I have been using the latest CS Lab plugin 3.121 with and IP/A for the last week or so. On the whole, the upgrade from 3.016 has proved a positive experience, and overcomes probing issues I experienced with 3.120, these causing me to revert to 3.016. Gcode programs, including macros, continue to run faultlessly.

The new feature you will first notice , introduced in 3.120, is the ability to define a default controller, obviating the need to select your hardware each time Mach4 is started. This was a welcome addition.

Also new is support for backlash compensation. I have tested this for the 3 axes on my mill, and it appears to be effective and reliable.

Probing works well , at least for Probe0 and Probe1 which I have used extensively. I have not tested Probe2 or Probe3 though these worked in the past so I would not anticipate issues here.

Probe protection, recently introduced in the plugin,  works well for Probe0, halting motion for an unintended strike whilst the table is in motion, but ignoring strikes when the table is stationary. This is exactly what I would expect.. Note, however, that this protection is only afforded to Probe0.

I have never had a good experience with the MPG support within the plugin. With this latest release, when it works, it works very well, being immediately responsive to a touch of the encoder wheel, and stopping motion as soon as the wheel is stationary. I prefer this type of action to that which allows an overrun when the wheel is released:it is much safer.  There is a dead spot at THE WHEEL'S INITIAL POSITION:  in effect there are 2 ADJACENT ENCODER positions WHERE ITS REGISTER INDICATES ZERO. On the negative side, the jog weel can unexpectedly become unresponsive until the MPG axis is re-selected. It also becomes unresponsive following use of the on screen jog buttons, this time requiring a press of Mach4's Reset button to re-activate it. Most seriously of all, the MPG can get into a state where positive rotation results in double movement increments, and negative rotation causes a judder with no net movenemt. Clearly this can be destructive: you would not welcome twice the expected movement if you are approaching a hard surface with the tool. Oddly, register values behave normally in this condition.  Note that I am using a cheap wired Chinese pendant connected to the CSMIO-MPG module.

I experience occasional PID errors when Mach4 enters the enabled state. These seem to be fairly random. This has never occurred during normal program operation however, and a PID error does not cause position to be lost with the IP/A.  This issue appears to have arisen since version 3.016.

Machine position is still reset to 0 following configuration, even if no changes are made.

Documentation and release notes have not yet been updated.

Allan