Motion Controller - How to decide

[Cube3]

Hello,

I have run a router for a few year, home built (1000mm x 800mm x 150mm) using Mach3 on an old XP machine. The BOB (break out board) was from CNC4YOU, the HG08. It has for the best part been...ok... a few XP/MACH3 crashes and the odd un explained error or excursion! The other machine I have is a Warco GH Universal that again uses the same XP machine but the CPO10V BOB again from CNC4YOU. This mill has a 3 phase motor running through the original Warco GH gearbox, so spindle speed tops out around 3200rpm but I can change gear to give torque when needed. I also have made my own Tormach style tool holders which certainly speed tool changes up but the 20mm R8 collet can't be relied on for roughing with bigger cutters.

I have been getting more and more frustrated with MACH3 interface and stability. Not really sure where the in-stability is coming from but the most common error I get is that the USB keyboard stops working or acts as if a key is permanently held down. Sometimes unplugging the keyboard and plugging back in sorts it, other times its a MACH3 restart or PC restart. I am finding jogging around with the keyboard a pain, I have a XHC pendant but it works little better than the keyboard and knowing which direction its going to travel always catches me (maybe I should practice more!)

For workflow I use SolidWorks in my job and use Fusion to create toolpaths. Don't know about anybody else but the sketcher in Fusion is hard work!

So I am on the hunt for a better motion control solution. This is probably going to create a load of groans and one mans great controller is another mans nightmare! I think I would prefer a non PC based solution but could be convinced otherwise.

So far I ve had a little look at

UC400ETH Ethernet (UCCNC)

AXBB-E ethernet

DDCS 3.1 Controller

Masso 3 axis (Favorite so far)

and disregarded

Machifit SMC5-5-N-N

NVEM 5 Axis CNC Controller Ethernet

WiXHC USB Mk3

So any advice either long or short reply would be appreciated.

Cheers
Simon

[ngwagwa]

I am no expert by a long way but I was using Mach3 and recently rebuilt my setup and moved to UUCNC with an AXBB-E motion controller and loving it. Apart from an issue setting up the Ethernet comms it has been very good. If I knew then what I know now I would have moved to the AXBB a lot sooner. A couple of things that spring to mind where it beats Mach3 is that it has loads of inbuilt probing routines and starting from mid-program is instantaneous whereas Mach3 takes forever.

[Doddy]

"prefer a non PC based" - obvious choice for me would be a Mesa board with LinuxCNC.... but that's a tough sell. Even I - the staunchest of PC-haters - would recommend UCCNC/Win.

[Cube3]

Will go and download UCCNC and the manual. See if I can get a feel for it. Not sure if you can run it in demo mode though.

Which Mesa board would you suggest? Why is it a hard sell?

Cheers guys

Sent from my COL-L29 using Tapatalk

[ngwagwa]

Will go and download UCCNC and the manual. See if I can get a feel for it. Not sure if you can run it in demo mode though.

Which Mesa board would you suggest? Why is it a hard sell?

Cheers guys

Sent from my COL-L29 using Tapatalk

It does run in demo mode. One thing that may not be obvious from the start is the Constant Velocity and Exact Stop modes unlike Mach3 you have control over the CV parameters, this took me a while to get my head round, there is a function to import your Mach3 settings as well. Also after changing any parameters you need to press enter to register them (though there is a way of turning this off). Another thing is it is pretty easy to modify the screen and move things around/delete them

[Doddy]

You can run UCCNC in a virtual demo mode (ie without a physical interface to any machine).

Mesa? Depends on your use case, I use a 7i76e to control three steppers and an analogue vfd... vfd is being replaced with a servo and the card is running with that in step/dir position control, but I’ve yet to integrate the servo encoder. Two hand encoders (low resolution), and more I/o than I can shake a stick at.

The hard sell is recommending LinuxCNC, no way as near polished as the pc software, but offered as you said non-pc based. Would recommend eyeballing that a long time before even considering buying the motion controller, as you might write it off immediately.

[Doddy]

And re-reading that I think I’ve confused non-pc-based with non-windows-based. If OP has no particular issue with Windows over Linux then I’d reiterate the support for UCCNC