MachII / MachII ST control boards.

[seeksincerity]

Hi,

I just received my MachII ST and a friend with a MachII was over for the install, well partial install, case needs some modding. We noticed that both Promies have the same control board with all the pins for the USB and Display, but the ST doesn't work with these goodies. Does anyone know what was done to prevent this or how to get around it ?

 

[hardw1re]

Some of the ST boards USB ports do actually work its just pot luck. Just make up a cable to connect the two and see if it works.

 

[fatty]

It will have to do someat with the firmware on the board you can buy a mach2 board off phil for £80 then youe st will become a full blown mach2 and yes some of the older units did just work if the usb works you could flash the firmware and bang you have a mach2 it didnt work for my st but hey??

 

[hardw1re]

Fatty not quite true. the ST uses r134a refrigerent. the GT's use 404 or 507

 

[Master_G]

The GT uses r404a.

G

 

[seeksincerity]

Thanks for the info. It should take about a week to finish the mod on the case at which point I hope I'm one of the lucky ones. However, I still have to wonder what was done to make two identical control boards act differently ?

 

[hardw1re]

Well its cheaper to produce one PCB schematics than two different ones that do the same job but just have a different bit of abilities. Cheaper to just disable features on a GT controller and bung it in the ST

 

[seeksincerity]

Yes, I agree with everything you say, but, I still would like to know what was done to disable the features on the ST. Perhaps that way I could find a way around it.

 

[fatty]

Well I have held both in my hands and both look identical I would say its a software issue or may have a track cut??

 

[hardw1re]

nah mate they are completely identical i am sure of it! its just the software inside the micro-controller. Its most likely because the r134a refrigerent of the ST cant cool as good as the R404 in the GT thats why the boot temp is higher and stuff... thus why they dont let you play about with the ST or summit

 

[fatty]

The st has the same cooling capacity of a standard mach2 which is still quite good the Gt is a little higher but an r507 unit is far superior to all the others

 

[seeksincerity]

Thanks guys, I have lots to look at next week when I finally get to test it out. Which firmware should I use if by chance the USB is detected by windows ?

 

[fatty]

use the latest cant remember what it is lol