Hi all,

I am into purchasing new Wabeco milling machine. I decided that factory made CNC version is too risky - it comes with Kosy hardware and NCCAD software. Resources on forums are vague and mostly reflect on NCCAD software versions dating from couple of years ago and people didn't have good experiences. I would definitely opt for turnkey solution where I can do Fusion360 work, export CAM, import it to mill computer and start cutting, but I don't know if Kosy+NCCAD is the way to go with that. Spending 6 months trying to make machine move is not an option for me. On the other hand, Wabeco's CNC pricing is kind of huge. They offer three tiers of CNC (ready) machines:

1 - Machine with steppers and limit switches
2 - #1 + Basic cnc package (3 axes controller + basic software) (add EUR 1000)
3 - #1 + Pro cnc package (4 axes controller + pro software) (add EUR 1800 to #2)

So I think that adding 2800 EUR to machine in order to achieve questionable results is a bit too much, but I'm more afraid of questionable results and steep learning curve. I believe I'll opt for basic machine with integrated 3 axes 6 amp steppers, ball screws and linear slides instead of dove tails. Now question is, how to hook up those 3 steppers.

Here are some things I'd like to have
- gecko drives
- ability to handle them from LinuxCNC and Mach (I'd opt for linux if I need to chose)

I figured out that G540 isn't a way to go because of amperage of steppers that come with the mill. That leaves me with individual drives and a breakout board of some sort. I believe Gecko G203V should be ok. I have no idea if I need half steps, or 5 microsteps, I suppose I don't. From what I could have read, it seems that drives with native resolution of 10 microsteps need somewhat faster interface that can be achieved by getting boards such as Mesa.

Mesa offers Plug & Go kits with 6I25 PCIe interface. Those apparently work with LinuxCNC without problems. I don't know how they behave on Windows with Mach. Any experiences there? Which Plug & Go kit would you suggest?

And in the end, I discovered Centroid Acorn. It seems to me that it can be the most plug & play solution out there. It's ethernet based, supposedly has very good software (aside from the fact that it's Windows based), should work with Gecko drives, etc. Is that the way to go?

Also, given that the mill has also wheels for manual milling, will I be able to use any of that software as DRO (steppers working as transducers) or do I have to add rotary encoders for that?

I apologise for long post, although I believe I did most of my homework, I'd still like to have some first hand confirmations from you folks.

Thanks,
Bruno