Isel 4433 - Can I use Mach3 with it?

[Clive S]

Don't think Mycncuk will be able to help much with that request, but there are certainly a few free alternatives around. I think the general userbase on here is either Mach3/4 (which most people buy after trying it for a month figuring that the £200 odd is worthwhile) or LinuxCNC (which is free, but has different operating principles, which means that a machine is typically designed with one or the other in mind, so its hard to swap).

Not sure what you mean by different operating principles as they are quite similar and a machine running Mach3-4 could just as well run with linuxcnc and it is not that hard to swap

[AndyUK]

What I mean by that is (from my understanding) LinuxCNC generates the pulses for the stepper driver itself, its built as a Real-Time OS specifically for that purpose. Windows is definitely not an RT OS, so to get a decent output people generally design machines for Mach3/Mach4 to have the signal generation off-loaded to a buffering FPGA of some kind. Sure, you can modify one setup to work with the other, but its not just a software change in most cases.

[Clive S]

What I mean by that is (from my understanding) LinuxCNC generates the pulses for the stepper driver itself, its built as a Real-Time OS specifically for that purpose. Windows is definitely not an RT OS, so to get a decent output people generally design machines for Mach3/Mach4 to have the signal generation off-loaded to a buffering FPGA of some kind. Sure, you can modify one setup to work with the other, but its not just a software change in most cases.

You are correct when using the parallel port Lcnc does the step gen in realtime but I think these days most Lcnc users use cards that have the FPGA on board to generate the pulses at up to 10Mg like a lot of motion controllers do.

I am in no way knocking Mach3 against Lcnc nor will I get into a debate about the two. (I actually use both) But would like to see more on this forum about Lcnc.

Linuxcnc is very easy to setup from an iso file to load the system (15 mins max) and then use the wizard (stepconf) to set a simple 3 axis machine up using the PP all free.

[loudew]

Hi Clive,
So would Lcnc work with a serial port machine? If you don't have an idea, don't worry. I appreciate the help and am also going to explore Lcnc a little more, even if I don't use it - looks interesting. Just out of interest, what CNC machines do you have? Fairly new to this stuff and find it really interesting so :D.
Cheers
L

[Clive S]

Hi Clive,
So would Lcnc work with a serial port machine? If you don't have an idea, don't worry. I appreciate the help and am also going to explore Lcnc a little more, even if I don't use it - looks interesting. Just out of interest, what CNC machines do you have? Fairly new to this stuff and find it really interesting so :D.
Cheers
L

Sorry but you are not giving enough info. Are you talking about the pc on the machine itself? Lcnc nor Mach3 will work over a serial interface. But they will both work with the correct hardware over Ethernet or PP I think you can get a controller for USB with Mach3 but not with Lcnc .

I have a small lathe and a Mill running Lcnc and a router running Mach3 (purely a hobby for me)

[loudew]

Ahh right. I was looking at a lathe but thought it is probably wise for my first CNC machine to be a router.
Cheers
L