February 28, 20233 yr Author @4DThinker Hope that USB adaptor works for you. As to power supplies, I haven't bought an out of the box new one in quite some time. For my last build I found a very lightly used MSI MAG A850GF 80+ Gold 850 Watt in a computer along with a couple others at the metal recycle yard for $5.00/each. I'm not sure if that MSI PS was really used or not, the machine would not boot, but my PS tester showed it to be fine. Even the bag of cables was stuffed inside. I also grabbed the DDR4 memory sticks out of it and they work fine, those were freebies. The one guy there lets me go through what's there since after he asked if I could rebuild one of the computers there for his kids. I found a Dell W7 machine that I reloaded for him in the pile, upgraded it to W10 and took it back to him two days later. He asked how the heck I managed to get it to boot up because he had been going through them trying to find one that would work. That machine would boot, but he couldn't get past the password protection. I told him I simply wiped the drive and loaded W10 using the free upgrade with the W7 COA.
February 28, 20233 yr I found it dangerous to let folks know I could build a PC from parts and repair most. When I first started teaching I was the one who convinced a few students and one other faculty member to buy their own PCs for a trial run. Of course I was their tech support and did everything from assembling PCs from parts to making house calls to help students figure out what was wrong with their PC. Didn't mind then as it was a new adventure for everyone involved back then. When time came for every student in my department to bring a PC into studio it quickly became clear a new hire needed to be made for someone who would be tech support full time. I still had 2 and sometimes 3 long studio or furniture design classes to teach. As administrations changed and faculty retired I eventually was "forgotten" as someone knowledgeable about PCs and the one who had initiated the integration of their requirement in our college. Timing for that was pretty good as more techy tools started to show up in the fab lab that I could play with and find clever application for. I bought a CNC before the college had one, and after finding good uses for it convinced the manufacturer to donate one to our shop. Once the administration saw what I could do for student projects using that small CNC they raised some money and bought a big Multicam 5'x10' CNC for the college. I bought a 3D printer before the college had one. When the administration saw 3D printed parts in student furniture projects they made sure a 3D Printer lab full of 3D printers was part of the remodeled fab lab. I bought a Nova Voyager (smart) drill press more than a year before the college bought one. It took the lab manager buying my old delta drill press from me for him to see and realize that setting bit speed rpm for each diameter and bit type and material being drilled into was a good thing for students to know about. Within a week a new one arrived in the fab lab. They have since added a benchtop version for the smaller model shop and a metal drilling version for the metalwork end of the fab lab. Prior to these drills the shop manager had screwed the belt access covers down so no one would even think to change the speed of the drills. Made some large bits rather scary and smoky. 4D
February 28, 20233 yr Author I've never had any formal training in PC's, nor have I had the opportunity to play with either a CNC, or 3D printer. Took a course in Consumer Electronics Product Servicing that barely touched on computers during a layoff, was a CET years ago when you still fixed TV's, VCR's, etc. Ended up back at the plant and became a Journeyman Pipefitter. Went through some of the same classes as the Electricians. Used to freak out the Electrician that was the head of the Apprentice Department when he'd ask an electrical question and the Electrician Apprentices couldn't answer the question but I could. It's been years, and I'm sure I've forgotten more than I can remember. Don't know why, but computers came kind of easy to me. I even reworked the drivers for the 3dfx VooDoo 4, & 5 video cards after 3dfx went out of business and no longer supported them. Combined video driver files from 3dfx, and Quantum 3D's Alchemy Training and Simulation VR machine. Maybe being Dyslexic helps? Edited February 28, 20233 yr by Larry Buskirk
February 28, 20233 yr None of my tech knowledge was formal. I must also have a natural aptitude for it. Engineering and architecture aptitudes according to early tests. It has always come easy to me thanks to being there when the personal computer industry started. I started playing with/programming a TI99/4A computer I won from a new Target store opening raffle in St. Charles MO back in 1980/81ish. When I was offered my teaching job in 1982 I was given the task of figuring out what to do with two Zenith brand PC clones that every department in our college had been given. They came with an early version of Wordperfect, a very early version of microCAD, and MSBASIC. I looked at the content of the files you could save of your 2D microCAD drawings and figured out the data format. Then wrote a small plotter program in BASIC so they could be plotted to a 4 pen Radio Shack plotter we had. I vaguely remember when you could first get a hard drive to put in your PC. All programs were loaded off of floppy disks before then. Thought that was a great step up from saving to audio cassette tapes from my TI99/4A. BTW one of the old PCs I went through this week had a 5.25" floppy disk drive on it. A survivor (OK maybe not a survivor) from the 80s apparently.
February 28, 20233 yr Author I've still got a dual 3 1/4", and 5 1/2" floppy drive, still works. Also a SCSI tape drive from IIRC an IBM that had an early version of DOS loaded on it IIRC had a 10, or maybe 15 Mhz 286 processor. My brother had a Tandy computer, I'm pretty sure it's still around here somewhere.
March 1, 20233 yr All that tech but the SCSI tape drive is in a box and destined for the local recycler. The more useful stuff I get such as a CNC mill means the more useless stuff has to go. My downstairs bedroom closet isn't critical space though and that's where the TI99/4A sit in a box along with it's related accessories. Very much a Schrödinger's cat that won't know if it is dead or alive until I open that box for some reason in the future. 4D
March 7, 20233 yr 4 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said: @4DThinker Did you get the Mach3 software to work? To date the CNC Mill hasn't been run. I ordered the USB to Parallel adaptor more than a week ago. Finally called that company only to find out they didn't have any in stock to sell. Meanwhile I had a longer look at on old PC with a parallel port that did have a working power supply but wouldn't boot up or show anything on the screen. Pulled the video card out to find two blown capacitors on it. I ordered a new video card in the hope that once installed that PC will work again, but suspect there may also be a blow cap on the motherboard that I just can't see under all the cables. I'm confident Mach3 will run the CNC, but it'll take a small miracle it seem to get a PC to communicate to it. 4D
March 8, 20233 yr New (obviously used) video card arrived. Missing two accessories that should have been in the box. Did fit in the video slot other than the bracket on the end didn't appear mounted properly as it was 3/8" or so too high to be able to screw down. Made sure the card was fully seated in the slot. PC plugged in, video cable attached, powered on and no video output or boot up sounds could be seen or heard, and the power supply shut itself off after 20 seconds or so of trying. Already set up a return to Amazon for that card. On a dim note I did get a tracking email for the USB to parallel adapter. Coming from Florida via USPS I suspect it'll be next week before I see it. Hopefully the refurbished PC with Win10 64bit I bought for the job will work with the adapter and I'll finally be able to run the CNC milling machine. 4D
March 9, 20233 yr I've gotten two more emails from the company that sold the USB -Parallel adapter. Last email had their company address on it as Las Vegas NV. Tracking shows the part coming from Florida. It may be they also have an outlet in Florida, or they are having the part drop shipped from a wholesaler or the manufacturer. Always a mystery. 4D
March 9, 20233 yr Author 12 hours ago, 4DThinker said: I've gotten two more emails from the company that sold the USB -Parallel adapter. Last email had their company address on it as Las Vegas NV. Tracking shows the part coming from Florida. It may be they also have an outlet in Florida, or they are having the part drop shipped from a wholesaler or the manufacturer. Always a mystery. 4D Probably a middle man company like Rock Auto, they have no warehouses of their own.
March 9, 20233 yr I guess when you picked the lowest price (by far) you can find out there for a device there is a greater chance of slow response and odd circumstances around them shipping it. Seemed like the company had a web site set up but didn't know how to use it, and were caught by surprise when it actually generated a sale. Clearly there was no link between the items listed and their actual inventory, and no push to get more ordered until I sent them an email about the order. Hopefully what is in the box that arrives is actually what I ordered. In contrast, my Probotix CNC also runs off a parallel port. They know the challenge to find a PC with one on board these days is unlikely, so they provide a computer already set up to run the controller. Getting their CNC to run just took plugging in the labelled connectors to the right jacks. Taigtool did advise up front that I'd need the USB-parallel adapter, so I'll give them credit. My retired free time and the old PCs still laying around my house led me down a rabbit hole. The side benefit is that I've thinned out the working from the dead PCs and have the dead ones ready for the recycler. Reminds me of when I went through all my old outdated printers one summer, Stripped all the screws and stepper motors out of them before recycling the rest. I made a 1/4 scale CNC using a Tiny-G controller and the stepper motors. It was good for some academic research credit.
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