[Damon Hill]

New user, first reply:

There are some pretty wide ranging and specific issues in this thread EMC vs Mach3, but some of the issues I have questions on are more about linux vs windows based system issues.

Also I'm interested in the user freindlyness for a basic 3 axis stepper setup.

I intend to set a system up, but I will not be the primary user and need to have a stable and negotiable system I can easily train people to use and be productive with.

If issues arise, will troubleshooting either controller or system base come easier? Since this is the first system we will be setting in place that is not a major brand turnkey CNC system and more of a hobby/bench level cellular approach, I would like it to be a success and not a massive can of worms.

Anyone have some thoughts regarding these issues, it would be very helpful.

[andypugh]

If issues arise, will troubleshooting either controller or system base come easier?

Are you intending to use the parallel port for step generation?
If so, I don't think that there is much to choose between the two systems from a functional point of view, and AFAIK both have setup utilities for parport-based stepper systems that make it very easy.

Personally I am a LinuxCNC user (lawyers made us change the name) and consider it to be the more flexible system, but that might not be what you want in this case.
If this is for other people to use, they might be a bit less inclined to browse Facebook while milling with a Linux system. Looking a bit less like the PC they are used to might be useful.

If you want extra IO and hardware step generation then I think that the Mesa 5i25 / 7i76 combination is a much better (and cheaper) option than the Smoothstepper. But if you need to use USB rather than PCI then Smoothstepper + Mach3 are the only game in town. (AFAIK)