Recent Posts

71

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Centroid KP-1 Probe ESS C82 board Mach4

« Last post by Sabre38 on January 05, 2026, 03:34:10 PM »

Thanks to the suggestions from Arturio Duncan. I figured out my mistake.  I did not have any voltage on the common on Port.  Here is what I ended up doing to get the Centroid KP-1 probe going.  Black wire to Ground from the power supply.  White wire to port 2 pin 9, then 5 volts to common on port 2.  Thanks for the assistance. 
Regards,
Mike B

72

VB and the development of wizards / Re: I'm missing something fundamental with Macros.

« Last post by Trebleplink on January 05, 2026, 10:11:52 AM »

Thanks.   My fiber Internet has been down since Saturday.

I fixed the problem:  My Mach3 Macros folder had several other folders in it due to mach updating.  If I placed the .M1s file in the newest one it works.

73

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Steve Stallings on January 04, 2026, 09:17:06 PM »

You have interpreted my response incorrectly. The "No" in my first sentence was the response to your question "So to be clear, are you are stating if I make any parts for sale I must buy an industrial license AND a hobby license, and an additional hobby license for each additional machine?". The part after the comma in my reply states that " commercial use of a Hobby license is permitted".

I am unable to find the reference you mentioned on the Art Soft website. The closest thing I can find is a statement that Mach4 is "A full featured software version to be marketed toward those interested in using CNC machinery for their own personal /non-business use." This indicates that support is via forums but does not indicate that commercial use violates the license.

Again, the major difference between Hobby and Industrial versions is the access to ArtSoft support personnel and the addition of some advanced features such as Macro B in G-code.

I suggest that you try contacting support@machmotion.com for a definitive answer. They are the new owners of the Mach/ArtSoft family of products.

74

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Bob La Londe on January 04, 2026, 04:54:30 PM »

The Industrial License is not needed at all. It is about extra features and higher levels of support.

The Hobby License allows use on one machine for commercial use making products for sale.

If you were to run three machines making parts for sale you are supposed to own 3 Hobby licenses.

Other machines not being used to make items for sale do not require additional licenses.

That is not what your previous reply indicates, and not what they Art Soft website seems to indicate. 

Commercial use legally and according to Webster would be using the software to make money.  Using the software to run a machine to make parts for sale is commercial use.  You said, and the quoted Artsoft website page said no commercial use. 

It's the whole reason I asked now.  Years ago I asked and was told I could buy the Hobby license for a machine and use the machine commercially (I think that was actually by Art around the time of the sale), but a discussion recently on another forum indicated that would not be allowed under the hobby license, the documentation seems to say no, and your previous response seems to say no I could not use a hobby license on a machine to make parts for sale. 

https://cambamcnc.com/forum/index.php?topic=10751.15

Now this response seems to contradict that and say, "Yes I can use the hobby license on a machine to make parts for sale." 

I was actually considering just using Mach 3 for a new machine and to re-retrofit an old machine since I have dialed it in to work fairly well and know how to set it up, but for just $25 more I was considering Mach 4.  For $1225 more it's not worth it for me.  It's at the point where selling off a couple Smoothsteppers and picking up some MESA IO cards starts to look more promising instead.  (Actually, I have 1 spare Mesa IO card already)  Maybe it's time I learned the ins and outs of HAL files. 

My main reason for looking at Mach 4 was it looks like it supports and has cleaner support for some of the G/M instruction set.  One of the things I like about LinuxCNC. 

75

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Steve Stallings on January 04, 2026, 04:24:30 PM »

The Industrial License is not needed at all. It is about extra features and higher levels of support.

The Hobby License allows use on one machine for commercial use making products for sale.

If you were to run three machines making parts for sale you are supposed to own 3 Hobby licenses.

Other machines not being used to make items for sale do not require additional licenses.

76

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Bob La Londe on January 04, 2026, 04:08:32 PM »

No, commercial use of a Hobby license is permitted, however if you use Mach4 commercially for multiple machines you are expected to purchase a Hobby license for each machine engaged in commercial use.

So to be clear, are you are stating if I make any parts for sale I must buy an industrial license AND a hobby license, and an additional hobby license for each additional machine? 

Okay. 

77

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Steve Stallings on January 04, 2026, 12:14:24 PM »

No, commercial use of a Hobby license is permitted, however if you use Mach4 commercially for multiple machines you are expected to purchase a Hobby license for each machine engaged in commercial use.

78

Mach4 General Discussion / Mach 4 Hobby Non-Business Use

« Last post by Bob La Londe on January 04, 2026, 12:01:07 PM »

I asked about it years ago, and I was told I could use the hobby license for anything I want.  I don't recall exactly what they said the difference was for the industrial license other than price. 

Of course as we know policies do change.

Only thing I found beyond the AI result was this below.  The AI result linked to a page that did not support what it said was the answer to the question.

Quote
The industrial software version comes with greatly expanded customer support, including phone support for customers in a manufacturing environment where every second counts.  Mach4 Industrial includes Macro B gcode programming, tool life management, screw mapping, and an advanced GUI editing tool.

Ah, just found this on the Artsoft website:

Quote
A full featured software version to be marketed toward those interested in using CNC machinery for their own personal /non-business use.

So to be clear if I make a part for sale must I buy the Industrial version? 

Currently I am running 4 machines with Mach 3, one with PathPilot (LinuxCNC under the skin) and one with a Masso controller. 

79

VB and the development of wizards / Re: I'm missing something fundamental with Macros.

« Last post by TPS on January 04, 2026, 04:54:59 AM »

for test that the macro is called you can enter a:

Code: [Select]

msgbox "i was here"

before your DoOEMButton

make sure you have a CRLF after your DoOEMButton(110)
so the M120.m1s has a empty line at he end.

80

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Can't seem to get PWM output

« Last post by jcizek on January 03, 2026, 09:00:27 PM »

SwiftyJ,

You nailed it... sometimes I have to remember to step back and look at the bigger picture. I didn't even realize you could enter into that particular box.  When I do this, it works just as it should.  I was mistakenly interpreting the SRO slider bar as the spindle output, but by it's own definition, it's an override % and not the absolute value of the speed!  I keep thinking that hitting 100% would set the speed to 100% but that's 100% of the set value (which was zero). 

Thank for the insight there. Sometimes it takes another set of eyes to help get a fresh perspective.  Many thanks for the pointer, it's working exactly right and I just didn't understand all the screen elements!

Thanks again,
James