Quote Originally Posted by AndyUK View Post
We all love a good spat once in a while ;)


The kicker is that Mach3 or Mach4 also needs a paid licence - and its substantially more than the cost of the UCCNC licence (£200 or £300 vs £60 if I recall correctly?). There is also the consideration that UCCNC has a very good reputation at the moment, and there is a reasonable number of people swapping over to it.
Thank you for that "Andy".

Although I do woodwork for a living and CNC Router could fit into that, it's not an essential tool/machine at the moment just something that could develop into one. It would start out as a leisure/hobby/work machine interest.

So if I get this right a UC controller is really no different (with some exceptions) to other controllers in principle. But If say I have Mach3 I would pretty much find it is a necessity to connect to my PC/Laptop because I'd need to use the UC100 controller to connect through a USB port? StoneyCNC are selling the UC100 for £117.85, UK that is.

From what has been said about a USB connection being possibly unreliable (especially with a laptop) I think maybe the UC300ETH-5LPT controller might be better if I go for UCCNC Software simply because of the cost of matching the licence with a controller, I'm just thinking out loud (thinking the UC300EHT might be better long term. I understand what you are saying about the wiring but if I do some of a CNC build myself I'm going to have to learn quite a lot about wiring anyway.

The cost of the UC300EHT controller is about £145 from the same as above, but then from what I gather I'd need could/will need a breakout board too £??? and software (Mach3 or maybe UCCNC). Say UCCNC costs around £60 for the software licence (at a guess that is) so I'm guessing as a bundle it could cost around £250 for the Controller, Breakout board and Software. I guess what ever you look at if you are thinking of using comprehensive software to control and manage a CNC machine then £250 is going to be pretty much a base figure.

I thought a UC100 controller did everything but maybe not I sure need to look into this in more depth. The replies and comments are all helpful but it's a lot of inforation to fit together. I'm going to look more into an Ethernet controller, maybe a UC controller that has Ethernet connection. Also how a UC controller would link to the breakout board, then drivers and stepper motors. I mean if I'm planning on using Stepper motors and a Spindle with VFC would I need a breakout board with a UC300 to connect to the stepper motors if I used say Closed loop Stepper Motors and HBS57 Drivers?

Mark

Mark