

We also learned that a USB connection is family of the serial port protocol. On the other hand there are a lot of people, in doing a retrofit, that encounter IO's connected to a serial port card.

But what about the serial port? Very fast we learned that the serial port is way too slow for any realtime access. We also solved to add a second parallel port getting another 17 extra IO's. An inexpensive choice was using the parallel port getting 17 extra IO's. How we handled the Serial & USB Port Since our VMC is a big iron, we ran out with available inputs & outputs quickly, using the Mesa Cards. USB or ethernet thru a plugin where Mach3 tells a controller what to do. Is there a way to ASCII data from G-code to a serial port for RS232. The Plugins on this page are the work of their respective authors, and not necessarily written (or supported). Plugins are expansion modules written for Mach3. This will enable your control board when your Mach3 is running. Mach3 is the most popular CNC control software.
