From memory John S posted about using one of the cheaper* Chinese controllers, but I don't think it was on here. IIRC it was either HSM or the Mach yahoo group, but my searching hasn't found the post I'm thinking of.

The only people I can think of still around are either Gary @ Zapp as he used to sell them, or Komatias, but I'm not sure if he's used any lathe controllers. I know I had a chat with Komatias about mill controllers when I was considering one.

* by cheaper, I mean one of the cheaper proper full feature controllers, not the DDSCV basic controllers.