Greetings,
I am starting this thread in hopes it can be a central exchange point for detailed comparison discussions about the various controllers that we "hobbyists" are using. I've recently had similar discussion in a smaller group about differences between Mach and EMC that has been very interesting. There are quite some differences in even the things we think are simple, like feed hold and feed rate over ride operations.

This is not about "my control is the best"..... Its about in-depth explanations of functions your control has that you have really enjoyed, or explanations related to functions your control has that you may feel no other control has. The discussion will really benefit from those who can relate specific differences between programs because they personally have run more than one control.

While there are a lot of programs that have been out there for years, there are an awful lot of new ones we know very little about. Some of these newer ones are on a different path than the parallel port methodology, and because of that, prices do reach higher than many would have considered paying in the past. I believe that we will be seeing more control development that requires specific hardware to be used with a software (PCI, USB), which interestingly was where it all started.

For this discussion, I believe we could consider all controls up to $1400 (not including motors and drivers).

My experience had started back in 1996 with Proprietary OEM's on Routers and Engravers (Multicam, Newhermes, Vision), into Ah-Ha !, Microkinetics, IndexerLPT/Ability, DesKAM, Mach and still my favorite Flashcut. I skipped most of the old DOS stuff without CV because I needed it. I have an interest to explore the latest from LinuxCNC, Dynamotion/Kflop, Eding, Planet-CNC, and any I missed.


I've said enough so far... anyone want to kick off with a feature they think might only exist in the control they are using ?