CNCdrive UC300ETH Mach3 plugin is now available

[A_Camera]

Well I do and I'm telling you in my expereince they are cause of most troubles on CNC machine.(After broken/lose wires)

Fine, but still, the thing is that if you want to use a super expensive BOB you can do that with the UC300ETH, nothing prevents you from duing that. The cheap ones I have are good enough for me at the moment, and until I really see problems which I can't fix I'll continue using them.

It's like the USB argument I've had so many times with people like you.! . . . People who have insisted there's nothing wrong with USB for CNC it works fine, they never have any troubles with it.!! . . . . Total Bollocks. Compared to Ethernet it sucks.

I don't think we ever had a fight about USB. Of course Ethernet is better, MUCH better, no question about that. Also, I never made any secret about my USB experience, you can also read about them on my blog, and it has been there since over a year now:

http://adapting-camera.blogspot.se/2...ry-part-5.html

http://adapting-camera.blogspot.se/2...ry-part-6.html

Both describing problems, the second is a serious warning. Since that second post you can no longer buy that USB motion controller at all, it was simply removed from the market. It was after that I bought the UC300USB, which I was very happy with and which never gave me similar EXTREMELY serious issues. Yes, it lost contact with Mach3 2-3 times, but that's all, and when it happened it just stopped, unlike the other, which literally run away and continued sending pulses to the stepper, there was no stopping it except through power off emergency stop.

I have also made a video a while ago:



I don't know if that stop and connection loss was caused by the fact that I was recording the screen and at the same time I also had a backup task running, probably the backup caused it because screen recording I have done many times before, but I have not kept that a secret.

Never the less, USB works if it is a good motion controller, like the ones CNC Drive is making, but "never" is a long time. I can tell you that I have not had any issues with my UC300USB more than 2-3 times, and one of those is the video and NONE were serious problems. Sure, Ethernet is definitely better I will be the last to deny that, but until recently it was pretty expensive to venture into Ethernet motion control, and for an amateur if would have meant a significant cost, so yes, USB is a very good alternative, and if I'd have money issues I'd still be happily using the UC300USB and we would not have this discussion because I KNOW it worked well for me.

Anyone who works and maintains CNC equipment will tell you it's pain in the arse and can't be trusted not to lockup. Well the Same goes with Cheap Bob's they can't be trusted and will fail or cause issues at some point, often sooner rather than later.

If they are working for you then great but that doesn't change the fact they are potential trouble causers best avoided.

Of course, if there is a better alternative why not use that? If I would disagree and would claim USB is as good as Ethernet I would have not bothered buying the UC300ETH at all. I also know the benefits of Ethernet vs. USB, and if the UC300ETH plus the Mach3 plugin was available a year and a half ago I would have definitely NOT bought a USB controller at all because Ethernet is definitely better. But at that time I found no better alternative which I could motivate the costs for.

Also, like I said before, it is different if you need a machine to be running H24 reliably because your daily bread is depending on it, but in my case, and I believe in many others case as well, this is just a hobby, so in that perspective, USB is just fine. Of course, the rules of the game have changed with the arrival of UC400 and UC300ETH, since with those two available there is no reason to buy a USB controller at all, which probably will show up on CNC Drives sales figures also, since I believe that these two Ethernet controllers will seriously knock on the sales of UC100 and UC300USB.