DDSCV1.1 3 and 4 axis offline motion controller

[Ger21]

but I'll still keep running my little probing machine on Mach 3, just for the Probe-It probing plugin.

I believe that the author of the Probe It is porting it to UCCNC.

[m_c]

I believe that the author of the Probe It is porting it to UCCNC.

Not much use to me though, as my probing machine runs a KFlop+KStep with linear scales to close the loop, to get as much accuracy as possible. :-/
.
Ger, do you happen to know the Macro/program refresh rate for the UCNC software?
I know Mach3 is 10Hz, Mach 4 is fair bit quicker but depends on system load, and KFlop depends entirely on how you program it but can potentially be 90uS.

[John S]

The price for a commercial Mach4 license plus a good motion controller gets close enough to a commercial grade stand-alone controller from China that the only thing keeping New Fangled Solutions going is the ignorance of their potential customers to the options available!

- Nick

I still follow the Mach support forums on their web site and the Yahoo groups and there are still plenty of posts about erratic behavior with Smooth stepper and also Pokeys.

Mach 4, unlike mach 3 is no longer a self contained program as the parallel port operation in Mach 4 is very limited and mach 4 needs an external controller to run.
This means Brian no longer has any control over a full system and so far Mach and any of the external controller manufacturers has bothered to bundle the two products up for an easy install.

Being interested in Lathe I have been following Dan Maulch's journey to get mach4 working with the Pokeys57CNC board.
It looks like he has finally got it working after 6 months or so with a lot of help from Pokeys and seemingly none from Mach 4 but why has he had to do this ? He's not being paid by Pokeys or Brian ?

Last year at the CNC conference near Detroit Ron Ginger set a workshop up to convert 10 or 12 Hi-torque lathes to run off Mach 4 and pokeys with a box built by Arturo Duncan at CNC4PC, I believe the box cost around $900.
According to Ron everyone left the workshop with a working lathe but only one person has posted since then about their machine and that was to say that due to issues with Mach 4 he couldn't get his machine running and so far it still isn't running.

Not one person posted a video? and Ron will not show a finished thread?

But using the plug ins that were available at the Workshop Dan Maulch could not get a lathe to thread, It took quite a few upgrades to the plug in before Dan's machine could work.

Personally i can't get mach 4 to run on my desktop machine, it won't run code generated by Mach3 even though a Chinese Fanuc clone will run the same file with no problem. It comes up with error messages saying it's running in the wrong plane even though G18 is in the startup line and others have reported the same and still no answer from Mach 4 support.

2 / 3 weeks ago Dan finally got his pendant working with Pokeys and posted how to do it. Quite a long convoluted post, to set this up.
I decided to see if the supplied pendant would work with the NEW990TD-b controller so took the pendant, plugged it into the back by it's 25 pin plug and what do you know, ? it worked.

Art when he handled Mach 3 had a whole different ball game. He listened to what people had to say, wasn't afraid to admit mistakes and go back to rectify them and mainly he was able to work smart,

Since retiring he's written Gearotic V1.0, V2.0 and is now on V3.0. He has written Auggie which is a 3 D printer and laser motion controller, a lot like M3 and Brain still hasn't managed to get mach4 reasonably stable.

Sorry for me, far too little and far too late.

[Ger21]

UCCNC has 48 macroloops, which are similar to mach3's macropump. These apparently run independently, and can be any speed you want. There's an example in the manual for running at 20Hz. Apparently, the faster they run, the higher the CPU loading?
They don't mention the screen refresh, but it's independent of the macros, and appears to be much faster than mach3, as the DRO's are much smoother. The toolpath display is different, so hard to compare. But the entire interface seems much faster.

[Ger21]

According to Ron everyone left the workshop with a working lathe but only one person has posted since then about their machine and that was to say that due to issues with Mach 4 he couldn't get his machine running and so far it still isn't running.

Not one person posted a video? and Ron will not show a finished thread?

A friend of mine has one of those lathes, but hasn't had time to use it. Last time I talked to him, he said there were still issues with the speed control due to either the Pokeys or the speed control board they are using, from CNC4PC I think?

[John S]

But what support do you get with the Chinese controller?
.

.

A very good question and a very valid one.
This depends on controller.
If we are talking about the DSCV cheap controller then none, all the vendors want to do is take your money and pass the buck.
What will happen in time though is there will become a users self help forum or forums where people can share problems. This happens now over the internet with any product. I have just had problems with my central heating boiler and all the help came from outside of the manufacturer.

The more expensive ones like the 990 series is a lot better.
For a start these are not new. they have been used in China for the domestic market for 8 plus years so by now the rough edges should be missing ?

If you pay more and buy from Adtech or GSK then you can expect good support but that's why you pay more.

For most psrt it's not support but understanding the controller.
In my case on a couple of things I wasn't sure off, and the book was wrong but the edited copy is on the internet already, I went down to a CNC place local to me and got one of their guys to explain what was what.

He runs 3 machines, a Fanuc 21, a Haas and a DMG but even though they have three proprietary controllers they all work the same.

TBH I can see the support issues with these stand alones being far less than having to link a PC to a controller to an external controller and probably throw a conversion board into the mix.

The lathes at the CNC workshop has a PC of unknown vintage, Mach 4, Pokeys 57CNC controller and a box from arturo Duncan to connect it all up so when it doesn't work who do you go to ?
Dell / HP ?, Mach 4?, Pokeys?, or Arturo ?

All of whom just want to pass the buck.

Most people want to use a machine, not play with it and they want plug and play. As soon as two components get thrown into the ring it's not plug and play.

I bought a K-Flop a while ago as having been told it can do lathe which it can IF you are able to program in C++

So it stands on the shelf with the rest of the very expensive components that promise the earth but never deliver.

[Boyan Silyavski]

I thought its absolutely obvious - DDCSV is a cheap controller meant for 3+1 and is absolutely fabulous for a 3 axis machine due to the fact that it works at all for 150 euro. Especially good for a cheap machine. I thought also i am conversing with grown men that need not explaining that if i have spend 7000-8000 euro on my machine on parts only, i can afford to buy 1000euro controller that can home correctly.

The reason playing with Pokeys and all these controllers was to test for myself the cheaper options, so i choose a controller for future cheap machines.

But while you are laughing many people will retrofit it on 3 or 4 axis mills and this will seriously undermine the market for EU made and USA made stuff for DIY. Will see who laughs after 2 years.

Plus now that i have found the good expensive controllers for 500 euro from manufacturer, per piece, not wholesale price, it will be interesting to see how CSMIO will sell after an year or 2 their controllers for 900 euro, even if the offer all the support in the world.

When i go at ebay i hit "lowest price+lowest shipping first" , don't you . The other day was checking 3d printers. On every Prusa sold there are 500 sold from China, from each of the 20 manufacturers. Just a fact. I am not saying anything.

[m_c]

UCCNC has 48 macroloops, which are similar to mach3's macropump. These apparently run independently, and can be any speed you want. There's an example in the manual for running at 20Hz. Apparently, the faster they run, the higher the CPU loading?
They don't mention the screen refresh, but it's independent of the macros, and appears to be much faster than mach3, as the DRO's are much smoother. The toolpath display is different, so hard to compare. But the entire interface seems much faster.

Thanks for that Gerry. I did have a quick look through the UCNC manual, but couldn't find anything, and a quick search of the forum mentioned a macro manual which I couldn't find a download link to. It was how quick macros could update inputs/outputs I was interested in. As long as the screen can tell me what I need to know at a reasonable speed, I'm not that interested in just how quickly it updates.
.
I've not got any plans to use any of their controllers, but I still like to know what the limitations are for whenever any questions come up.

[m_c]

<snip>
I bought a K-Flop a while ago as having been told it can do lathe which it can IF you are able to program in C++

So it stands on the shelf with the rest of the very expensive components that promise the earth but never deliver.

Some very valid points regarding support.
One of the things I like about Dynomotion, is Tom (main man behind the company) is very responsive to any questions. Any bugs discovered are dealt with quickly. Only last week a bug was found in their new screen editor, and the fix was released today, which was actually pretty slow for them, but he had already posted a work around within a few hours, so a full fix wasn't urgent.
It's not unknown for him to release patches within a day to fix proven bugs.
.
Yes, they can be daunting to setup, but if you post up on the Yahoo group, or the cnczone forum, you'll get help. I've seen people with no programming background have their systems up and running within a couple days, which isn't bad by the time you factor in time for replies, and for the people to gather/post/test things.
.
For basic systems, the hardest part is the main configuration file (configures the KFlop with what axis outputs/inputs are needed), but there are sample files included, and for the axis configuration information, the KMotion configuration program can generate the required code for you to copy and paste in.
It's only when you want to start doing custom things that the C coding really kicks in, but there are plenty sample files included.
.
For a basic lathe, running Mach3, all you need is the main config file, with just the axis information for the two axis. Everything else can be handled in Mach 3. For KMotionCNC, with the new screen editor, simple things like flipping outputs with a button, can now be handled without having to write any C code.
However KFlops also suffer with the Mach3 slow pull out problem when threading. The problem is although Mach3 switches back from mm/rev to mm/min mode, it uses the mm/rev value as the mm/min value, so for a 2mm pitch thread, you get 2mm/min pull out, instead of the set federate.
KMotionCNC on the other hand doesn't. Provided you write the G-code correctly, it'll group together all the required synchronised moves, so you can pull out however you want.
Somebody posted an example not that long ago which involved a taper lead in to a parallel thread to a 45deg pullout.
The only requirement is you need a quadrature output encoder on the spindle. Single/multi-slot sensors won't work.
.
However, if you want to clear some shelf space, I'd buy the KFlop, as it can be handy having an extra one for testing.

[m_c]

But while you are laughing many people will retrofit it on 3 or 4 axis mills and this will seriously undermine the market for EU made and USA made stuff for DIY. Will see who laughs after 2 years.

Plus now that i have found the good expensive controllers for 500 euro from manufacturer, per piece, not wholesale price, it will be interesting to see how CSMIO will sell after an year or 2 their controllers for 900 euro, even if the offer all the support in the world.

Things could be very different in two years.
Every chance the Euro could very well implode by then, along with China's artificially deflated economy.
.
I've got a friend who works in materials import and export, and he reckons it's just a case of when, not if, the Chinese economy causes major problems. Brexit has caused him enough headaches already, but I think he fully expects to be out of work for a long time once China loses grip on inflation, and global demand plummets.