[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

[One of Many]

Here are a few things I have come across.

Quickstep3 on eBay

CNC4PC on eBay

Another Breakout

One more breakout board

The array of options out there is amazing. I'd rather go with tried and true than buy it twice!

Do any of the available parallel port systems do true 3 or 4 axis interpolation?

Looks like Galil uses some other language than G-code? 2 letter codes? What post processor could handle this?

DC

[ger21]

Do any of the available parallel port systems do true 3 or 4 axis interpolation?

I'm pretty sure that both TurboCNC and Mach3 do. You might want to ask on their Yahoo user's groups.

[One of Many]

Yahoops? I could wear out a mouse clicking off all the ads they put on their users!

As a conclusion from what little bit I have read. They can hem stitch a surface profile in 3D using only 2 axis at a time. No mention of helical, forth axis or full 3 axis work examples so far. But then I am not into it that deep so far.

Are there other sites that rate the available features (or lack thereof) the many breakout boards verses the software features that can or cannot support them? I have only seen claims of "Compatible with so'n so's software". Not having worked with this hardware before, I'm having a harder time than I counted on, finding detailed information on the pro's and con's of what is offered as generic, campatible or biggest bang for the buck ready for future expansion.

Thanks for the response Ger,

DC

[ger21]

I don't know of any breakout board comparisons anywhere. The most popular ones used with Mach3 are from www.campbelldesigns.com and www.cnc4pc.com

Other ones you might want to look at are from ww.pmdx.com and www.candcnc.com

As for the 3D, both Mach3 and TurboCNC can do helical moves, using G2/G3, and yes, they'll both move 3 axis at the same time. I know that a lot of people use both for 4th axis work, but I don't know for sure if all 4 axis can move together.