[One of Many]

Attached is a couple of pics of my recent scrap yard find. It was kind of a free-bee, but I did trade some side work for it.

My question is of all the options in software and breakout boards I have seen here and on eBay. Which combination has the least limitations? I would prefer one with a closer emulation of industrial CNC controls, but can adapt if it is worthwhile. I am not to thrilled about learning Linux. That one (CNC lathe?) control panel for the Mach system posted on the Zone here was very impressive!

This assembly is a 3axis step/direction with homing and limits. The system is made by Parker Daedal slides, Compumotor S6 and S8 drives with (2) SX83-135 motors for the x and y and a SX57-102 on the Z. No encoders at this time.

To those with experience in building a working system of Mach3, EMC, TurboCNC etc, etc....... Would you just go with what you already know or is one a better system to work with this setup? I'd like the 4th axis option in the future, but there seems to be a bit of confusion of these parallel port driven systems capable of true 4th axis interpolation. I have been looking at 4 axis motion control cards as another option, but that adds another level of complexity if no software is available to run it on this type of platform. Pminmo's site gave a side by side comparison of the software features, but not directly related to the breakout boards available. Which might be quite a task in itself.

Comments, opinions and direction appreciated,

DC