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« on: September 05, 2019, 09:56:57 PM »
Thank you for the reply.
I don't know who you are and that is fine, I don't need to, but it does sound like you might be a person directly related or involved with NewFangled Solutions. Am I correct in assuming that?
You are correct about some of my situation. I am learning a lot and in my spare time I love to learn as much as I can about pretty much anything worth learning about, which in my case is just about anything. The last 15 years or so, just about every new thing I have learned to do has been self taught through research, reading, experimentation, and doing.
This is more than a hobby for me and I am not a DIY CNC machine builder, however I would like to build my own and do have the knowledge, skill set, tools and ability to do so, I choose not to because I don't have the time to do so. I will never have enough time to do and learn everything I want to, so I have to make decisions and choose my path while weighing my options wisely.
In 2013 I began research on CNC routers for wood working. I am not vastly wealthy, so I learned right away I could not afford a major name brand or higher end machine, nor would it have been a wise choice for a person like me, which at the time, was basically just at an entry level stage to CNC, but I try to make educated, smart and responsible decisions with the resources that I have available to work with.
In 2014 I bought a relatively inexpensive brand new imported Chinese 3 axis router, Mach 3 software, Aspire 4.5 software and a couple of computers. In a relatively short amount of time I had everything up and running. In less than two years I had things dialed in and was producing quality products. For almost 4 years all was good, machine and software performance was great, then out of the blue in early mid 2018 I began to have problems. Mach 3 was acting up with error codes and messages and ultimately would hang and or crash randomly. This went on for several weeks, then my computer began to give me DLL kernel error codes and messages as well, and then it crashed. I had to do a reinstall of XP operating system to get back up and running. I did this three times in as many weeks and after that it ran fine for almost a month with the occasional Mach 3 error code and crash. This went on into late 2018. Then the computer crashed again and doing an operating system reinstall failed to work.
At this point, production came to a complete halt. I immediately began research on all my options to get back up and running. At the time Mach 4 appeared to be the least painful and most sensible option. (I hate to say it and don't want to believe it but I am seriously doubting it now). So in early 2019 I pulled the trigger and purchased Mach 4, a Warp9 ESS card and a new computer. It is now September 2019 and I have yet to resume production. After more than six months of reading, learning and searching the ArtSoft and Warp9 forums for everything under the sun I have yet to produce a single quality project.
I am not a quitter or the type to ever give up (which can be a curse at times) but I am seriously almost there.
The only thing I know for sure is that before all the previously mentioned Mach 3 and computer issues the machine produced great quality products and now with Mach 4 the product quality is crap and unacceptable.
Before I throw in the towel, in an attempt to salvage this Mach 4 set up and make it work properly I am willing to dedicate the time and efforts necessary to do so, if someone out there is willing to do what it takes to help me find resolution.
Thank you,
Steve