[pbmwco]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a Mach3 alternative? No one has mention Mach4. Can we upgrade to Mach4 and be done with this problem?

[OlfCNC]

UCCNC: CNCdrive - motion controls

[ger21]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a Mach3 alternative?

UCCNC
Centroid Acorn
LinuzCNC
EdingCNC
PlanetCNC

[asuratman]

Can we use mach3 forever with windows7 with no update on dedicated pc with no internet ? We use ESS on it with release stable mach3 ( .042 ). Will we have any problem ?

[ger21]

Can we use mach3 forever with windows7 with no update on dedicated pc with no internet ?

If you never update it, you should be able to use it until the PC dies, or you have a drive fail.

[kennected]

Does anyone have a suggestion for a Mach3 alternative? No one has mention Mach4. Can we upgrade to Mach4 and be done with this problem?

Very easy to answer in my opinion. UCCNC does so many things better, smoother, faster, without all the "flakiness" that we experienced with Mach 3. I have never run Mach 4.

[bbutcher85710]

Can't even figure out how to prevent updates in Win10. I found a setting to delay the update by 365 days. Wondering if it would still work in compatability mode.

Simple. Do not connect the CNC machine computer to the internet. If it ain't broke why do you need updates? No viruses either.

[Todd Zuercher]

For anyone running Mach3 on Windows 10, after installing the latest Windows 10 update (1803), Mach3 will no longert run.
It still works on version 1709, so disable updates before 1803 gets installed, or start looking for an alternative to Mach3.

Announcements like this make me glad I started my first machine conversion using Linuxcnc. The only reasons I went that direction is because Mach couldn't support the hardware on that machine, and since it's free why not at least give it a try.
Contrary to popular believe learning Linuxcnc isn't that hard, and Linux has won over this long time Windows fan, or is it more that MS blew it and has pushed me away.

[BOHICAMAN]

I have a stand alone (no internet) desktop windows 10 (1803) actually running the Sherline mill and lathe. I have another desktop, windows 10 (1803) running Mach3 (as a development machine) connected to the internet, but not the machines.Both run Mach3 without problems.

[CL_MotoTech]

It's probably less of an ordeal than dealing with Linux drivers.

[Todd Zuercher]

What is less of an ordeal than Linux drivers? Unlike Windows where you have to install a driver for almost everything. Linux comes with built in drivers to deal with more than 90% of computer hardware. I can't remember the last time I had to install a driver for Linux. (True, odd ball or very new hardware designs can be problematic.)

[CL_MotoTech]

I use Linux every day, I am the head of IT at medium size construction company. I listen to IT nerds try to tell people they should be running Linux all the time, it's almost plausible until a normal person has to do something in terminal, at that point it's all over for Linux. By and large, you can get by in windows without ever looking at CMD or Powershell.

My neighbor just bought a converted Grizzly mill that came with LinuxCNC. He's had it two months and I've been over there multiple times trying to get him going in Linux. He's an older fella, mid 70's, but he's used computers for 30 years. Still, Linux is just over his head. We calibrated the steps per unit, had to edit the ini file, his mind was blown.

I get it, Linux is reliable, resource easy, free, largely without the demands and idiosyncrasies of Windows. But that doesn't make it better for the average joe.

There are plenty of benefits to having a Windows machine, just as there with Linux machines, it's finding the right combination of benefits for the user. My neighbor still hasn't made a single thing with his mill, he would have been far a head on a Windows machine, simply because he wouldn't be fumbling around .

[Todd Zuercher]

If your neighbor's machine was set up why would he need to be fumbling around with the configuration of it? Or did he buy a basket case of half converted crap? I rarely venture to the command line in Linux, not much more than I use the command prompt in Windows.

The main reason the command line is used so much in Linux support is because it is simple and consistent across Linux's plethora of different desktop options. Because of that diversity it is much easier for support personnel to tell someone to type something on the command line of a terminal window than to walk them through a maze of menus that they may or may not be familiar with, or even exist on the enduser's machine.

I support a half dozen CNC machines running Linuxcnc in factory setting (as well as a dozen other CNCs). All run by basic "clueless" machine operators. Linuxcnc works for our product as good as any commercial control I've worked with. In someways better because of it's flexibility to be configured for the task. I am not saying that doing a conversion is easy, doing this right is a very complex task regardless of the control used. But I feel that a truly professional result is very achievable with Linuxcnc.

[BOHICAMAN]

Totally agree! I have and use both Windows/Mach3 & LinuxCNC. Dual boot system!

[CL_MotoTech]

Ok. Again, the right combination of benefits for each user is what’s important. I’m happy you found what works for you.

Windows works for lots of people. This thread is a troubleshooting thread for that. The Linux circlejerk is elsewhere.

Edit: this was in response to Todd. It should be noted this issue was resolved like 10 months ago.

[msimpson99]

My first windows 10 install with Mach3 was on 1803. Worked without issues. Upgraded to 1809 and then to 1903. All worked. I have several CNC machines running on windows 10,

Since I know that Mach3 does work on 1803, have you tried uninstalling then re-installing Mach3. Are you using a motion controller. The drivers for it may be the issues.

[ger21]

As soon as I updated to 1803, Mach3 stopped working.

Are you using a motion controller. The drivers for it may be the issues.

It stopped working for most users, regardless of controller. That's why CNCRP wrote a patch for it. This is the version currently available.
If you are using the latest version from the machsupport website, then you are using the patched version that does work.

[msimpson99]

I came to 1803 very late so this issue must have been worked out before I even started to migrate to Windows 10. I struggled with the idea of migrating to Windows 10, because of the way they handle updates. I have 7 CNC machines and all but one has been migrated from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

Now in 1903, they are getting better with the updates. At least now feature updates are not part of the normal update system, you have to go and get them. You can hold off a feature update until the life of the current version. I think that is at least one year.

[mcphill]

Can Linux be run under a VM in Windows to drive a CNC? Or will Windows "immediate instructions" make that unworkable? Modern hardware should be fast enough to do the emulation, but somehow MS seems able to F anything up too... Of course, it's also not that critical as getting a second PC for surfing/etc is so cheap now, and you can KVM and have two computers on the same monitor anyway...

[routalot]

I'm fairly sure you can run Linux in a virtual machine.Rather than doing so I would partition the hard drive and set up the system for dual booting to ease the load on resources.You don't need a huge amount of HD space and after a while you might be tempted to do more and more with the Linux installation.Gparted,which is easily found for most versions of Linux makes this easy and it can be done while running from a live Linux session.Its the way my homebrew machine runs and since I use LinuxCNC,the Windows partition doesn't see much action.One anomaly is that I use Freecad to create toolpaths and rather than return to the house for this I run the Windows version of Freecad under Wine.Not perhaps relevant to this section of the forum,but it might be of interest to some of you.