Please look at the attachment jpg. You can see I have a lathe-type device connected to mach 3, with some of the inherent issues that mach 3 has, that is I have a lot of problems just getting lathe to turn on at a certain speed and then have the x-y-z axis do their thing. I have reached the conclusion that I need to run the lathe from a controller that is independent of a computer. That is I would plug it into the wall socket and by adjusting a couple of knobs (whatever) the lathe would turn clockwise or CCW and with another knob or feature I could increase or decrease the speed.
Now what would I call a unit like that, and where might I look. Looking for your suggestions. Thanks, bob