Time for a purpose built motion control computer.

[John S]

Much as I would like to see different options prevail I feel we are stuck for a while with what we have.
Art when he wrote Mach3 put an immense of work into it and it very nearly burnt himself out, his words, not mine.
Unfortunately no one else seems prepared to step up to the plate and come out with the next version, especially for the same amount of money.
We have had many promises, the Gecko G100 which turned out to be a door stop, the smooth stepper which has frozen in time and lacks any support.

I know of two people working on USB controllers but one is finished and works after a fashion but the guy isn't interested in working with users, take it or leave it attitude and the other is still hot air.

EMC is out there but without being derogatory it's written by geeks, for geeks, if you think windows and Mach is hard then Linux and EMC is ear of bat, tongue of newt as regards setting up.

The 'new' Mach4 is aimed at OEM's or profession retrofitters working on expensive dead machinery, anyone with less than three pound seventeen and six need not apply.

[GeoffV]

John

Thank you once again for the benifit of you experience.

It seems to me that there is little wrong with either the machines or Mach3, the weak link is the PC. Is it not possible to design a dedicated PC in a box that runs Mach3 and talks correctly to the machine. Ecat has made some usefull suggestions and Robin Hewitt has clearly trod this path before.

I think it is time for me to stand back for a while and see if we can put a team together.

Geoff Vaizey