USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

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jimandi5000
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USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

Post by jimandi5000 »

Hello All,

I am rebuilding my CNC to support a full 5 Axis. My current controller supports 4 axis (x - x slave, y & z) and I unplug the Y cable and plug in to the rotary axis. I cannot use the ATC function without a bunch of work.

Dose anyone know of a good 5 or 6 axis, spindle control and multi-relay USB Stepper Motor Motion Control Card that runs under MACH 3?

Please Let me know.
Thanks,
Jim

GEdward
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Re: USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

Post by GEdward »

I currently use a USB breakout board on a 3 axis set up and I am not all that happy with it. While the UC100 does a good job of buffering the data stream, it has on occasion failed to keep up. I can only conclude that with a 4th and or 5th axis adding demand that performance issues will only get worse. With that said, I would advise that you perhaps consider a Warp 9 ethernet smooth stepper board. They are not the cheapest solution but like most things, you get what you pay for. CNC4PC handles them and they have descent support. Just my humble opinion and I know there are others with more expertise and experience on this forum that might have better options.

Ed

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Leo
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Re: USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

Post by Leo »

I have only very limited experience with Break Out Boards.

I had a machine previously that I had upgraded to a CNC4PC CP11 board. This is NOT a USB board. I had a parallel cable. In the application I had, it was rock solid.

CNC4PC does have many other varieties with do use USB and which do support multiple axis's.

Mach3 to my knowledge does NOT support USB. As a side note, Mach3 is limited to file size and I have hit that limitation a couple of times.

However my Chinese Mach3, 4 axis board is set up to use USB, even on Mach3 control software. There is a Chinese plug in for Mach3 control software to allow it to work with the USB connection. This is a weak link in my opinion. I have had a few issues with it. Yes, it works, and it works rather well when it works, but I would not call it rock solid. My issues are easy to work around, but a bit of an annoyance, but not a major issue.

At this time, I am considering upgrading to Mach4, and to a CNC4PC B.O.B. on USB.

This is just my personal opinion. Take it with a grain of salt.
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Re: USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

Post by ElevationCreations »

You may want to consider Centroid Oak or All-in-One for five+axis. Their Acorn has been very solid, as has their control software, and it supports ATC.

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jimandi5000
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Re: USB Mach3 Stepper Motor Motion Control Card

Post by jimandi5000 »

Hi all,
Just wanted to drop you all a note on the the card I purchased. It is the Pokey57cnc board. This is a super awesome card. It supports 8 motors, 4 onborad relays, limits and homing, estop, and many more. Did I say has both usb and cat5 support.

This can even make lunch lol...
Thanks,
Jim

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