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Few people are going to be scared off by minor (or major) scratches on the windows.
It's worth as much as the buyer is prepared to pay.
You will most likely spend more than £50 getting this running under Mach3.
Don't underestimate the difference in build/quality between this and a cheap Chinese router.
I was thinking about getting something like an X-Carve? Hopefully this machine will be fine - I quite like the idea of the enclosure because it will be outside of my workshop. As I said, I will inspect the innards of the machine tomorrow.
Thanks
L
I have tested it and I have got the gantry to move using the software called KAY! Amazing! It doesn't really matter that it isn't mach3 - I can sort that out at a later date once I have the means to do so properly. As long as it isn't 'galaad' and can run g-code, it's great. If anyone could aid me in finding a way of getting a copy of KAY for cheaper/free, that'd be amazing because I am not paying 200EUR for the software when I am essentially paying similar for the machine itself! I just wanted to thank all that have helped - an amazing community! I just have the issue of getting this software - might try and figure something out with the company if possible.
Cheers,
L
Hello?
Quote:
Originally Posted by loudew
Don't think Mycncuk will be able to help much with that request, but there are certainly a few free alternatives around. I think the general userbase on here is either Mach3/4 (which most people buy after trying it for a month figuring that the £200 odd is worthwhile) or LinuxCNC (which is free, but has different operating principles, which means that a machine is typically designed with one or the other in mind, so its hard to swap).Quote:
Originally Posted by loudew
Okay Andy. Thanks for the reply. I need to use KAY just because its one of the only pieces of software that will communicate with this CNC. I am not willing to spend the time/effort/introduce more risk by swapping the hardware - I can run g-code with KAY. I understand it is a pretty niche area due to the fact that not many people actually use it. Thank you for all the help,
L
Not sure what you mean by different operating principles as they are quite similar and a machine running Mach3-4 could just as well run with linuxcnc and it is not that hard to swap:highly_amused:Quote:
Don't think Mycncuk will be able to help much with that request, but there are certainly a few free alternatives around. I think the general userbase on here is either Mach3/4 (which most people buy after trying it for a month figuring that the £200 odd is worthwhile) or LinuxCNC (which is free, but has different operating principles, which means that a machine is typically designed with one or the other in mind, so its hard to swap).
What I mean by that is (from my understanding) LinuxCNC generates the pulses for the stepper driver itself, its built as a Real-Time OS specifically for that purpose. Windows is definitely not an RT OS, so to get a decent output people generally design machines for Mach3/Mach4 to have the signal generation off-loaded to a buffering FPGA of some kind. Sure, you can modify one setup to work with the other, but its not just a software change in most cases.
Mach3 under windows and with a parallel port BOB is doing all the signal generation, much like linuxcnc, but without the determinism.
Not good, but good enough, in most cases.
You are correct when using the parallel port Lcnc does the step gen in realtime but I think these days most Lcnc users use cards that have the FPGA on board to generate the pulses at up to 10Mg like a lot of motion controllers do.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyUK
I am in no way knocking Mach3 against Lcnc nor will I get into a debate about the two. (I actually use both) But would like to see more on this forum about Lcnc.
Linuxcnc is very easy to setup from an iso file to load the system (15 mins max) and then use the wizard (stepconf) to set a simple 3 axis machine up using the PP all free.