Chinese CNC 3040T Router/Mill through USB Easily

I finally got a CNC Router.  This one is one of the low cost Chinese CNC Routers.  It's a great machine for the price.

The first problem I had with it though was the CNC Controller being Parallel port.  I could've sworn I had a PC laying around that had Windows XP and a Parallel port, but I was wrong.  Wanting to get this Router up and running I decided to look into a USB to Parallel bridge via an Arduino UNO I had laying around.

After doing some research I came accross GRBL (https://github.com/grbl/grbl).  This opensource firmware for the Arduino will take G code via USB Serial and output the corresponding step/direction signals to a Stepper controller.

I had a female parallel port connector in a bin and straightened out pins 2-7 and just inserted them into the arduino digital pins 2-7. I then connected Pin 25 to GND on the Arduino.

I then downloaded and modified the GRBL source code (pin_map.h) to reflect the YOOCNC pinout to the DB-25 connector.

  #define STEPPING_DDR       DDRD

  #define STEPPING_PORT      PORTD

  #define X_STEP_BIT         2  // Uno Digital Pin 2

  #define Y_STEP_BIT         4  // Uno Digital Pin 4

  #define Z_STEP_BIT         6  // Uno Digital Pin 6

  #define X_DIRECTION_BIT    3  // Uno Digital Pin 3

  #define Y_DIRECTION_BIT    5  // Uno Digital Pin 5

  #define Z_DIRECTION_BIT    7  // Uno Digital Pin 7



Recompiled. Loaded into the Arduino... And within 20 minutes had my Chinese CNC up

and running using a USB port and Gcode sender.
https://github.com/winder/Universal-G-Code-Sender 

If you would like to donate to my projects fund, my paypal is: zothar@zothar.com  All donations will contribute to open source efforts and documentation to make others lives easier.  It's a pain trailblazing a new or dirty path, especially with limited funds...