Controller Comparison

**Chaz** · 01-08-2018

Originally Posted by phill05

Chaz,

Now you have been using Acorn a while any advice / feedback on it's setting up and use, I am interested how you find it as I have just ordered one.
I have an Orac cnc lathe that I want to convert to use with the Acorn.

Phill

Hi Phill,

Ive not done a lot with it as yet as Ive had to solve some other issues.

The platform is good and stable. Inherently more so than Mach which solves many issues. Support however is good and its based on a known established 'standard'.

I needed to forget about Mach as you cannot always apply the same thinking (steps / mm etc). Its a different approach, but certainly not impossible. Ive done a lathe, Ill do my next machine with Acorn too and perhaps one day convert my Thor, but Ive invested heavily and the wiring / servos only work on CS Labs.

One thing, get a decent PC for Acorn. They recommend following a certain spec with Win 10. I had other machines (spec was too low) and I had a spindle issue. We couldnt point it to the low spec machines, but could be.

Ive managed to get my ATC to work, took some effort.

The PLC is powerful but you need to understand their code and/or get help.

Depending on how complex you need to do, it can handle it. Its a pity its only 4 axis and certainly more inputs / outputs would be nice but things can be done via their PLC logic.

I bought on a Sunday night, received Wednesday. You will be nailed import cost but its not bad in reality (they did a recent price drop when they sold 1000 units).

Certainly recommended. The touchscreen implementation is great, so expect to need one of them too.

Chaz

**battwell** · 01-08-2018

does acorn have modbus? thats the only way id buy one- as its limited io wouldnt be any good for any of my projects.
i could do with something nice for my lathe. otherwise it will have to be done with uccnc.. but that doesnt have a gui for lathe. (unless ger wants to make one :-) )

**Chaz** · 01-08-2018

Originally Posted by battwell

does acorn have modbus? thats the only way id buy one- as its limited io wouldnt be any good for any of my projects.
i could do with something nice for my lathe. otherwise it will have to be done with uccnc.. but that doesnt have a gui for lathe. (unless ger wants to make one :-) )

Nope, dont think so. Some discussions about Modbus on the forums (and extender cards). It has its own PLC language, so assume you could do the same but new language.

It might be worth adding your voice to the forum, they do respond to requests.

http://www.centroidcnc.com/centroid_...ontroller.html

**Ger21** · 02-08-2018

I've heard that they'll be adding more I/O at some point, probably an add-on card?

Sorry, no lathe screenset any time soon. (soon being at least 5 years)

**battwell** · 02-08-2018

Sorry, no lathe screenset any time soon. (soon being at least 5 years)

[/QUOTE]

drat- i had £20 to give to you for the screen :-) . the trouble is with the uccnc developers- they do everything so good that you cant nag and rush them. - even though we try!

**Chaz** · 03-08-2018

Originally Posted by battwell

does acorn have modbus? thats the only way id buy one- as its limited io wouldnt be any good for any of my projects.
i could do with something nice for my lathe. otherwise it will have to be done with uccnc.. but that doesnt have a gui for lathe. (unless ger wants to make one :-) )

This might be worth a quick read:-

Centroid's PLC manual - http://www.centroidcnc.com/downloads...g%20Manual.pdf

**battwell** · 03-08-2018

i really dont want to learn another language to add to the confusion.
i still mix up old mach3 cb when im writing in c# which causes me all sorts of grief!
took me over a week to write and perfect the tool change macro for the triac (when i say perfect- i mean so it works as i want and checks itself throughout). c# is very finiky and likes everything just so. - it took me a day and a bit to write one line of code so the macro will idle if in feedhold!