I purchased a workbee cnc kit which had a choice of controllers and I chose the NVUM V2 USB mach3 compatible controller. No software was supplied. When I finished building it I installed MACH 3 demo from your site to setup up the machine with a view that if it all works well and does what its supposed to I'll purchase a license.
Ive had a problem with scripts for zeroing and the 'Go home' buttom which I've posted here.
I've had a reply that due to licensing issues with NVUM my posts have been (put in a hall of shame) in the bin.
I'm not sure why, workbee did not give me any pirated software, nor did NVUM. I downloaded your demo. Are you saying that anyone with a NVUM controller cannot use MACH 3 demo before buying a license? Does Ooznet who supply these Workbee kits know that NVUM boards will not have any MACH 3 support with the Demo version to get it running as t should before purchasing a license. Are you telling me I have to buy a license first to find out later that MACH 3 might not work properly properly with my configuration?
My apologies I am asking some genuine questions and Im confused as to why trying the demo is a crime when a good quality kit has been purchased from a reputable supplier (not chinese copy) and the controller and VSD are genuine chinese (not copied) items.   

Hi Mooseychops,

It is unfortunate that you have purchased an unsupported product to use with Mach3. Please contact the vendor of your equipment for the information and support you need to get everything running to your satisfaction. If they are unable to provide this level of support then perhaps you could request a refund.

Please note that purchasing a genuine Mach3 license will not change the situation – this forum does not support Novusun products.

Tweakie.

Hi,
Novusun have eternally blotted their copy book, do yourself a favor an buy a US or European made motion controller.

One of the simplest and cheapest is the UC100.....and don't be tempted to buy one of the dozens of Chinese rip-offs
of the same product that abound on Amazon and Ebay....they are not a patch on the real thing, buy genuine or don't
buy at all.

If you want a better controller consider the Ethernet SmoothStepper (Warp9TD). It is ethernet connected and has much
more IO (51 inputs and outputs).

Better still both of these units have a Mach4 plugin. If you have not bought a Mach3 license then you should definitely go
to Mach4. All development of Mach3 ceased six years ago. Mach4 has so many improvements:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=42891.msg278176#msg278176

Craig

Thank you all for your replies. It’s clearer now. I don’t think you quite understand some of your non American customers, I’m a retired IT consultant, not rich. I play with wood in my workshop. I did research but there wasn’t a lot of information on knock off Chinese copies because I wasn’t looking for them. I purchased a good quality kit based on review that didn’t cost the earth. My choice of controller was due to where my equipment is placed (in a cellar in France).  They didn’t offer pirated software and pointed customers in your direction. I wanted to use an old laptop. When I started to put the kit together and researched configuration problems I found out that even the quality Chinese made parts are copied by other not so reputable Chinese companies. Anyway I’m not going to change the controller and spend more time and money. I would have liked to purchase a Mach 3 license as I liked the way it utilised VB. Mach 3 is expensive for a product going out of service and I can’t afford Mach4 on top. Economics play a big part in what and where I buy from. The carriage costs from America costs for most part more than the item. A big share of micro electronics are produced in China. I suspect even the UC100 boards are.
So I’ll have to look elsewhere. Which is where a lot of your potential customers are going to go. Shame really. It’s called cutting off your nose to spite your face.
But thanks for you honesty and information.

Hi,

I purchased a good quality kit based on review that didn’t cost the earth.

That's a very good start, now all you need is a motion controller and CNC software and you are in business.

The question I have is why you have gone to the trouble and expense of buying a good machine but then try
to get the cheapest controller/software solution? You have clearly done some research on the machine before deciding to buy,
had you done any reading here you would have found plenty of advice on suitable motion control hardware that is
compatible with either or both Mach3 and Mach4, including the admonishment against Novusun.

The carriage costs from America costs for most part more than the item

I live in New Zealand which is as about as far as you can get from the US and still be on the planet, and it cost $20USD to get it here.

A big share of micro electronics are produced in China. I suspect even the UC100 boards are.

Rubbish, the UC100 is made by CNCDrive which is a Hungarian company  and they manufacture in-house. You buy a genuine
UC100 and you are buying a European made product.

If you want a European product then any from the CNCDrive stable, UC100, UC300, UC400, AXBB-EE, or one of the PoKeys
57CNC, 57CNCdb25 are excellent choices.

Mach 3 is expensive for a product going out of service and I can’t afford Mach4 on top

Mach3 is $175USD. Mach4 is $200USD. You don't have to buy Mach3 in order to use Mach4...they are different products, you buy the one,
and only the one, you want to use. If you think VB is good  then you have not tried Lua.

Craig

In short I’m in France, it costs a fortune to get anything through customs. The kit came through workbee on AliExpress with a choice of controllers. At the time I didn’t know enough about which controller software to use. I just thought that the Mach route was enough for me to know. No one buys the software before the hardware only to find out it’s not supported. So what I should have done is moved to New Zealand and then purchased the software, then a controller that is supported, then purchased all the other parts separatel’ perhaps even GRBL. Joking aside, I’ve saved a lot going the route I did. France is not at the forefront of technology and is very protectionist, like all countries. Anything imported is taxed (I had to pay a further 130€) even though it was under the 1000 € value threshold. Shipping from other countries is expensive and makes it difficult to buy from outside the EU. It’s cheaper for me to use Germany’s Amazon then Frances. The reason I wanted to use Mach 3 is that it has been well received over the years and I only wanted to do simple stuff with it. I don’t really need the latest iPhone, computer processor or to change my controller for the latest model so I can change the software that runs on it. I just wanted it to work. Interesting to know that those boards are made in Hungary though. Lol

Hi,
believe it or not I still think you are on the right track.......excepting only your choice of motion controller.

The Novusun board is to my knowledge a Mach3 only board, that is to say that it will run only with Mach's trajectory planner,
no other software will work. You can of course persevere with the Novusun controller and get it to work but minus extra support
that you might have obtained from the forum.

One of the problems of Chinese made motion controllers is that they only very loosely follow Mach3 protocols and therefore many of Mach's
features don not work as intended. Probing is a particular problem with Chinese made boards as they were intended to be run with pirated
(altered) versions of Mach3 rather than the genuine article.

While it may not be what you want to hear I would regard the Novusun as a mistake and discard it. In finding a replacement reject out of hand
anything Chinese, they make many great things but Mach ready motion controllers are not among them.

In short I’m in France, it costs a fortune to get anything through customs.

If you buy a Mach license, be it Mach3 OR Mach4, you pay for it online and the license file is emailed to you....no shipping....no customs.

PoKeys, CNCDrive and CSLabs are all European manufacturers, if you can't get one of their boards cheaper than I can....then emigrate, New
Zealand is a fair choice, in the South Island where I live we haven't had a community case of COVID for 10.5 months.

The reason I wanted to use Mach 3 is that it has been well received over the years and I only wanted to do simple stuff with it.

That is a laudable sentiment, although I would recommend Mach4 over Mach3, but still both a very well suited to what you want to do.
I notice that you said that you liked VB.......but why? Mach, 3 or 4, is a Gcode interpreter and trajectory planner and does not require VB
(or Lua in the case of Mach4) to operate. Certainly you can program your own macros in VB (Lua in the case of Mach4) if you want but many, even
most, Mach users NEVER program anything like that....and don't need to. In fact when I started to program my own Mach3 Macros in VB
six years ago I was so disgusted with VB as implemented by Mach3 that I ditched Mach3 altogether and bought Mach4, and have never looked back.

While this forum is abut NFS products, namely Mach3 and Mach4, and it it not really appropriate to mention or promote a competitors
product, in the interest of open and frank discussion....UCCNC software which is manufactured by CNCDrive, the same Hungarian manufacturer
of the UC series of controllers. I personally have never used UCCNC but by all reports is better than Mach3 and very close to Mach4 in performance.
Another alternative is LinuxCNC, free open source software and very capable indeed.

Thus you have three excellent choices of software, Mach4, UCCNC or LinuxCNC.....but all three have one thing in common....you'll not be able
to use your Novusun board with any of them.

Craig

Thanks for all the really useful information. I had made decision 5 years ago to leave the UK to move to France. Still a good choice as the wine is so cheap, although I do like Oyster bay from New Zealand. I have found that drufelCNC works well with the NVUM. Being a retired IT person I know a bit of C, C++, Java etc etc and can program firmware etc. So I could spend the time (which I have plenty of) doing this. But I really just want to get going on CNC projects making my wooden geared clocks. I started making them by hand which took ages. I’m going to look at the others too. I might just experiment with Linux versions as they will also work with the NVUM. I’ll maybe change the controller and software when my requirements change.