another thread about mach leaving me pulling my hair.
im just a guy with an old dos based knee mill cnc and an old fanuc engine lathe. both controls down, too old, dont want to fool with them,
i want to go to mach and an external motion control device and modern computer with modern software. something i can put
together thus learning the internals so i (with help) can maintain my own stuff rather than calling the $$ fanuc man.
every time i think im ready to move a little, i get cold feet. i sense that most of the many many problems seen on these forums
come from someone wanting to couple a laptop to a $10 chinese bob, and drive steppers stolen from god knows where and
wired improperly. so i get inspired, until i see a post like TP's above.
other very knowledgeable folk on this forum have seemingly incorporated mach3 into machine tools and are very satisfied.
leaves me very confused. what version of mach3 is the least buggy, and what are those bugs? can i at least depend on
one version to act in a stable manner if i am willing to avoid certain programming techniques? is mach4 really better? reading
the mach4 forum section leaves me pulling my hair too. is there any mach version buttoned down and ready to roll, if the machine
is properly built from good quality components? TP said "the competition zoomed right by..", TP, do you mean that systems
like Eding, usbcnc, others may be better alternatives than mach?
are there any threads i have missed that serve as a faq for all the above questions?
i welcome all input, in this thread, on this forum, or via pm.
thank you,
ken