[wildwhl]

Have had the PP upgrade sitting in my office for better than 6 months. Have been reluctant to install it because, basically, Mach 3 always seems to work well enough.

Recently Mach3 (I think) has been giving me some issues. Specifically, I get some stutter stepping or jitters randomly (generally during combined x/y movements). Restarting the Mach 3 software alone always fixes it.

Onto the silly question: When I install PP will I no longer be able to use Mach 3?

2nd question: What, specifically, do you recommend I watch for during the install and initial test runs.

Hardware PCNC 1100 series 3, ATC, Tormach controller, fusion360 posting to Mach 3 currently.


Call this a thread to motivate me to get off my ass and install Path Pilot

WW

[kstrauss]

Installing PP wipes everything on your hard drive so there is no going back to Mach3!

If you have any concerns about converting then purchase a small hard drive or SSD. Get the cheapest and smallest disk that you can find -- 120GB is ample. It should cost less than $75, I bought a SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 120GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E120B/AM - Newegg.ca plus a mounting kit. Remove the Mach3 drive and replace it with your new drive, install the new card and then install PP. If you don't like PP or have problems with the installation just put the old disk back. In my opinion buying a new disk for insurance and peace of mind is well worth the money.

[wildwhl]

Good advice kstrauss. I have plenty of spare disks that are suitable, and that' snot something I had thought of.

Thanks,

WW

[GLCarlson]

Spare drive with M3 is what I did. Haven't touched it.

PP has been flawless except for 1.9.4. All other problems were betwee the operator's ears.

As long as you are used to using the tool table, you'll have a fast learning curve.

[popspipes]

Path pilot hasnt made one erroneous move here and I have used it since its inception.
It only has one main operating screen, much simpler than Mach 3.
It can be stopped and restarted instantly, and has soft limits.

Try it youll like it.

[kstrauss]

Agreed, I'm a happy user. You are only apt to have problems if you don't use the tool table or you write your own gcode. Subroutine calls and variables are handled somewhat differently but in general the changes are improvements over Mach3.

[BIG IGG]

Installing PP wipes everything on your hard drive so there is no going back to Mach3!

If you have any concerns about converting then purchase a small hard drive or SSD. Get the cheapest and smallest disk that you can find -- 120GB is ample. It should cost less than $75, I bought a SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 120GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E120B/AM - Newegg.ca plus a mounting kit. Remove the Mach3 drive and replace it with your new drive, install the new card and then install PP. If you don't like PP or have problems with the installation just put the old disk back. In my opinion buying a new disk for insurance and peace of mind is well worth the money.

Yes that is what i did as well. Still have the hard drive with 3M on it but i have yet to touch it. Hopefully i will not have to touch it. Love that when i stop the program it stops right away.

[wildwhl]

Well that was painless. Test runs complete.

No idea why I didn't do this when it arrived. Path Pilot seems pretty darn slick.

WW

[BIG IGG]

Yippeeeee LOL

[wildwhl]

Just an update after a few weeks running Path Pilot. Love it. Everything is just more fluid/simpler IMHO. Only issue I still have (and maybe I need to edit my post processor, haven't thought that hard yet) is when I have manual tool changes in middle of program. Z only lifts to safe height and that's not enough to remove the tool.

Otherwise, Path Pilot is great. Wish I'd upgraded months ago.

WW

[GenInt]

I really like Path Pilot, and use my machine 6-7 days a week. There are a couple of little bugs, mostly nuisance bugs, like in some situations, clicking "RESET" will cause the coolant to go from an off state to an on state, and you can get a little bath. There is one slightly more serious thing that can happen though, and since you have the ATC, I thought I'd mention it.

Once in a great while, the program will hang. This usually happens when opening files. It's like if you don't do a really clean doubleclick, the program locks up. It's probably entered an endless loop trying to open the same file twice or something. In any event, the only way out of this is to restart the controller, re-home the axis, etc. If this ever happens to you, make sure that you also go to your ATC screen and check to see that what is indicated for tools and positions in the ATC as well as in the spindle are correct. If they are, then your good to go. If not then you have to work your way out of it in order to get it to be correct or you will end up crashing the ATC.

Over all though it seems like a solid program, and because it's based on LinuxCNC, it's easy to write macros, (parametric programming), that allow you to really save a lot of time, and do things that are just not possible through CAM software.

[popspipes]

I really like Path Pilot as well, I had to add a Q.001 in the startup line of my programs, this cured the hesitation when it cuts a contour (thanks to a couple forum members).
The other small problem is when cutting a waterline op it changes the depth of cut in certain areas of it, visibly noticeable if you look closely at the part, doesnt hurt the functionality of it though.

Overall it is a beautiful thing! Just a quirk or two that I think will be worked out over time.........