Chinese 6040 CNC

The Mach3 supplied with the machine (6040 with PRT-1500W Beige Box Controller) appears to be the demo version and as such is limited to the number of lines of gcode that it will allow the user to send to the machine so its pretty much useless as a option and I'm not really all that happy to spend US$175 to purchase a license.

Hence my interest in Linuxcnc. so, does anyone have a tried and tested Stepconfig for the abovementioned machine. The instructions (if you can call them that) for Mach3 advise the following: (btw I'm using metric system of measure, mm) ...

X & Y Axis: (Using mm)
Steps per: 320
Velocity: 1500
Acceleration: 400
Step Pulse: 5
Dir Pulse: 5

Z Axis: (Using mm)
Steps per: 400
Velocity: 1500
Acceleration: 400
Step Pulse: 5
Dir Pulse: 5

First hit is some links to this very forum (may whet your appetite for the time being)
www.google.com/search?q=6040+linuxcnc

You didn't say whether it's a USB or Parallel port interface.
If it is USB $175 for a Mach License is your most cost effective option, as linuxcnc does not support USB.......all to do with the realtime nature of Linuxcnc.

If it uses an Ethernet connection (not the most likely of options) the same rules will apply as for USB, unless of course it's a Mesa card (very unlikely)

If it is Parallel Linuxcnc will be your friend.

Fairly Warned Be Ye, Says I, whilst Linuxcnc is what I believe to be a more powerful package than Mach3, The Learning Curve can be quite sharp, somewhat more so if one is not familiar with Linux.
But on the plus side it's free, open source and the support forum is rife with some very very knowledgeable and friendly users & It's Not Windows Based.

Just be mindful of not catching the Mesa bug

Thanks for reply, mate. This is the parallel port version so I guess I'm in the right place for the best advice.

Have heard so very good reports as to the support from this forum, so here's hoping I can get this machine running smoothly in a short space of time.

Cheers mate!

Best bet might to be to open the case and see if there is any identifying marks on the board.....9 time out of ten it seems to the TB6560 controller

This could be a good place
wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?TB6560

Yes, you are correct. It has 3 x TB6560 drivers and TX14692 BOB as well as an integrated VFD inside the beige box.

Whilst looking at something else I came upon this with a config for a 6040......be sure to use a 2.7 branch and not master (2.8)

forum.linuxcnc.org/24-hal-components/292...c-2-7?start=30#59294

Many thanks for your response (you're a legend!). These are just what I was looking for. Hopefully I'll be up and running very soon.

How did this go? I have a 6040 arriving in 2~3 days. I have linuxcnc2.7 running on a Dell T1500 with pci parallel port added so its down to hopefully just the pins config/setup.

All good. Machine running like a charm. If you get stuck let me know and I'll be only too happy to help out.

Cheers ... Dave