Cslabs now have Own Control Software

[Chaz]

Thanks, wasnt aware of this. Interesting move, they were having some real Mach 3 issues, so not surprised by this actually.

[Krammer002]

Thanks for the video Dean...

[Chaz]

Anyone running SimCNC? Just tried it, spent ages on it. Axis were drifting on their own, solved that with Zero offset. But I cannot PID tune and all I get are motors that shake and PID error.

Thoughts?

[Chaz]

Ok, got it to work.

The PID values in Mach 3 are not nearly transferable, wiped them to zero, enabled the drive, disabled commands to it, ran auto tune for all 3 axis.

What's strange at the moment is the fact that I cant run a programme whilst the MPG is enabled.

[Chaz]

Turns out that the MPG should not have its enable signal hardware but should be switched. Odd setup I think.

I cant find any info on how / where to do any backlash settings.

Nice looking software, seems decent but feels somewhat unfinished.

A pity. I can see me moving this machine to Centroid Acorn at some point.

[Steve_p]

Chaz have you used simcnc any more since your last post here? I've got a mill which came with an unfinished csmio-ip/a retrofit, I'm wondering whether to keep it or swap it out, you're the only person here who seems to have tried sim... any further thoughts?

[Chaz]

Chaz have you used simcnc any more since your last post here? I've got a mill which came with an unfinished csmio-ip/a retrofit, I'm wondering whether to keep it or swap it out, you're the only person here who seems to have tried sim... any further thoughts?

Hi. I used it a bit. If I owned a license, I reckon I would have stayed using it. It feels more stable / accomplished than Mach 3. Currently using Mach 4 as there was no cost to me for it. Just rewiring my machine at the moment in preparation for a potential house move, so will start to use the machine more once that is done.

It seems like a decent bit of software. My biggest concern (ignoring the additional cost) is lack of support / few people use it. So if you want to solve an issue or get a macro sorted, you might struggle. CS Labs themselves will respond but I find it takes long and then they often only answer some or a few questions and ignore the rest.

They have some basic macro guides - think based on Python, need to check, but not a lot more.

Whereas if you look at Centroid, you will see an excess of documentation and active users helping each other - I dont see this in the CS Labs ecosystem.