I spent several years using a cheap Chinese parallel board, though with LinuxCNC rather than MACH3. I spent more time fault-finding spurious limit trips and other issues than I did making things. If I'd had to pay for the amount of time people spent reading and replying to my posts on this forum I'd be a homeless bankrupt.

Recently I bit the bullet and changed to using UCCNC software and an AXBB-E controller from CNC Drive as recommended by Those Who Know. Apart from an interesting W10 problem that ended up being related to which USB port on my laptop I plugged the Nintendo game controller into ($8 version of remote pendant, well worth the investment!) it has been rock solid. Easy to set up and there are plenty of experienced user on this forum to help with any issues.

I'm the ultimate cheapskate when it comes to machine building but should have made the change long before I did. If you plan to make a few things to sell, even as no more than a self-funded hobby, you will get your money back in improved production time soon enough.

Kit