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« on: May 03, 2012, 03:52:06 PM »
I could not get the USB Smooth Stepper to work reliably on my machine, an axis motor fault would lock-up Smooth Stepper and freeze Mach 3. This was without even turning the spindle on, just the DC Servo motors controlled by Gecko 320X's and a PMDX 126 breakout board. I tried every version of Mach and Smooth Stepper driver and plugin. I rewired and re-grounded my system two times, the 2nd time with pain staking detail and all components mounted to a steel plate and the PC sharing a common ground. The system was not reliable enough for me to even tune the motors, and I would get a run-away table from time to time.
After fighting that for a while I finally just moved to the ESS and installed it at the beginning of the week. No more crash or lock-ups of Mach 3. I finally have a working control system. I know others have used the USB SS with success , but mine was absolutely non-usable. I'm very happy that the ESS exists and solved my problems, allowing nice motion control with Mach 3 and fantastic integration with the PMDX 126 board.