I would tend to want to keep that good stuff too! I know the cost of a newer Galil is an impediment. Especially if you have a 21x3 at the moment. But I can promise you that you will be MUCH happier with the 41x3. It is simply a better controller than the 21x3 for a milling machine motion controller. It will do the rest of the machine justice.
Perhaps you can sell the 21x3 and put that towards a 41x3? Then you could run Mach 4 or Mach 3 and choose the one you like best.
Steve
Thanks for that info. When I got the Galil card cost was a big factor. It was considerably more expensive than my planned budget and until you just pointed it out I had no idea that it had deficiencies which some of their others cards didn't.
I had an additional reason for wanting to keep "that good stuff" which was that I had duplicates of it all. It was the old Anilam controller that I wanted to replace. It worked to drive the machine but the tape recorder and RS232 connection for a PC were shot. It got tedious real quick entering each programme manually.
I only use 3 axis currently but I got the 4 axis card to allow for a 4th but I confess that I didn't realize that the spindle would take another, but I can live without that feature.
I have just downloaded mach4 to give it a test, do I need to unload Mach3 or should I run it from a clean computer.
Is the demo restriction like Mach3 with its limit on G-code lines, or is it a time/date restriction. Does the Galil plugin need licencing for a test run of Mach4?
I'll see if maybe I can sell the 2143, I also have 2 sets of anilam controller that I don't need.
BTW I have upped the mill motor size and it runs to 6000rpm very smooth. Check it out at
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/how-make-6000rpm-bridgeport-56661#post84115