Centroid Acorn Controller - Has anyone tried one?

[DY10CNC]

Thank you for your comments.
As I said in my original post, I did use the cheapest BOB, which as I also said, was probably the problem.
As to the rest of the components, they are working fine with an Arduino and GRBL, which suggests that the problem was with the parallel port and Bob combination. It was not my intention to denigrate Mach 3 or any of it many successful users.
Hopefully we can return to my original question - Has any member of this forum an actual experience of the Centroid Acorn Controller?

[magicniner]

Has any member of this forum an actual experience of the Centroid Acorn Controller?

As Stated above this has been discussed before and no one had used one or wanted to

[magicniner]

Have you tried joining their community support forum?

http://centroidcncforum.com/viewforum.php?f=20

Like the Mach3 Forum and BobCAD-CAM forum on CNC zone it should be a very good place to see both successes and shortcomings with the product,
Regards,
Nick

[DY10CNC]

Yes I joined the Centroid forum, and as you say it is a good place to see how the product performs.

My reason for posting on MYCNCUK, was to solicit unbiased views on what is a relatively new product.

I take delivery of the Acorn controller on Thursday so thats probably "end of story" for my post.

Thanks for all of your posts.

[battwell]

whats the verdict on the acorn?

[JAZZCNC]

whats the verdict on the acorn?

Ye, I've got one and For Mill Retrofit it's spot on but for DIY Router then it's missing few things like Independent Homing for slaved axis etc but those are in Beta and hopefully out in next software release.
The software is rock solid as it's exactly same as used on High-end systems and hardware is nice neat well made with a decent amount of I/O. Also Got spindle encoder input so can do Ridged tapping which is nice to have.

One small drawback for me is the fact it only works on Win10 and needs decent PC with plenty power. Suppose that's price progress.!!

[Clive S]

One small drawback for me is the fact it only works on Win10 and needs decent PC with plenty power. Suppose that's price progress.!!

I was trying to download the software today and it seemed to indicate win version 7,8 10 but they recommended 10. I failed because it says you need the board. It would be nice to see the front end.

Edit looks like I was wrong. From the forum:-
CNC 11 is supported under Windows 7, 8, and 10.
CNC 12 is only supported under Windows 10.
If you are building a new PC, it is highly recommended to use Windows 10 so it is future proof.

[DY10CNC]

I now have my Acorn based Bridgeport conversion working, and am pleased with the Acorn board and CNC 12 software (with December 2017 update)
I am still using the free version as I am undecided whether to go for Pro Version at $139 or the Digitising package at $399.
There doesn't appear to be a CNC12 manual, but I'm using the generic Centroid manual downloaded from the website and it looks to be pretty compatible with CNC12.
I am using a refurbed Dell Optiplex 755 with Windows 10, (Amazon or ebay) which has a CPU which falls a bit short of the recommended single thread performance stated by Centroid but it works ok.
CNC 12 has a nice front end - looks professional - can't wait to find a sensible priced touch screen.

Ye, I've got one and For Mill Retrofit it's spot on but for DIY Router then it's missing few things like Independent Homing for slaved axis etc but those are in Beta and hopefully out in next software release.
The software is rock solid as it's exactly same as used on High-end systems and hardware is nice neat well made with a decent amount of I/O. Also Got spindle encoder input so can do Ridged tapping which is nice to have.

One small drawback for me is the fact it only works on Win10 and needs decent PC with plenty power. Suppose that's price progress.!!

[battwell]

[QUOTE=

One small drawback for me is the fact it only works on Win10 and needs decent PC with plenty power. Suppose that's price progress.!![/QUOTE]

i hate anything after windows 7- i only upgraded to 7 last year reluctantly! but i do have some high spec machines i could put it on.
just got a denford fanuc atc in to retrofit for myself. could maybe try one on there. i have someone that wants to buy the fanuc stuff out of it so il be putting mitsubishi servos etc in instead.

by the way- re macros for acorn- what language are they in? can unlimited be created and stored? does it have the equivalent of a macro loop etc? (these are must haves for me to have full control over what i need to do.

[KoenigCNC]

Centroid Acorn

I have one that i am currently installing on a CNC plasma Cutter. So far it look good it supports most g codes and looks like it might be a great alternative to Mach 3. I have used both Mach 3 and Linux based CNC controls with mixed results. Mach 3 is very old technology and so far the amount time required to get a Linux, or Kflop control to work is just not worth it.

I benched the Acorn getting three motors work in less than 2 hours. I will post some pictures and a link to a running machine n about two weeks.

I also use Siemens for my larger machine build projects. For a home or small shop application the Acorn looks like a great option.