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21-05-2012 #10
erm..Mach 4 is under (very) active development, and Mach 3 has been continually tweeked.
I don't know how long its been since you've tried linuxCNC, but it has MDI and 4th axis as standard. There's other 'screens' available, the screen for LinuxCNC is fully customisable ... so anyone can make the buttons large if they wish. Linuxcnc has all the functionality you mentioned. Bear in mind, there is a huge library of user contributed content for LinuxCNC and it supports a much wider variety of machines.
And that is becoming a major issue. Yes you can trawl ebay and pick up something old that may work for cheap, or pay lots of money for an industrial spec motherboard with a PP and build up your own computer, then go through installing an unfamiliar OS followed by a software program in an unfamiliar enviroment.
Or you can pick up a common as muck familiar windows machine, plug in a SS (or similar), and install the required software in a familiar enviroment.
Now for most users, are they going to go with the more familiar, or less familiar option?
On a side note, I've got a lot of respect for Art, as he is probably one of the, if not, the largest contributors to the development of the DIY CNC scene.
Mach revolutionised DIY CNC machines, as it removed the need for dedicated controllers, and meant users could use a 'normal' computer that most would be familiar with to do things that without Mach, most would of found impossible to do. That is what made Mach so successful, and is what many others are trying to achieve. I'll admit Mach3 has stagnated a bit and has inherent issues, and even Brian has made comments to that effect, but Mach 4 is on it's way. Completely ground up rewrite/structure, and Art is even writing a completely new PP driver addressing several of the issues of the last one.
Yes, somebody else may of came up with something, but I'd doubt DIY CNC would be where it is today, if it hadn't been for Art's innovation.
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