[dazp1976]

Hi,
One of the manufacturers, CNCDrive, whom make a number of controllers including the UC100 (don't get ripped by the Chinese fake UC100s on Ebay and Amazon), UC300, and UC400
will work with Mach (3 or 4) OR their own UCCNC software. The UCCNC software licence is only $60 but REQUIRES that you use one of their proprietary controllers. The result however
is a software and motion solution that is much better than Mach3 and as good, and competitive with Mach4.

Another solution is Centroid Acorn. I can't say that I am familiar with it, but reports are that as a moderate cost (approx $400) commercial solution it is easy to set up and use and has many
of the usual CNC features. It is not as flexible as LinuxCNC or Mach4, or even UCCNC come to that, but for a simple, no frills, straight forward installation is good value for money.
Craig

I've finally managed to get around to trying out my new UC300eth and UCCNC.
Had the board running with Mach3 earlier too.
Plenty happy with it.

I reckon for basic 3axis + slave, spindle, limits and a bunch of relays usage a good way to go is the UC400eth. With a decent bob for the axis on port 1 and a generic bob for the rest on port 2. Get the uccnc license with it and it's cost is on a par overall.

If you need more I/O then level up with either Smooothstepper or UC300eth.
There is a Pokeys board but I wasn't convinced over the support or forum.

If I did iit again I'd go straight to cncroom for the UC300eth-MAX system. (UC300, UB1, UD1, UCcnc lic).

Next level you're getting to Acorn and things.

[joeavaerage]

Hi,
there is a subtle difference in licencing between UCCNC and Mach.

With Mach3 if you have a licence you can use it as often as you like on as many machines as you like.

With Mach4Hobby, you may have up to five activated copies of Mach4, and as many Demo copies as you want. So you could have as many as five different machines.
Each licence is specific to the MAC of the PC on which it is installed. You manage your own licences on-line on the NFS website. You may for instance release the licence
of the old PC that just blew up and licence a new PC to replace it. You are allowed up to seven such transactions in two years.

With Mach4 Industrial you may have only one active copy/machine per licence.

UCCNC allows one copy per licence only. Thus if you had three machines each with their own UC300 say, then you would need three licences. Given that UCCNC is cheaper
for most hobbyists whom seldom have more than two machines then UCCNC is still somewhat cheaper than Mach4.

The subtle differences in licencing between UCCNC and Mach4 mean that there is very little to choose between them.

More importantly than licencing is the feature set offered by each solution. I believe Mach4 has a slight edge in lathe, plasma and laser functionality.....but each manufacturer progresses their
software independently so whom is ahead at any given time is a moving target.

Mach4 does have a very strong suite of tools and scripting language that allows for a great deal of customisation to a particular need, and exceeds the same abilities of UCCNC. Having said that
most hobbyists are perfectly happy with either Mach4 or UCCNC 'out of the box' and don't require any customisation, thus for many Mach4's advantages in this regard are moot.

Craig