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Mach4 General Discussion / Re: New people welcome !! Come in here and introduce your self!
« on: January 05, 2019, 08:01:40 PM »
Hi johnrembo,
you will get more views and therefore replies if you post on the Mach4 board.
None the less I can help with some of those questions.
THC is the critical function, just about any old CNC program can whiz around the outline of a part but being able to go up and
down at the same time is a bit clever. It requires a real-time control....that is to say a system that can respond to UP/DOWN commands
in microseconds not milliseconds.
LininuxCNC is a good choice, it is a real-time system, but demands a high level of programming skill, and as you've discovered, not easy.
Windows PCs ARE NOT real-time systems and should therefore struggle/fail to be of use for CNC purposes. Art Fenerty was the guy who invented Mach
and he achieved a near real-time system with his Mach3 parallel port driver. This is/was a very VERY clever piece of code that lived in the kernel
level of Windows....don't ask how it works....as far as I know Art is the only person who does. The parallel port is what gave Mach the legs,
it is/was a cheap way to get near real-time performance from a Windows PC. It is/was not without its quirks, other software on the same PC could cause a stall
and stuff up your job and there are speed limitations as well.
About ten years or so ago a number of manufacturers started making external motion controllers, it does all the critical timing stuff that the parallel port
driver struggled with. The external controllers relieved the PC of all that stuff. The external motion controller must now also be responsible for real-time
function support, THC for instance.
There are now about a dozen manufacturers of external motion controllers that support THC for Mach3. I would avoid Chinese made stuff, they seldom support
all the real-time features that European and/or US manufacturers support.
Mach4 is a very much newer software package. While there is a parallel port plugin called Darwin ($25 licence fee applies) it IS NOT FULLY FEATURED
nor will it ever be, ie it can't do THC. Mach4 pretty much requires an external motion controller. There are about five recognized manufacturers of
Mach4 ready controllers but at this time only one, the Hicon Integra by Vital Systems, has full blown THC support. There have been rumours that
more software development by NFS will mean hardware manufacturers have an easier time supporting THC but at this time its only the Hicon Integra.
Great board, good quality and support but expensive, around $1000 with THC function enabled.
May be this is....'altogether too much information!'...so I will try to thin it down a bit. The choices are:
1) Mach3 with a parallel port
pros- cheap
cons- requires a Desktop Windows 7 32 bit OS or earlier, inclined to stall or stutter depending on the PC
2)Mach3 with an external motion controller
pros- much wider choice of PCs will now work without stuttering or stalling, wide choice of suitable controllers with THC support ranging from about $100
upwards.
cons- the cost of the controller and/or the breakout board, all development on Mach3 has ceased five years ago, should probably be considered in its sunset years
3) Mach4 with Hicon Integra
pros- very good software package with new features relased approx. quarterly, high quality controller fully featured and excellent aftersales support,
professional solution up to the rigors of industrial use with future support.
cons- the cost, approx. $1000 for the controller and activation.
Given that THC is a real-time function and is supported by your selected motion controller (Mach parallel port, an external controller for Mach3, or
a Hicon Intgrea for Mach4) you do not have to write a HAL or anything like that. It does require some learning and tweaking to get THC to work even with
supporting hardware but nothing like the battle with LinuxCNC.
I'm very much in the Mach4 camp, I think it wipes the floor with Mach3.....but not all...in fact not many......agree with me.
May I suggest doing some reading on the Mach4 board, there are a number of threads about Mach4 and plasma. Hey-reading is free!
Craig
you will get more views and therefore replies if you post on the Mach4 board.
None the less I can help with some of those questions.
THC is the critical function, just about any old CNC program can whiz around the outline of a part but being able to go up and
down at the same time is a bit clever. It requires a real-time control....that is to say a system that can respond to UP/DOWN commands
in microseconds not milliseconds.
LininuxCNC is a good choice, it is a real-time system, but demands a high level of programming skill, and as you've discovered, not easy.
Windows PCs ARE NOT real-time systems and should therefore struggle/fail to be of use for CNC purposes. Art Fenerty was the guy who invented Mach
and he achieved a near real-time system with his Mach3 parallel port driver. This is/was a very VERY clever piece of code that lived in the kernel
level of Windows....don't ask how it works....as far as I know Art is the only person who does. The parallel port is what gave Mach the legs,
it is/was a cheap way to get near real-time performance from a Windows PC. It is/was not without its quirks, other software on the same PC could cause a stall
and stuff up your job and there are speed limitations as well.
About ten years or so ago a number of manufacturers started making external motion controllers, it does all the critical timing stuff that the parallel port
driver struggled with. The external controllers relieved the PC of all that stuff. The external motion controller must now also be responsible for real-time
function support, THC for instance.
There are now about a dozen manufacturers of external motion controllers that support THC for Mach3. I would avoid Chinese made stuff, they seldom support
all the real-time features that European and/or US manufacturers support.
Mach4 is a very much newer software package. While there is a parallel port plugin called Darwin ($25 licence fee applies) it IS NOT FULLY FEATURED
nor will it ever be, ie it can't do THC. Mach4 pretty much requires an external motion controller. There are about five recognized manufacturers of
Mach4 ready controllers but at this time only one, the Hicon Integra by Vital Systems, has full blown THC support. There have been rumours that
more software development by NFS will mean hardware manufacturers have an easier time supporting THC but at this time its only the Hicon Integra.
Great board, good quality and support but expensive, around $1000 with THC function enabled.
May be this is....'altogether too much information!'...so I will try to thin it down a bit. The choices are:
1) Mach3 with a parallel port
pros- cheap
cons- requires a Desktop Windows 7 32 bit OS or earlier, inclined to stall or stutter depending on the PC
2)Mach3 with an external motion controller
pros- much wider choice of PCs will now work without stuttering or stalling, wide choice of suitable controllers with THC support ranging from about $100
upwards.
cons- the cost of the controller and/or the breakout board, all development on Mach3 has ceased five years ago, should probably be considered in its sunset years
3) Mach4 with Hicon Integra
pros- very good software package with new features relased approx. quarterly, high quality controller fully featured and excellent aftersales support,
professional solution up to the rigors of industrial use with future support.
cons- the cost, approx. $1000 for the controller and activation.
Given that THC is a real-time function and is supported by your selected motion controller (Mach parallel port, an external controller for Mach3, or
a Hicon Intgrea for Mach4) you do not have to write a HAL or anything like that. It does require some learning and tweaking to get THC to work even with
supporting hardware but nothing like the battle with LinuxCNC.
I'm very much in the Mach4 camp, I think it wipes the floor with Mach3.....but not all...in fact not many......agree with me.
May I suggest doing some reading on the Mach4 board, there are a number of threads about Mach4 and plasma. Hey-reading is free!
Craig