Tips/Techniques CNC Software and Hardware

[slow-poke]

I need to make a decision on CNC software for the new mill. I have used Mach3 in the past, so an quite familiar with it. I guess the two obvious competitors are Linux CNC and Acorn, others?

Would love to hear Plus and minuses, and experiences good and bad from anyone willing to share. Emphasis should be on low cost and reliability, I would rather pay $100 for a generic breakout board and have to play a bit to configure it than pay $1k for plug and play.

I think Linux CNC as well as Mach can be free, not sure on the cost for Acorn / others?

Should include hardware in the discussion. I have a spare via (EPIA) nano ITX single board PC that I could use that would require some form of breakout board(s)

If a breakout or controller board is required for you choice above, please expand on that aspect.

Much appreciated.

 

[DavidR8]

I use UCCNC with an AXBB-E board from CNCdrive on my CNC router.
I started with LinuxCNC but I could not fathom its mysteries. Then I tried a bespoke board that ran GRBL-HAL but I could not get it to work. Likely my issue not the board.
Looked at Acorn but had a hard time with the cost.
Stumbled on UCCNC and have been very happy with it.

 

[Former Member]

I have the Acorn, why? Simple, aside from interfacing the mechancal, everything else is simple plug and play with the right options. The software is commercial grade and so is the performance.

I paid for the robustness of their system.

Before purchase I considered different systems including some of those on the list, yes there are some savings but was it worth my down time to solve the issues involved with the savings. No. So I paid to play and saved long term.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I'm on the verge of ordering parts to retrofit my little lathe over the winter I'm leaning towards Linux CNC with Mesa boards. Not the cheapest or easiest option, but I want to do it for a learning experience, and to challenge myself to learn linux CNC, more than for ease of retrofit. I also want to build a plasma table and also a router at some point in the near future too, so the education will pay off over multiple projects.

From what I've gathered an acorn is the path of least resistance for mill and lathe, but not cheap. Mach 3 would probably be cheapest for mill. I might be running off old outdated info, but I don't think Mach 3 is recommended for lathes where you'll be threading due to some real time communication issues, but again, my info might be outdated, and certainly not applicable to your mill situation.

I'm not knowledgeable of other solutions, but aware there are many others.

 

[DavidR8]

I'm on the verge of ordering parts to retrofit my little lathe over the winter I'm leaning towards Linux CNC with Mesa boards. Not the cheapest or easiest option, but I want to do it for a learning experience, and to challenge myself to learn linux CNC, more than for ease of retrofit. I also want to build a plasma table and also a router at some point in the near future too, so the education will pay off over multiple projects.

From what I've gathered an acorn is the path of least resistance for mill and lathe, but not cheap. Mach 3 would probably be cheapest for mill. I might be running off old outdated info, but I don't think Mach 3 is recommended for lathes where you'll be threading due to some real time communication issues, but again, my info might be outdated, and certainly not applicable to your mill situation.

I'm not knowledgeable of other solutions, but aware there are many others.

Mach 3 is also deprecated so no longer supported.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

Mach 3 is also deprecated so no longer supported.

Hasn't mach 3 been dead/unsupported for a decade or more now? What ever happened to Mach4?

 

[DavidR8]

Hasn't mach 3 been dead/unsupported for a decade or more now? What ever happened to Mach4?

Mach 4 is still available. No idea how popular it is.

 

[Former Member]

When I did my research Mach 4 was not as good as Mach 3 in some of its features, so the preferred choice is still Mach 3, which for me drove me to other solutions.

The other driving factor was Clearpath SDSK servos and ease of interfacing.

 

[slow-poke]

I'm leaning a tiny bit towards LinuxCNC at this point.

What is an acceptable CPU board?
What MESA boards are people using.

 

[Dan Dubeau]

I'm leaning a tiny bit towards LinuxCNC at this point.

What is an acceptable CPU board?
What MESA boards are people using.

I have no idea. I have not had time to really dig into it, but at first glance it's a bit confusing. I do know there is a great forum over at linuxcnc that probably has the answers though.

 

[DavidR8]

I have no idea. I have not had time to really dig into it, but at first glance it's a bit confusing. I do know there is a great forum over at linuxcnc that probably has the answers though.

From my time looking at LinuxCNC the Mesa 7i96s (I think) was the board to get. For CNC router at least.