people do at some point.

I used a PMDX-125 Break out Board for it and MACH3 along with a Shuttle Express pendant all running on WIN-XP.? It's now like my table saw.? If I need wood routing I switch it on, insert the USB stick with the G-Code and carve something.? At one point many years ago I even mounted a nozzle and tried 3D printing with it but the machine is too massive for the fast motion required by 3D printing.? At the moment it has ball screws on X and Y.

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Anyway, from there I went to adding CNC to my mill.? I built up a dual boot PC with MACH3 and LinuxCNC and the major requirement was that it had to run with parallel ports so I bought the newer PMDX-126 break out board.? Although it worked well enough I found that with the bigger DC Servos it really wasn't fast enough for pure parallel port operation so I tried both the USB based Smooth Stepper I borrowed from the JGRO CNC router which worked well.

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Then I bought a MESA 7i92H which uses Ethernet and creates two parallel ports. ?I now rarely boot that PC into WIN-XP and MACH3.? So it seems I've made the conversion into LinuxCNC.? Although if for some reason I really had to use Windows upgrading the PC to the latest OS, MACH4 and Ethernet Smooth Stepper would work.? But why would I pay over $500 to get the same thing for free except the $89 MESA board?

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For the mill I use the "HB04 USB Pendant".? Search Aliexpress for what it looks like.? Mine is a slightly older version but there is support for it with LinuxCNC.

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The learning curve for installing LinuxCNC and getting it working is steep.? It may be easier to rewire the machine to use one of the more extensive Ethernet based BoB controllers from MESA.? Best ask on the

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John

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