Quick update for anyone following the saga...

myCNC runs fine on my Win10 laptop and on my Win10 desktop in the office. It does not run on my workshop PC. All run identical copies of Win10 (latest updates, etc). PV are investigating - sounds like the same problem that Jazz reported but it's a bit like Covid-19 in that only some apparently near-identical machines suffer and others do not! Good news from my perspective is that the MPG is supported and actually works better with myCNC than it does with Mach3.

After a lot of messing about trying to set up dual-boot on my workshop PC, I eventually put a second dedicated disk in the thing and have installed the Ubuntu/myCNC iso image available from the PV web site. This is also working fine, MPG support, profile files interchangeable between Windows and Ubuntu systems so all my config work using Windows has moved straight across. To put all this in perspective, it took a fair while to get the Mach3/CSMIO-IP/M/MPG compatibility issues worked out, and even then it was a touch flaky at times. Once myCNC is running, the user interface is absolutely identical on Windows and Linux so it doesn't matter that much to me which platform is used.

First impressions from setting up the thing is that much of what you have learnt from Mach3 does not work with myCNC; everything's there but it works in a very different way. For example, most Mach3 configuration is done via a set of tick boxes and values to put into tables, and the actual working happens in some internal black box. With myCNC and the ET* control boards, almost every bit of functionality is exposed and can be modified, and just getting basic parameters into the thing is somewhat more complicated. For example, the motor outputs and axis mappings are in one place, along with "steps per unit" and a max speed setting, while a different screen collects values for various max feed speeds. However, while limit inputs are set on a different screen, home sensor inputs are defined in the macros that are constructed to actually perform the homing actions. Yes, you have to create your own macros for homing, gantry squaring, etc. However, the documentation is pretty good (and not written in Chinglish), and there are a bunch of "wizards" that let you enter the necessary data (like homing sensor input pin) and it writes the macro for you. But you see the code, and can tweak it if you so desire. Users who struggle with "ports and pins" and the varioius motor settings in Mach3 might find all this a bit off-putting. But if you want to tune the machine to your exact requirements, it's all here. You can also use the given or generated macros and PLC routines as templates and examples when you come to write your own. I have a modified tool-height setting macro in place and I'm about work on a couple more variants plus tool-change macro. I can see why this controller might be used by commercial machine builders who can tune and tweak and extend to suit their particular needs; this is the kind of stuff that you only need to do once and then you hide it from the user who only ever sees the buttons to make it work.

I shall be looking at screen editing sometime as well. No GUI-based screen editor, but the screens are defined in XML modules which are easily edited and again there's plenty of material provided to act as examples if you need another screen layout.

I'm just pleased that I now have a system where I can just switch on the PC and while I'm fiddling about retuning the radio and so on, the PC is booting directly into myCNC. And it waits for the controller to be switched on and doesn't bitch about the IP/M not being ready yet - which usually meant stopping and starting Mach3 once the control box was powered up. The homing button now homes all axes and squares the gantry all by itself - another Mach3/CSMIO issue fixed. All good fun, even if I'm not expecting wonders from the improved S-curve trajectory planner with my machine's somewhat limited performance. But we'll see in due course.